Students gathered around the SwimOutlet banner along the finish line

The Splash and Dash covered a city pool, a mile worth of city streets and big loops though the Hancock College Campus… unfortunately I only got to see a third of the action. The good news is that I’ve had pictures trickling in from a few different places and thought I’d share some bonus shots that show more of the event :)

A smiling Central Coast Crossfit Swimmer!

a lot of participants were new to organized swims, luckily we had caps and goggles provided by SwimOutlet.com!

One of the guys from the football team was so new to swimming he didn't know how to swim and water jogged 500 yards in the shallow end!

running through the residential parts of downtown Santa Maria

Marie and Kelly crossing a very appropriately named College Street to get to the college

Aquathoners running on campus

apparently spiderman rocked the 5k?

nearing the finish!

the finish line ran down the front of the gymnasium building and through 2 rows of sponsors and exhibitors, a first for this event!

proof I was there! crunching numbers in a backroom after clearing out the pool

A good portion of my Spring Semester has been filled up with preparing for the Hancock Splash and Dash which is a community fitness event put on by Recreation Management students at Hancock College in Santa Maria. I was a participant in 2012 and that’s actually what turned me onto the major. I had never really known it existed before participating last year. I’m going to finish up an associate degree in it this year and I think I’m going to finally round out a 4 year degree in recreation afterwards.

Coming into the semester some of the main Splash and Dash jobs were already taken by students that had been around in Fall, but I managed to find a way to contribute a lot in the course of the semester. Having done the event before, as well as about 100 other aquatics events in the last 5 years or so, I was full of ideas for improvement. Initially I was set in charge of recruiting but over time that grew to include running the pool on the day of the event as well as some odds and ends like putting together results spreadsheets and posting stuff to facebook.

We had a good mix of older and younger students and most things came together nicely, to combat that the pool at the college decided to die on us. What’s an event without some last minute adversity right? The pool being offline was a big problem because the original idea was to swim and run on campus without crossing any streets and then finishing up with a mini expo area where our sponsors would be hanging out. It was all very compact. With only a week or two left we had to reinvent the Aquathon a few times. Ultimately we moved the swim to Paul Nelson Aquatics Center, where I swim with Santa Maria Masters, and then the swimmers would run back to Hancock for their 5k while we transported their gear back to campus. On top of running two locations about a mile apart we had to provide a bus from the school to the pool and man a run course through the city. It was an interesting challenge for sure!

This year’s Splash and Dash ended up being a really good event. My friends that did it in both 2012 and 2013 thought this year was a lot better than the year before. People liked the Aquathon and the whole transportation/remote location thing went off better than expected. I’d say between participants, spectators, and volunteers we had over 200 people involved. On top of that there was another big event going on on campus at the same time and we got some cross over from that as well. My dad was part of the other event and he saw all kinds of Splash and Dashers running past his building. Beyond being a special event “lab” for college students the Splash and Dash was also a fundraiser for the school’s athletic department. They’re launching a new women’s swim team next year and the $5000+ we raised will go to helping get that off the ground so I’m pretty stoked about that.

hooray for sponsors!

One of the many  jobs attached to Splash and Dash was finding sponsors for the event. We needed to find prizes, goody bag items, and cash to support the event. I want to thank SwimOutlet, Central Coast Crossfit, Finis, Central Coast CEO Roundtables, and the SeaCrest Resort for helping me out!

I enjoyed having the opportunity to experience an event like this from the management side as opposed to the participant side for a change. Helping put on the Hancock Splash and Dash may be the catalyst to a few other events that have been brewing in my head for a while. I can think of a few swim races I’d like to put together that would make for a good senior project :)

Recently I heard an ad on the radio for a Tattoo & Art event at the Santa Maria Fairpark that grabbed my attention because it included a beard competition run by the LA Beard and Mustache Club. I haven’t been able to find my way into another bearding event since I went to the Wiskerino Contest at the Arroyo Grande Harvest Festival in 2011 so I was stoked at the prospect of a new competition nearby. This competition at the Central City Tattoo & Arts Festival was going to have 4 categories: full beard, partial beard, mustache, and freestyle. I decided that I would take a crack at freestyle with the help of my housemates.

