A BASK member, who’s name will remain anonymous to protect the guilty, announced that he had Friday off and wanted to spend three days on the water. I suggested some overnight camping trips and referred to them as “Rain Camping” since it was almost sure to be a wet weekend. The originator of this idea, I’ll call him “Bob” did not want to do a one night trip, he wanted to spend all three days on the water. I started considering taking Friday off to join him. Three other BASK members, Don Barch, John Somers and Fred Cooper (three of the “Bad Boys of BASK”) agreed that they would also like to come along. But as the weekend approached, Bob apparently fell in love, gave up paddling on Friday, suggested that we just do a day paddle Saturday out of Muir Beach and finally left the rest of us email: “If I don’t show up on Saturday, that will be GOOD NEWS”.
We had expected rain and big swell at sea for this weekend. The Navy wave forecast was predicting 9 to 12 foot swell 5 days in advance, but a few days later they were predicting 6 to 9. I reported this to the rest of the guys and suggested that if this trend continued it would be dead calm by Saturday! Despite that being a silly joke, Saturday arrived with 7 food swell, clear sunny skies and a forecast for smaller swell on Sunday. We should have done the camping trip to some remote beach! I arrived at Muir Beach and rushed to catch up with everyone else who were already ready to launch. Except for Bob who never showed up.
We started out over easy waves at Muir Beach. Only Don managed to find a wave big enough to get him wet on the launch. The original plan was to go south to Rodeo Beach or Point Bonita, but since we were starting so late in the day (noon) we decided at the last minute to go north to Stinson Beach. If the prevailing wind came up we would get blown back to our cars. I had paddled this section of coastline only twice before, the first time around 6 years ago. This time with a more responsive boat and better skills I went closer to shore and did some rock gardening.
One rock that we went behind had a narrow slot of an exit leading back out. Don went through this first and I arrived just as a large wave came through. The water in the slot moved every which direction and I somehow knew that it would not be wise to stick a paddle into it. I continued moving forward on inertia and braced my paddle flat across the top of the water for a little support. John came through after me and passed me by. Fred came last as another wave arrived and must have trusted the wild water with his paddle because it pulled him over. With the water full of foam and moving in wild directions (like up and down) Fred’s brace failed and then his roll failed. Before Fred could complete his wet exit and swim up next to his boat I was blowing on my whistle to call Don and John back to assist in a rescue.
I had rushed to get ready and left all my emergency equipment behind, so I let John tow Fred out to sea while Don towed the boat away from shore. Don stopped and started pumping water out of the boat, then I pumped while Don hooked up a tow line. Fred kept telling John to keep paddling so they got way out to sea and we had to shout at them to stop so we could catch up with the boat! With his boat almost empty and several people hanging onto it Fred was soon back in his seat and ready to continue.
We paddled past the start of Stinson Beach and looked at the waves dumping in an alarming way on the sand. Don canvassed for us to continue on to Bolinas and check out the surfing there. It seemed easier to keep going than to brave the dumping waves so we continued. At Bolinas the waves looked even worse, but I have spent a lot of time playing in these waves and knew I could work my way through them. John started in and we soon saw him drifting backwards back out to sea on the strong ebb current coming out of Bolinas Lagoon. I caught a ride on a wave and started in past Don, who picked the wave up on my left and started riding it next to me. I shouted “Hey, don’t you know the surfer’s law? Only one surfer to a wave!” Don seemed to be moving closer to me so I turned right. I ended up surfing and side-surfing so far right I almost landed on Stinson Beach. I turned back and worked my way across the mouth of the Bolinas Lagoon with an ebb tide roaring out like a white water river. I was able to catch a few waves in this mess and pilot a fairly straight path over to the beach where we landed for lunch. Fred landed right behind me and John finally beat the current to join us. Don had turned around to go play in the waves for a while and landed last.
During a short stop for lunch Fred pointed out to us that it was 3:00 PM and if our trip back was as long as our trip out we would not land until after dark! So he and John started back almost right away. Don wanted to go surfing some more so we agreed to catch just two good rides and then leave. Don caught one great ride, whooping and hollering. Then the two of us sat around for ten minutes waiting while no more big waves arrived! I hate having to work hard to catch up so I left and Don eventually followed, caught up with me, passed me, and joined the other two way ahead of me. I had forgotten my booties and was wearing a pair of Don’s Teva sandals instead. They didn’t stay on my foot pegs unless I held them there so my legs were tired from doing this for hours. Not having a firm grip on the foot pegs apparently messed up my forward stroke and my shoulders became sore. Paddling hard to try to catch up didn’t help matters much. So I was the slow paddler this day and was the last one to round the corner to Muir Beach. Often I land my kayak and then regret not staying on the water a little longer. With sore muscles and the sun already set behind me I felt no regret getting out of the water this time.