Ocean Swim and Some Stand Up Paddling

me swimming along the pier

I was back in Avila Beach today for our regular Sunday swim. I normally get there pretty early but today I made a pit stop on the way to the beach. I needed to grab a disposable waterproof camera since ALL of my (supposedly) waterproof cameras are in some state of non-function-ment. Boo. Unfortunately the place I went to drop it off after my swim didn’t offer 1 hour photo so I won’t see any of the pics I took until Monday or Tuesday. So I’ve brought back the MS Paint re-interpretation of the day’s event feature that I ran back in September. I think I’m getting better at it… hopefully I don’t have to get too good at it!

here's the battery from my Olympus Stylus (not so) Tough

Anyways… I got to the beach right on time and there were about 6 swimmers there including a new guy from Cal Poly and Sylvia who I haven’t seen in a pretty long time now. I got changed and swim-lubed up real quick and we made our way down to the water. It felt pretty decent today. Niel said it was 56 in the water, and the air temp felt really good. Just like yesterday we had lots of sun, but not much in the wave department.

Me and Sylvia were the 2 non-wetsuiters swimming today and we both took our time getting started and catching up a little bit in the surf. Once a wave rolled through that was big enough to dunk the two of us we figured it was time to get going.

getting in for our swim

I swam half way down the pier and met up with the rest of the group. One of them stayed to swim with Sylvia since they’re closer in pace, and the rest of us took off for the end of the pier. It felt nice to be out in the cold water with the hot sun on my back. At the base of the pier we hung out and talked a little bit while a fisherman on the pier gave us the stink eye for being where he wanted to cast. Once the ladies met up with us we shot towards the creek buoy.

On the swim down I followed Niel and the other guys took a different line that cut a little too far inside, but they eventually met back up with ours when they readjusted to aim for the correct buoy. From here the plan was back down the buoy line and under the pier. The water felt like it got way colder under the pier and on the other side of it. Before our swim there was some talk of maybe going a little further once we finished the initial route, but everyone was pretty much done so we swam it in.

I grabbed my fins and hopped back in to see if there was anything good to surf out there but the waves were mainly small and the sets spaced pretty far apart. I got a handful of ok waves but nothing quite as fun as what I had yesterday. I wasn’t so sad about this though… I was still at the beach on a nice sunny day… in November! Regardless of what went down I had already won :) I hung out on the beach with some of the other swimmers for a while drying off in the sun and talking about the potential of a far away swim next year.

Once everybody was ready to split I packed up my truck and grabbed some lunch in town before driving down to SLO Coast Kayaks in Port San Luis for some paddling. Since there wasn’t much wind I decided to go Stand Up Paddle boarding. I rented a 12 foot board and paddled out into the bay.

paddle boarding with the sea lions

I’m getting better at balancing on an SUP, no falls and not much wobbling… still can’t go all that straight though. I found a few of those sea otters I saw the last time I was kayaking are still hanging around out in the same spot. I kept moving and found myself along the edge of a forming bait ball. The birds were diving like crazy and plenty of sea lions were cruising the outsides. I didn’t want to get too close to everybody eating so I turned out away from the beach. On my way I saw a big gang of sea lions jumping and playing next to a boat. I knelt down on the board and just watched them for a while. Once a big guy not connected to that group came up behind me and started barking I figured it was a not so subtle hint to move along.

I was kind of tired so I didn’t stay out too long. Maybe 30-40 minutes. Just long enough to enjoy myself and say hello to the locals I share the ocean with a couple days a week. I find it kind of interesting that I haven’t seen a seal or sea lion out where we swim in quite a while but there’s so many on the other side of the Poly pier. All told it was a good day spent in one of my favorite places… hopefully when my pictures come back I’ll have a few winners to share and show off how nice it really was in a way that doesn’t involve MS Paint!

November 14, 2010 | 5 Comments »

Body Surfing Expedition in Avila Beach

whoooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Even though I wasn’t going to a swim meet or a race or anything this weekend I still wanted to spend some time in the ocean. I decided it would be a good day to just mess around in the waves and go body surfing. I slept in a little bit and then packed a bag with my duck feet fins and some board shorts then made my way out to Avila. Heidi came with me to watch and get her feet wet a bit.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day… lots of sunshine, clear skies and it was warm. With it being November and all the beach was pretty quiet. There were a few teenagers boogie boarding out there and some folks walking around in town and on the pier. I think October and November are probably 2 of the nicest months here on the Central Coast. The weather is good and there’s not a lot of tourists so us locals have the beaches largely to ourselves. The water wasn’t exactly getting in on this same warmth thing the air was. Based on what it felt like and what the closest ocean buoy is saying it was probably 55-56 out there.

oh hai bird

On the way out into the water the worst part is getting the fins on. I can’t really do it standing up so I have to sit down in the shallow water and let all the cold water wash over me… brrrr… I don’t mind cold water, but that first dunking always sucks! I swam out and staked out a spot just to the left of the boogie boarders.

