August 15, 2011 Monday

Bolinas	Channel
9:00 am to 11:00 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
Low upcoming tide	Slight onshore breeze to no wind
Sunny & warm with wisps of high fog	Good session

Bolinas at its best: sunny, warm water, no wind, small mellow crowd, up coming tide and consistent fast peeling left curls. Everybody connected on several good rides.

The tide had just turned when I arrived at Bolinas this morning. Dexter the Bolinas local, Jacek the tattoo artist, Hans and I were at the seawall checking the surf. Mary and Russ the stand-up guy were at the Patch going for the mellow waves (that's Surf Journal speak for flat and slow). Mary caught a good one. She took off just past the exposed outside rock and faded left. I could tell she wanted to let the wave build up and then swing to the right. However, the right never formed, the wave kept building to the left, and Mary skillfully stayed in the left curl for several yards - it turned out to be a good long left wave. That's Mary on this wave in the above photo. Russ also caught a long ride by taking off just past the outside rock.

Three surfers were on the Seadrift side of the Channel going for the rights, including David who rides the Becker board. The Groin was too shallow - fast peeling lefts breaking in one foot of water. I watched a couple of sets come through that were rideable. I had no doubt that with the tide coming up the waves would improve.

Jacek decided to join the three on the Seadrift side, Hans decided to join Mary and Russ at the Patch and Dexter and I went for the lefts on the Groin side of the Channel. Thirty minutes later all of us were at the Groin going for the lefts. The upcoming tide killed the waves at the Patch, so Hans paddled over to the Channel to join Dexter and me. Jacek slowly drifted over from the Seadrift side to sit at the apex of the left peak at the Channel.

At first the lefts were breaking too fast. In my first two waves by the time I stood up the rides were over. I would be at the bottom of the waves stuck in white water watching perfectly peeling curls breaking off ten yards in front of me. To save time and momentum I would remain prone or jump up to my knees. I executed my Josh the Bolinas fisherman imitation. Josh rides on his knees and is good at it. He can lock into the curls and get barreled. I finally connected on a good one. I stroked into a nice shaped curl, jumped up to my knees, cut left, leaned on my hands to put my weight forward and cruised through the initial section. Once back out on the shoulder I jumped to my feet and sailed down another nice section.

Dexter had a similar technique. Again to save time and not to lose momentum, he would jump up into a squat about two feet from the tailblock, grab the outside rail and hang on through the first section until he was back into the swell and then he would jump up to his feet. One time Dexter and I took off on the same wave. I was a good twenty feet to the south of him. I stroked into the wave, jumped to my knees, cut left, but did not make it through the section. I stayed on my knees, leaned into the white water hoping to work back into the swell. From that position, I had a perfect view of Dexter locked in the curl. He was in a deep one-knee squat in the back quarter of his board with his back to the wave and the lip of the curl slapping his right shoulder. On and on he went in that position shooting across the bottom of the wave until it finally collapsed in a wall of water in front of him. A few minutes later I saw him do it again. I was standing in waist deep water after a good ride when Dexter took off on a four-foot wave. Again he jumped up into a squat, grabbed the outside rail and streaked along the bottom of the wave never quite climbing back into the swell. On the inside when the wave ran into deeper water, Dexter jumped to his feet to finish the ride.

Jacek and David also connected on several good waves. I saw Jacek streak down a good four-footer from the back. His head peeked about the fast breaking curl as he cruised on and on to the inside near the Groin pole. A set wave came through and I paddled over it as David stroked into it. Once over the wave, I looked back to see David from the waist up moving across the swell. As he went, he picked up speed as the back of the wave became more vertical. He flew on until the wave hit the deep water in front of the Groin pole.

Rob from Dogtown was back out in the water. He sat out last week due to a pulled groin muscle from playing tennis. This was a warning to all us surfers, tennis can be dangerous to your surfing health, don't do it. He told me he had gone out a couple of times and each time his leg felt better. From what I saw Rob was back to 100%. He sat north and inside to distance himself from the crowd. Twice while paddling back out to the line-up, I saw Rob locked in the curls, his back to the waves, streaking just ahead of two fast breaking curls. Those rides looked so good I decided to join Rob at the end of my session and managed to a catch a couple of similar waves.

Mary had paddled back out with her waterproof camera strapped to her arm. Of course I vainly thought she was out there to take pictures of us. No way. She was working on a new art piece and was taking photos of the surface for texture and color.

As the tide continued coming in the waves flattened out, the onshore wind picked up, the surf campers entered the water and David reminded that it was lunch time, thus it was time to go in.

"Just another beautiful morning in Marin," David said imitating a common ending sentence of the Surf Journal.

"And it was Bolinas at its best," I added.