A couple nights ago Kelly did a quick test on my beard with a curling iron to see how that would go. It wasn’t bad so we came up with a plan and figured we’d learn as we went on Sunday. When Sunday morning came around we set up a beard styling battle station. Flat iron, curling iron, brushes, combs, wax, hair spray, mousse, and other various lady potions that I won’t pretend to even begin to understand as someone who hasn’t had hair on top of his head for over a decade. After chatting out the strategy a bit Kelly got to work straightening and separating my beard into pieces. She said she was always the one in high school that did hair for prom and homecoming but styling a beard was a lot harder.

Section by section we got the general shape together but not everything was going our way. We borrowed some bonus hair products from our other housemate Shannon and messed with those for a while. We probably played with my beard for at least and hour. Somewhere in the middle of all that I did my mustache myself since I’ve done that plenty of times, and eventually we called it done.

Transporting my carefully coiffed face was a challenge because we were in the midst of an enormous windstorm. We had dust clouds blowing out of the farm fields and across the freeway, it was nuts. Luckily the bulk of the festival’s activities were indoors but we still needed to make it to the convention center building. The wind was relentless and I tried to use my jacket as a wind break. That worked out well enough and my beard only needed a little bit of touch up once we got inside.

Kelly and I did a lap of the building to check out all the cool tattoo stuff. I was stoked when I found the LA Beard Club’s booth and they were stoked to see me since they didn’t have a freestyle bearder signed up yet. While putting my name on the list I thought, I like those odds :) After signing up we had some time to kill so we kept poking around by the booths and chatting up strangers. It sounds like Saturday was a lot busier but the place had a fun vibe.

At 2:00 they rounded up the bearded folks and ran through each category to determine a winner. A fantastically full bearded tattoo artist won full beard, another artist won the mustache category with a great handlebar, an alaskan whaler won the partial beard award, and yours truly walked away with the freestyle award! For what it’s worth it was a very lonely division, but if there had been an overall beard category I think I would have had a shot at being top 3.

After the contest Kelly and I hung out a little bit to chat and take some pictures with people from the beard club. I was very happy to walk out with something to validate the existence of the adventure beard. I figure the next time someone recommends I shave it I can remind them that it is an undefeated championship level beard… it’s rather prestigious to have it around, haha. I’m not sure when I’ll end up in another beard competition but I hope to keep the streak alive and go 3 for 3!

A couple months ago I was walking through Pismo Beach and spotted a big poster with information on parks and recreation programs in the city. Since I’ve been studying Recreation Management at college this year it reached out and grabbed my attention… I have radar for this stuff now! In reading through everything I spotted an excursion to Santa Cruz Island for $100 a person that included transportation from City Hall to the island and back. Considering the boat ride there and back runs about $79 anyways this was a really good deal especially since I didn’t have to drive anywhere. I decided that I needed to give this trip a shot since I’ve been up to the islands a lot of times but I’ve never actually set foot upon a Channel Island before!

I’ve been out to the edge of Santa Cruz Island a couple times now and it in particular hasn’t been very kind to me. The first time I went there was the middle of the night on a tiny boat to help my friend Evan break the record for that channel crossing. I threw up so much and so hard on that trip that I think I busted a rib because I hurt for at least a week afterwards! With that in mind I was cautiously optimistic that I would fare much better on a much bigger boat.

