This weekend the swell was forecast to be 13 feet high! I figured that the waves at Bolinas would finally be steep enough to take my Pirouette kayak out surfing. I met Roger, Jennie, Dave Littlejohn and Mark Burk out in the parking lot. I got into the water first and played in the soup zone for a while. The waves were breaking pretty far out for the sandy beach in front of the Brighton Street boat ramp. I could have stayed there all day and had a good time riding back to the sand over and over again.
Jennie was here to try out surfing in Roger’s sit-on-top Frenzy. She hasn’t quite got her roll down yet and felt that she should not go out in her sit-inside Coaster yet. Even with a sit-on-top boat she was a little intimidated by the waves. I probably made things scarier for her one time by falling over a steep wave in front of her, planting the nose of by boat in the sand, flipping over into the soup, and rolling back up. I let the waves surf me all the way up onto the sand a few times to talk to her and point out features. Like how she could stay inside the break and learn a lot about bracing in the soup. That is how I learned to brace, in a boat identical to the one she had this day! I also warned her about the current which kept pulling me south towards the mouth of the lagoon where the strong ebb current could take you out to sea. Eventually Roger came out to give Jennie some lessons and I plowed out over the breakers.
Once outside I paddled down to the mouth of the lagoon where some other kayakers were riding the waves. One of them was Berkeley Choate and when he saw my Greenland paddle he shouted “Hey Nanook! Alaska is THAT way!” (Pointing north). He took some of the ribbing back when he saw that my paddle was made out of carbon fiber. His paddle was made of the same stuff, but a very different design. It had a solid carbon fiber shaft that was very narrow and flexible. To make the grips large enough for hands, it had large blue rubber grips molded to fit. It was short and had un-feathered blades. Apparently designed specifically for surfing.
Mark Burk wanted to go over to the shallow spot north of Brighton Street, that I used to call the kayak surfing spot. I agreed, but on the way I surfed back into the soup zone to check on Jennie and Roger. Once there I tried paddling north along the shore inside the soup. This turned out to be a lot of work. The larger waves kept pushing me close to the beach. The current was still going south. And as I worked my way north the soup zone got narrower and the waves broke closer and closer. But eventually I saw a break in the sets and paddled out to sea.
Mark and I were the only ones out in the kayak spot for a while. He hung out in the center of it where the waves broke first. I stayed out near the edges for a long time getting acclimated to the waves. By not taking any chances I managed to not get any rides for a long time. Finally I found my comfort level in the water and started getting long wild rides in over the shallow shoal. I was surprised at one point to stick my paddle into the water and have it clink of rocks that were only a half a meter under me. Not a good place to get dumped upside down!
After getting almost completely exhausted, which only took a few hours, Roger and I headed back to our cars on Brighton Street. We had a pleasant lunch sitting on a bench in Bolinas, then headed home.