November 28, 2011 Monday

Bolinas	Channel
9:15 am to 11:00 am	2' to 3', sets to 4', occasional 5'
Mid upcoming tide	Offshore breeze to no wind to NW cross breeze
Sunny and cool with high clouds	Good session

Bolinas at its best -- a day that caught all of us by surprise. I hadn't surf for a week due to bad weather, Thanksgiving and Kate being off for the week. I was anxious for some waves, and I had no expectations since all the Internet sites had so-so predictions for this morning. But what a sight when I walked down to the Groin with my camera at the ready, David who rides the Becker board and Hank were trading one wave after another. That's David on a good one in the above photo with Hank paddling out. I hurried back to the car and suited up.

I had one wave that made my day. Towards the end of my session, I found myself twenty yards further out than the rest of the pack. I was following Jacek's technique of sitting outside and patiently waiting for the set waves - wait outside and paddle into the waves early, while they are still relatively still flat, jump up and push over the edge. Jacek wasn't here this morning but I imagined this was how he would do it. A set wave came through, it was cresting and I would have to take off late. I stroked into it, jumped up, hung at the top of the wave for an instant, then dropped down a head-high face, white water crashed in front of me, I drove underneath it and climbed high back in the curl. The wave jumped up and a perfect line formed in front of me. I stepped to the middle of the board, crouched down and shot through a fast section. The wave kept standing up, I stepped closer to the nose and was now a foot from the tip. The wave kept forming and I stood there frozen for what seemed to be thirty seconds. I shifted my weigh between my lead foot and back foot to maneuver up and down the face and on and on I went until the wave, which was now only a foot high, closed out near the shore. Another surfer saluted me with a raised fist for "good ride!"

That was my best ride of a day filled with one good curl ride after another. It was a good morning.