November 8, 2011 Tuesday

Bolinas	Channel
9:20 am to 11:00 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
High tide	Slight offshore breeze to slight onshore breeze
Sunny with a cloud bank on the horizon	Fun session

"Jacek, tell me something," Jacek was suiting up to go out and I noticed two boards in his car. "When I get up I have to decide what beach to go to and at what time. You have to do the same, but you also have to decide what board to take. I have one board, thus there's no board decision. You have sixty surfboards and have to pick which ones to take. How do you decide?"

"Whatever one I feel like riding," he immediately responded without thinking about it. "Also, I only have thirty boards up here." Jacek was in transition from San Diego to San Rafael and still has thirty boards down south. He possesses all types of boards: long, short, thick and thin. This guy is a connoisseur of surfboards. For each one of his boards, he can tell you the shaper's name, the year it was made and its unique and special features.

His selection criteria surprised me; intuitition was his method. Now Jacek is an artist who makes his living doing tattoos. But like all artists he pays attention to the fine details. From someone so knowledgeable about surfboards and their designs, I expected a more analytical answer. Something like: with a 7 ft NW swell at 11 seconds from 280 degrees that would generate 4 ft peaks at the Channel at high tide, he would want "such 'n' such" board with "such 'n' such" rocker and thickness.

No analysis, just pure gut-feeling. He knew the conditions, he had read the buoy reports this morning on the Internet - similar as yesterday but a little smaller, and yesterday he had a great session and was hoping for more of the same. He chose his classic Gordon & Smith fish from the early seventies - 7 ft long, pointed nose, wide in the middle, thick (nearly 3 inches) and a VEE cut in the tail forming two points with a glassed on wood fin on each one.

"Well, did you pick the right board?" I asked him after our session. "I would think that a longer board would have been better given how flat and slow the waves were."

"With these waves, the board didn't make any difference," meaning that with a long or a short board the rides would be the same - nice drops on the take-offs into flat, slow forming shoulders.

Despite the waves I had a fun session. The weather was beautiful - sunny, warm, little wind, glassy surface and a well-formed peak at the Channel. I sat outside with Jacek waiting for the set waves. I realized after my first wave that the smaller waves had no punch and that only the set waves were worth riding.

"Here's one that's left or right," Jacek called as a set wave approached. "I'll take the left," I responded. It turned out to be my best ride of the morning. I had to dig hard to get into it. I barely pushed over the edge, but I hung at the top of the wave, jumped up and dropped down a steep face just ahead of the fast breaking lip. I cut back into the breaking part of the wave to let it build up again and turned into a small long curl on the inside.

Of course Jacek caught his share of good waves. No matter what board he is on, he always has that ability to paddle into flat swells and coast into the waves as they peak. David who rides the Becker board caught numerous waves. He sat on the inside, straight out from the Groin pole and connected on several good waves that lined up near shore. Francine was out there sharing the waves with David. She too caught several good inside waves.

All of us agreed that with the sunny weather, glassy conditions and friendly crowd, it was worth it.