swimming back out to find more wave-age

The waves that were coming through were anything from little 2-3 footers to the occasional 5-6er. The waves in Avila are usually really nice and clean and well defined making them pretty easy to catch as long as you time things right. Only problem is they tend to break all at once in a straight line not giving you much time to try and break right or left down the face of the wave. I kept getting a hold of really fun waves and did a lot of experimenting out there. I tried turning as hard as I could into the wave, riding them out at far as I could, and I’m working on rolling while riding. I saw a dude on youtube who spins over in the wave by tossing an arm around and decided I want to do that too :) For the most part I was actually successful at this. Sometimes it looked like I was just getting tossed around, but I was doing it on purpose so that has to count for something right?

After 40 minutes or so I came in for a while to soak in some sun and take a drink. The water was still looking really good so I went back in for one more round. For the most part it was more of the same… wait a while, pick out a wave I like, gooooooooooooo… I did however catch one just a little wrong. My timing was off. I was a little late but powered my way onto the crest of the wave with my fins. This started awesome, I felt like I was flying… and then I was actually flying. I went straight out and into the bottom of the ocean. Luckily I had a hand out front leading because it broke my fall. Without it I would have meet the bottom head first and my fat ass mixed with the inertia of a 5 or 6 foot wave would have probably broken my damn neck! Note to self… always be paying attention, the ocean remains dangerous even when it’s really fun.

back in...

I took 4 or 5 more rides and then brought it back to the beach. This was a genius idea :) Lots of fun and besides a pair of fins no real equipment necessary. I’m still waiting for the day that I can use this particular skill to pass someone in an open water race… I would love to catch a wave and fly past a bunch of people on my way to the finish just one time! Someday…

Tomorrow I’ll be back in the ocean for our regular Sunday training swim. If the surf is still looking fun I’ll definitely have my fins in my bag just in case!

as it turns out I am a duck footed sea monster of some sort

November 13, 2010 | No Comments »

Noontime Ocean Workout Experiment

I deem this experiment a success

Now that Wednesday night swims are gone until next year I’ve been lobbying for a lunchtime ocean swim during the week so I can still get in a second ocean swim each week. Niel decided to give it a shot and come out with me today. It’s to be determined how this worked out in regards to his day, but for me it was absolutely perfect. I got in a decent swim and managed to get back to work on time. Now to sell a few more people on it… there’s gotta be a few folks that swim with us sometimes who want to play in the ocean for lunch right? I’ll be campaigning this Sunday afternoon at our regularly scheduled swim :)

yeah this doesn't suck for November

I got out to the beach around 11:45 today and Niel’s stuff was in our spot but he wasn’t. I figured he was out getting the water temp so I worked on getting into my swimsuit. Today I was rocking my camo RobAquatics suit. Some of you may have noticed a brown and green zebra stripe suit in my Coney Island 5k pictures, well I have a camouflage one too :) After I signed up for the Veteran’s Day 5k in New York I emailed Splish to do a special edition Rob Aquatics Army suit with my last name stenciled on the front. I think they came out pretty awesome!

my gear for today... Splish Rob Aquatics Camo Suit, Cibbows Cap, and B70 Element Goggles

Anyways… drag suit couture aside… Niel came back with 56.5 degrees. Only 2 degrees warmer than Brooklyn! Luckily the air temperature was up about 25 degrees :) It was a fantastically gorgeous day in Avila. The visibility was way above average… no fog, no clouds, just sunshine. There were some really big swells rolling through further out in the ocean but the waves that were actually breaking didn’t seem to match. I mean they were pretty big for Avila, may 6 feet for the biggest ones, but the swells made it look like we should have 12ers smashing through. I guess the ocean floor is shaped just right at the moment to suck a lot of the life out of the swells at the last minute.

I'm not sure what we were talking about here but it looks important :)

boogie boarder contemplating how to get out further to catch a wave

The swim out was pretty eventful. Lots of swimming up the faces of building waves in hopes of getting through before getting tossed. I met Niel outside the breakers and we aimed for the end of the pier. The water felt really good and the sun on my back was great. My left arm is still wonky though. I need to go see a sports massage person or something. I’m all tight and getting weird twitches and tingles deep in my muscles on my shoulder blade in a spot that doesn’t make any sense to me.

all smiles out past the breakers

At the end of the pier we hung out for a while and soaked in the view while the people on the pier stared out at us. Since today was a holiday for some I’m assuming we had more people than you usually would out on a Thursday afternoon at the beach. From here we headed towards the far buoy over by the creek and then turned back towards the pier along the buoy line. The swim out there was smooth but you could feel the swells speed through on their way to the beach. Every once and a while you’d be moved a few feet to either side by the water.