On Saturday morning Allison and I got our gear together and headed over to City Hall to catch our ride to the Ventura Harbor. Our driver and trip leader Charles greeted us and got our bags stowed away. I had more stuff with me than most because I was hoping to get wet while I was out there. That required fins, GoPros, goggles, swimsuit, towel, etc. Around 7:30am the last members of our group arrived and we got on the road shortly after that. Once we got to Ventura we checked in with Island Packers and then were turned loose to explore until the boat was ready to go. I think this time was built into the schedule with the idea that you could go eat lunch before we left. I’m not that brave. I made sure to eat breakfast really early so as to have nothing fresh in my stomach upon departure.

There was a lot of wind brewing at the harbor and having been out in the channel before I knew it was going to be ugly out there. I overheard one of the deckhands explain the conditions to one of the people on the boat as “chunky” and I’d say that was the right adjective. It was above lumpy but below burly. Luckily the Island Packers boats are big catamaran type things that are reasonably stable and FAST! We jammed out to the island in an hour. I felt nauseous most of the way out but didn’t puke so I was pretty happy with that. Allison on the other hand was having the best time ever! She was all over the boat checking stuff out while I stayed focused on the horizon.

When we pulled up to Scorpion Anchorage I got up and took in the beauty of the island. It really is gorgeous out there. We pulled up to a concrete and metal pier and climbed up a ladder from the boat to get up to the top of it before walking down to the island itself. Allison and I opted to follow a guided hike for a while to get a feel for the island. Since there were older folks in our group we got extra time with the tour guide to chat and ask questions while slower movers caught up to us. Along the way we spotted a Channel Island Fox as well as some burrowing bees.

Up at the top of Cavern Point the tour concluded and everyone scattered. Allison and I parked it right there and ate our lunches overlooking the ocean. The view was fantastic. A salami sandwich has never seen such a glamorous location :)

After lunch we hiked around some more before descending back down to the beach. I geared up with my fins and a bright pink speedo much to the delight of the non swimmers in the area. The water felt like it was maybe 59-60 degrees. Walking out was a little tricky because of the mix of sand and cobblestones, but once I was deep enough to push off it was smooth sailing. I brough my GoPro 3 with me attached to my Enjoy Handplane. It’s supposed to be for bodysurfing but it’s really good for taking pictures while diving too. I kicked down to about 10-12 feet and cruised through the kelp looking for fish. I found a lot of tiny bait fish schooling around. They didn’t seem to mind me much at all. There were also some larger 12″-15″ fish that I found tucked in the kelp that were pretty cool as well.

After playing for a while I heard engines in the water. It was the last boat to the mainland showing up to get us. I made a couple more dives to the bottom and then swam back to shore to dry off and change back into dry clothes. Within 30 minutes we were jamming back to Ventura and the van from Pismo City had us home before 10pm. It was a long day but we didn’t get as much time as I would have liked on the island. The next time I go it’s going to have to be an overnight trip to fully explore the National Park portion of the island and get more water time in.

It was only a matter of time until we hit a day with water in the 40′s. We don’t get a ton of it, but February to April is prime season for some freezing. Temps had been hovering around 51 on the nearest buoy but we know that you typically have a standard two degree deduction at the beach this time of year. That formula was spot on when I went to go check the temperature with Niel today… 49! Look out! The good news was that the sun was shining and the sky was cloudless. The bad news was that the surf was up and so was the wind. We started with a strong offshore wind that abruptly changed direction about when we started swimming.

When Allison and I drove down to Avila we had a new kayak with us. Allison picked up a rad 12 1/2 foot fishing style kayak that we think will be awesome for swim support. It’s so stable they even put a standing pad in it! She test drove it last weekend before buying it, but today was going to be its first real world try out. As we drove up to the beach we were greeted by the sight of big surf and a whole crew of surfers. That’s odd. We made a command decision that we weren’t going to risk a kayak surf launch in head high waves. Just didn’t seem like a good idea! I took her down to the sport launch down in the port and she paddled over to the main pier from there. Thanks to the wind and some gnarly currents that were ripping today it took her about 40 minutes to fight over to the pier! When I got back to the main beach things had mellowed a little bit with the changing tides but there were still some serious set waves rolling through. Ruta brought her inflatable kayak and wanted to launch from the beach. I was pretty concerned with that idea but amazingly she made it out unscathed. A mix of luck, timing, and inflatable magic.

