October 28, 2011 Friday - Part 2

Bolinas	Channel and Groin
9:30 am to 11:30 am	3' to 4', occasional 5'
Mid upcoming tide	Slight offshore breeze to no wind
Sunny and warm - heat wave	Fun session

Meanwhile the surf today was fun. It was a beautiful sunny fall day with no wind, glassy surface, warm water with a three to four-foot peak at the Channel, and the Bolinas crew was there: Martha, Marty, David who rides the Becker board, Mark the archaeologist and Jacek the tattoo artist. That's Jacek on a good wave in the above photo with David paddling out.

Jacek told me he wanted one of the "clean-up" waves that came through once every ten minutes. He moved twenty yards further out from the rest of us, sat there, Buddha like, cross-legged on his board and paddled around with his hands. I caught a good left wave, paddled back out and wondered if Jacek would ever catch that "clean-up" wave. Then suddenly Jacek stopped sitting cross-legged, switched to the prone position and started vigorously stroking outside. Now all of us could see that a big set was coming and we too began digging hard for the horizon. A five-foot A-frame wave was forming outside and Jacek was in position. He could go either left or right. "If he goes right, he will run me over," I said to myself. "Please go left," I prayed. Jacek jumped up, stepped to the middle of the board, crouched down and cut to the left - dropping down a beautiful peak that slapped him on his left shoulder as he streaked along a fast left wall. I ducked under the white water of the breaking wave and lost sight of him. Moments later I looked and looked for him; finally I saw him - way, way inside on his knees paddling back out. It was a long ride.

Jacek became my indicator. I would sit ten to twenty yards inside and watch him closely. If he started paddling out, I would race outside. One time he was sitting cross-legged and began paddling out with his hands. Then he did it again, he switched a prone position and started vigorously stroking outside.

"There goes Jacek, a set must be coming," I yelled to David and began racing outside.

Now I could see that a big set was coming. The first wave was too small for Jacek; he let it go. I turned around and dug hard for it. The wave was breaking when I stroked into it. It was steep and I remained prone; I didn't want to lose time or momentum by standing up. I turned left, remained mid-swell and streaked through the first section. I jumped to my knees as the lip of the wave came over my head; I jumped to my feet, crouched down and screamed down a steep curl. I cut back into the white water to let the wave reform on the inside, turned left again and coasted down a long, mellow inside curl. I milked it as far as I could towards shore and ended up ten yards from dry sand. Like Wednesday I paddled to shore, walked around the Groin wall and re-entered the water - thus avoiding a paddle through a strong in-coming current. Now I had the pattern down - watch Jacek, pick out a large set wave, ride it all the way to shore and walk around the Groin wall to re-enter the water.

At eleven Jacek had to leave to get to the shop in the City by noon - good luck. The tide continued rising, the waves slowly died, the wind picked up and the crowd swelled. Even David the surf fanatic went in for lunch, leaving me outside with the beginners. After a long wait a set finally arrived. I caught the white water of a four-foot wave, bellied it into swell, jumped up, shot down a nice curl, cut-back, pushed myself into the forming shore break, cut across a two-foot curl and drove the nose into the white water of the collapsing shore break wave. I ended up just steps away from the sand. What a nice ending to a fun session.