November 14, 2011 Monday

Bolinas	Channel
9:20 am to 11:00 am	2' to 3', occasional 4'
Mid upcoming tide	Offshore breeze
Sunny and cool	Fun session

Six surfers were bunched together at the one and only peak at the Channel when I arrived. The Patch was flat and nobody was out there. Bolinas regulars were in the bunch: Mary, Hank, Marty, and stand-up surfers Frank, Russ and Walt the photographer. The morning was beautiful: clear, offshore breeze, glassy with two to three-foot waves breaking at the Channel. I snapped a few shots of them gliding down these small, flat curls - that's Russ in the above photo on a good one. Beautiful morning, clean small waves and knowing that another storm was approaching mid-week, I had to go out.

By the time I suited up, all but Marty had exited the water and were back at their cars changing. What happened? Did I miss it? They all claimed that they had good sessions and of course it was better earlier. Hank and Mary assured me that there were still plenty of good waves.

Jacek the tattoo artist, Marty and two others were at the one peak when I paddled out. Jacek was on his eleven-foot, narrow, no-rocker paddling machine. As usual he sat way outside patiently waiting for the set waves and his patience paid off. With that board, he could paddle into mere bumps in the water and catch them. Once up, he would go straight staying high in the wave, step to the front of the board, crouch down and push himself into the swell. The waves would slowly form into nice curls, and Jacek would glide left across these picturesque faces while crouched in a tight ball with spray blowing back over his head.

After one long ride I stood in waist high water and watched Marty on a good one. He took off late on a four-foot wall, jumped up to his knees as the wave broke, rode the white water, leaned into wave, coasted back into the swell, jumped up to his feet and cruised down a well-formed inside curl for several yards. I too used the knee technique several times this morning with good success. The waves broke off fast. I would jump up to my knees, quickly turn the board and position myself in the curls without losing any precious seconds or momentum by standing up.

We caught plenty of waves and exhausted ourselves. After our session and as we were walking into town for coffee, Marty and I ran into Nick the former owner of the 2-Mile Surf Shop. Two years ago Nick purchased a small boat and obtained a license to fish for crabs. He was frustrated because today was opening day of the crab season and the fishermen were on strike over the price of crab. This happens every season. The fisherman wanted $3 a pound and the merchants were only paying $2. I'm sure this dispute would be quickly resolved because everybody knew there were tons and tons of crab out there. Nick suggested that we give him a call if we wanted any live crab. He would sell them to us at the fisherman's price.

What a great morning: beautiful scenery, offshore breeze, glassy surface, fun little waves, mellow crowd and the prospect of buying fresh Dungeness crab.