We had a hearty group of 5 swimmers make their way into the water today. Niel, Duke, Byron, Ed and then myself in all my stupid wetsuitless/capless glory. The water didn’t feel too bad at first, but once I got reproductive organ deep I changed my mind about that. It had some bite to it. I took my time acclimating and Duke hung back with me while the other guys sneaked out before the next set came in. Duke and I were caught inside for a minute, and after the 3rd head high wave we figured that was our moment to move.

On the swim out to where the buoy line would be if we still had buoys (we’re using a lot of phantom navigational targets these days), I felt most of the cold in my jawbone from below my ears through my molars. It was an odd sensation. I was hoping my beard would mitigate such things. Alas, as mighty as it is the beard is only effective to a certain point :) We met up with the kayakers at the phantom buoy line and Allison was sitting sideways in her boat cross-legged shooting the shit with the guys that got there first. She’s very happy with the new boat, she can crawl all over that thing and feel pretty comfortable.

The group swam down towards fossil point and we sent the kayakers ahead to act as the finish buoy. From that corner we swam up to the tip of the pier. That swim was a bit of a struggle. The chop was really kicking and I sucked some water down through my nose. I had to stop and cough that stuff out… I haven’t done that in forever, I felt like an amateur! Haha. I did feel like my swimming has gotten a little too far away from me though. I need my pool to come back online so I can build my speed and endurance back up because I suck right now.

At the tip of the pier we decided to swim back down the length of the pier. I chatted with Allison briefly before she made the turn to go back to the port. When I was done swimming I would be the one to run down there and pick her and the kayak up with the truck. Ruta was planning to land at the beach after her miraculous launch before the swim. She looked to me a bit to gauge when to paddle in. I was a little hesitant to give too much advice because she had the better vantage point in the water since she was sitting much higher up than I was. I saw a few rollers inbound and had her hold steady. When it looked like we were getting a break I let her know and she went for it. Part way in I had her stop for a second to let a wave roll past her and then she paddled the rest of the way in. From what I could see one of the next waves caught her and spun that boat around but thanks to the weird flex of it being inflatable we managed to stay upright and I don’t think she got dunked at all. At this point I turned my attention to getting myself in. As luck would have it a monster set was about to land on me. I swam a little further out to let those guys crash. Once the third big wave passed I started to swim in. I think I found a rip current because I got stuck temporarily. Once I got to water shallow enough to stand the undertow started to pull me right back out. I breaststroked a little and then bodysurfed pieces of waves to get me to waist deep water that I could walk out of.

All told I felt pretty good with the water temp. No shivering or chattering although I was a lovely shade of pink. Duke called me a jumbo shrimp. I would have stayed and baked in the sun for a while afterwards but I had to go pick up Allison from the Port. She was all smiles when she got in. I think this new boat (#3 in the last year) is a winner and the other kayaks we’ve got right now are going to be released back into the Craigslistian wild.

riding horses at Santa Margarita Lake

Things have been quiet around here and I have a fantastically large pile of excuses to choose from for it :) My best one is that my main pool exploded. Some sort of major pump burst and has shut things down for weeks… every time we hit the last best guess as to when we’d open they add another week, it sucks because I don’t belong to any other gyms at the moment. For a while I had access to like 3 or 4 different pools but I cut that back to just the Santa Maria pool. Oh well. I’m thinking about rejoining Pismo Beach Athletic Club so I have a back up pool, plus my girlfriend and housemate both workout there so I’d have company. Beyond facility issues I’ve added 14 units of college classes to my regular work schedule and I’ve been pretty busy getting used to the bonus workload. Thanks to the magic of the GI Bill I’m majoring in Recreation Management at the moment and so far I really dig it. I found out about the program last year when I did the Hancock Splash and Dash with my noon swim workout buddies and this year I’m going to be part of the group running it! Speaking of… the 2013 Hancock Splash and Dash is on April 27th and consists of your choice of either an Aquathon (500 yard swim & 5k run), a 5k run, or just a 500 yard swim. It’s a fundraiser for Hancock Athletics and run by the Recreation Management students. You can sign up on Active.com, it’s $25 to participate or FREE if you’re a student. If you would have an interest in sponsoring an event like that hit me up directly at rob@robaquatics.com, we’re actively seeking sponsors right now… just sayin’ :)

