August 24, 2011 Wednesday

Pacifica	Linda Mar - out front
8:30 am to 10:00 am	3' to 4', occasional 5'
High upcoming tide	No wind
Overcast to sunny	Fun session

After our session Hank and I had a coffee at Starbucks and discussed things in general. Hank had a fun session. He called the waves "soft" and I called them flat on the take-offs. There was a channel north of the "Pump House" (a new term we heard today from a local for the main bathrooms and showers. In this building behind the restrooms are some gigantic pumps used to push drainage water out to the ocean). We agreed that the channel shaped the waves; it forced all the waves to break to the left.

Commenting on his good session, Hank said he could take off, turn left and if on a good one, he could stay in the curl all the way to the beach. Near the end of our session I had drifted to the south end of the peak while Hank remained at the north end on the edge of the channel. Within a few minutes Hank connected on five good ones. He would pull out near the shore, paddle through the channel back to the line-up and be greeted by another good wave. He would immediately turn around and stroke into the next one. The second of these five was his best ride this morning. He hummed down a long four-foot curl all the way to the sand.

All the elements had come together this morning at Linda Mar: clean three to four foot peaks, no wind, glassy smooth surface, warm and crystal clear water, and an upcoming tide. Only negative was the crowd. The parking lot was nearly full when I pulled in at 7:45. The word was out on the Internet - Ocean Beach was choppy from strong onshore winds creating poor conditions, thus the OB crowd had moved to Linda Mar.

Hank commented that the channel we enjoyed this morning was often there. We speculated that maybe the drainage pumps were digging it out. However, most likely the pumps are located near the natural drainage of the canyon that extends from the hills behind Pacifica to several hundred yards out into the bay. Similar to the holes at Stinson Beach, the Linda Mar channel is permanently there and the movement of the sand determines the channel's impact on the waves.

My son Kevin's work schedules allows him to get in a brief surf session on Wednesdays. We agreed to meet at Linda Mar at 8:00. Last Wednesday we met here and the surf was terrible. But this morning we scored. To my surprise while waiting for Kevin, Hank pulled in. The three of us suited up and headed for the peak on the south side of the channel.

In his forty-five minute session Kevin connected on some good waves. As I paddled over a set wave, Kevin quickly turned and stroked into it. From behind, I watched him cruise just ahead of the breaking curl for several yards. On and on he went pulling out as the wave collapsed on the shore. Kevin repeated this on at lease three more waves.

The crowd was a problem as it always is at Linda Mar. When I arrived there were two groupings - one south of the channel going for the lefts and the other on the north edge going for the rights. Our strategy was to paddle out through the channel and head for the north peak because there were fewer people there. By the time we stroked out there the crowd at the north peak had disappeared, reason: the north peak had disappeared. So we drifted over to the south peak and within a few minutes all three of us had scored on decent left waves, thus we decided to stay at the crowded south peak.

My crowd strategy was to sit way outside and go only for the set waves, that way I could claim right-of-way. My strategy sort of worked. Two other surfers, who were good, had the same strategy. I was constantly jockeying around them. On my best wave of the morning I terrorized two others. On a set wave, I jumped up, cut left and hung at the top of the wave. A shortboarder was taking off in front of me. I leaned into the curl, dropped half way down the face and drove the nose of my board under the nose of the his board as he hung at the top of the wave. Seeing me, he quickly pulled back and I shot by him. A moment later a girl took off in front of me and was cruising down the shoulder. I was high in the curl barreling down on her. I pulled up next to her and tapped her rail with mine to let her know I was there. I then briefly stalled allowing her to pull out of the wave. I then cut back and dropped into the shore break and hummed across one more section before the wave closed out on shore.

At Pacifica, the south and west winds pushed the cloud cover out to sea allowing the sun to break through and to turn up the heat. Finally it felt like summer and it felt good.