So without my usual pool fix I’ve been off doing other things and that’s probably a good thing. I’ve done some things that are pretty normal for me like limited ocean and lake swimming, lots of bodysurfing, some kayaking, and a little bodyboarding. My Recreation classes have encouraged me to go looking for other activities that I don’t usually do to broaden my recreational horizons a bit. I’ve gone horseback riding, became a roller derby fan, toured a mission, reacquainted myself with rollerskating after a 20 year break, visited a historic light house in Piedras Blancas, hung out with elephant seals, and just today I started a no-grade class through the college on beekeeping which is odd because I’m terrified of bees.

bodysurfing Avila Beach (with the flu! I couldn't stay inside anymore!)

Piedras Blancas Lightstation... worth a visit, bring good binoculars

elephant seals scare me more than sharks I think

bodyboarding Pismo

I got to ring the bells at La Purisima Mission

Roller Derby! I'm hooked... I want to find a men's league to play with

test driving kayaks with Andreas... the red one came home with us :)

swimming w/ Lynn K at East Beach in Santa Barbara for an SBCSA board meeting

being chased on skates by my housemate Kelly

I've been spending a lot of time playing with my GoPro 3 as well... I've shot some fun stuff :)

I wish I were swimming more right now, but a break probably isn’t all bad. The good news is my cold water tolerance is pretty awesome right now thanks to time spent surfing, I just really need to beef up my swim training soon… don’t want to get too out of swim shape! As the pool comes back online and workouts and races start coming into season I should have more aquatic goodness to share. In the meantime I high suggest liking Rob Aquatics on Facebook, I post pictures and links there pretty regularly.

On New Year’s Day a small group of ocean swimmers embarked on a secret mission to an undisclosed location. Their mission – to “accidentally” fall off the pier and swim back to the beach while having a ridiculously fun time doing so. Pretty serious stuff if you ask me. To ensure the success of our mission I brought in a couple ringers from out of town, Evan and Cathy, to assist in the execution. To prepare for the fall we all drank entirely too much the night before at one of the finer adult beverage establishments in the village of Arroyo Grande. In the morning my housemate filled my hungover crew with courage (and heart disease) inducing bacon to power us through the day.

this is higher than I thought...

...I'm not sure this was the best idea ever...

Niel setting the standard

Now that we were in place it was go time. There was no defined order, swimmers took to the rail in whatever order they pleased. Niel started off to show the rest of us how it’s done. Dale and Ed followed soon after. Despite Dale being the thinnest swimmer in the group she made a pretty impressive splash! It was fun to watch Ed go from super nervous/concerned on the beach when we surprised him with the plan for our swim to super stoked on the whole jumping process. With Ed’s jump all the wetsuited swimmers were now in the ocean… it was time for the skin swimmers to hop in.

Dale dropping!

Ed is away!

No one was really taking the lead so Sylvia clambered over the rail. It’s worth mentioning Sylvia is 75 and a total bad ass. She had a quick “what am I thinking?” conversation with herself, did a mini countdown and then plunged 20+ feet into the 53 degree water below. She lost her goggles in the process but was a champ about it, she was just happy it was the ocean that took them instead of the pool. From this point there’s no turning back for the rest of us young folks in our 30′s after watching a septuagenarian do what was making me a little nervous all morning.

Sylvia taking a moment to collect herself before leaping

Cathy went next and stood on a higher piece of railing and launched herself. She won for the most photogenic leaper of the day.

If Cathy had a helmet and a spear I would swear this is a shot from the movie 300

I decided I wanted to go next and got myself over the rail and onto the outside edge of the pier. Now is a good time to mention that I have a healthy fear of falling off of things. When I was a kid I was terrified of water and the concept of walking on a pier with big gaps in the planks would paralyze me with little kid fear. Now here I am jumping off a pier on purpose… into the ocean? My how things have changed :) I took my time a bit, collected my thoughts, smiled nervously at a few people and then tossed myself into the sea. Everything from there is a blur, it went roughly like this… fall, fall, fall, splash, float up and smile victoriously.

wait... why the hell would I jump off a pier!?!

oh yeah, because it's dumb and fun :) - photo by Ruta

Evan half in half out

and now we swim home!

Ben gets the shot as Cherie emerges victoriously from the surf in Oxnard

Something kind of exciting happened this summer, filming for a marathon swimming movie got underway in the waters of the Santa Barbara Channel. Independent filmmakers Ben Pitterle and Brian Hall decided to put together a film that shows the public what marathon swim world is all about by following 3 different swimmers as they took on channel swims from California’s Channel Islands. The three swimmers were Fiona who was angling to be the youngest female to complete a Channel Island swim, Cherie who is a working mom squeezing marathon swim training into an already busy life, and Evan who is a marathon swimming veteran with an eye on a record. As luck would have it Cherie and Evan are both good friends of mine and I was along for both swims as a crew person giving me a cool behind the scenes view of how the movie was made.

Brian filming as the sun rises on Evan's record breaking Santa Cruz Island swim

Brian was aboard the Tuna Thumper for Cherie’s Anacapa swim and the Fuji III for Evan’s Santa Cruz Island swim. He was a really mellow dude, knowledgeable about the ocean and the channel, and good at getting the shot without getting in the way of the boat crew. I’ve been on a boat with a film crew before and know it can be far less pleasant than that so I’m stoked he was such a cool guy. He shot a lot of above water swimmer footage but he also captured the action on the boat. I’m moderately nervous as to what kind of goofy shit came out of my mouth on the boat… I’m also pretty sure that in the course of Evan’s Santa Cruz swim I may have single handedly moved the prospective MPAA rating up a few notches with some salty diction every time Evan got too close to the propeller end of the Fuji III.

Ben filming from a kayak as Cherie nears land

Ben would show up to the swims on a separate boat and make frogman incursions into the action from a kayak that would paddle him in and out of the swim. Every once and a while I’d see him 20 feet below me as I pace swam. On Cherie’s swim he was out on a Santa Barbara Channelkeeper boat… right before Evan’s swim that boat had mechanical problems and he had to jam out to Santa Cruz Island from Santa Barbara on a sailboat at the last minute! Ben is also a really cool mellow guy with a deep appreciation for the ocean and the channel. Although he was based on other boats we did get to talk to him a little bit on Cherie’s swim when he came aboard the Tuna Thumper to check in with Brian. At one point while chatting with him Cherie picked her head up and announced the arrival of a big fever of rays swimming beneath her. While looking at Cherie I saw a splash in my peripheral vision… Ben dove right off the boat! Dude is serious about getting his shots!

To donate go to www.indiegogo.com/driventhemovie

To see more of what you’re supporting take a minute to check out the trailer for the movie that was debuted in early November at the Santa Barbara Channel Swimming Association’s annual banquet.

This is your chance to make me an independent movie mega star… don’t mess this up people :p

How I'm not worthy of TMZ stalking I have no idea haha... photo by Lynn K.

*full bloggerly disclosure – I have no financial interests in the film but I am a member of the Santa Barbara Channel Swimming Association’s board of directors which totally wouldn’t mind the free publicity the film would bring :)