fellow lunchtime ocean adventurer Niel

On the swim back to the beach my goal was to find a couple waves to surf, because what is a workday without a few waves bodysurfed right? (condolences to my inland dwelling friends) It took me a couple tries to find the right one in the right spot. When I grabbed my wave I think I caught it a little too high. I didn’t quite get pitched but it felt like I would have been if I’d been just a few feet in another direction when I caught it. I rushed down and to the left a bit on the face of the wave and then got swallowed up by whitewater. I was still moving forward but I was mainly underwater… to the point I was starting to wonder if I had enough air in my lungs to ride it out. I pulled out of the wave, the ocean spun me over once and I popped up for a breath. Whooo! I love this stuff :) I went out for one more… I got a little more distance on the second one but it wasn’t as dramatic of a ride. I hope this bigger than average surf sticks around for a while… I may have to put some fins on after the Sunday swim and really go after some waves for a while.

view of the waves breaking from behind

A while back I was considering the San Diego SCM meet this weekend with a bonus trip to the cove thrown in but it’s not going to happen. My body is too beat and I need a nap. Plus my wallet probably needs a break too… my credit cards are hot to the touch from their somewhat ill advised over use during the summer. I think my next competitive adventure will be the SLO Gobbler SCY meet and maybe Pierce College SCM which are on different days of the same weekend.

November 11, 2010 | No Comments »

Somersaults in the Pool are Serious Business

And we’re back to the pool… it’s been a while since I’ve been to Santa Maria to workout at the pool there and after my New York cold water adventure weekend I was a little worried about my aching shoulder. The icy goodness of the Atlantic did a good job of dulling the pain in there but this pool is nice and sunny and normally temperatured so I knew I wasn’t going to get the same analgesic assistance from it. Surprisingly I came out ok. A little sore but not in a grindy real damage kind of way. Phew.

Our workout was pretty short and mellow. A long warm up with a short set with a little bit of fast stuff in it. I felt pretty good to (try) to go fast seeing as I’ve been in that long distance gear so much recently.

600 reverse IM kick/drill/swim by 50

6 x 100 IM kick @ :15 rest

8 x 50 alt. easy fast by 50 @ 1:00
100 free IM easy

8 x 25 alt easy fast by 25 @ :40
100 cool down

2000 yards total

After our workout we had some serious business to attend to… namely how many somersaults can we do underwater in a row? Here’s my go at it…

I was victorious with 6, but I don’t feel so confident in my position atop the somersault standings… with a little work I think Mike could take me. I’m sure (and/or hope) there’s some kind of swim drill value to all of this… I need to get a hold of Glenn at GoSwim to see if he can make me a video on the finer points of underwater somersaulting  to help me squeeze out a few more to widen my lead over the other kids at the pool :)

November 9, 2010 | No Comments »

Frosty Sunday at Brighton Beach with CIBBOWS

I went with Cristian to the beach again this morning, this time it was Brighton Beach as opposed to Coney Island. We picked up 2 bonus swimmers on the way and met up with a handful of others once we got there. It was pretty cold on the beach with a decent breeze working. I’m not sure what the air temp was but it didn’t feel any warmer than yesterday. The upside was that the sun was still shining nice and bright which at least helps mentally even if it doesn’t help in the actual warmth department.

walking to the beach... note the preponderance of puffy jackets

everyone trying to stay warm pre-swim

As one would imagine there’s a lot of stalling involved in a beach swim like this. I got myself changed and ready a little too quickly and spent more time than I probably would have wanted standing in a half wet speedo in the breeze! Oh well, These CIBBOWS swimmers are a great group and a lot of fun to talk with… especially when 54-55 degree seas await you! Eventually Dave took off for the water by himself just to get in. I would have chased him in but I can’t hold his pace (he beat me by about 20 minutes in the 5k yesterday).

Dave embarks on his swim

busy being ready too early soaking in that ocean breeze

I waited for the rest of the group to hop in. Our target was “the white building” down the beach to the left a ways. Maybe 7 of us took off together into the cold water. Like yesterday I was the last one to get all the way wet, but I got over it a lot faster. I think a full night’s sleep helped a lot! Just like yesterday I sighted off of people’s caps and worked my way up the group a little bit until I was somewhere in the middle. Once we were almost to the end point I stopped for a bit and played tourist… had to get some pictures right? The group had split into 2 big pieces and I hurried up to catch the second group at the turn.

working our way into the water

swimming to the white building

Once I caught up with them Rachel asked me if I wanted to swim down to the “big jetty,” I had no idea what she was talking about but I said yes. I figured why not right? I’m already wet and in the ocean, the hard part was over and I could just enjoy some swimming. Plus she’s a cold water bad ass, I couldn’t look like a wuss in front of her :) Her, Cristian (who put me up for the night) and one other CIBBOWS swimmer (Patricia) are also nominated for the World Open Water Performance of the Year for a double crossing of the Beagle Channel between Chile and Argentina in 39 degree water! Since I didn’t really know where we were going I kept her on my right side so I could watch what she was up to and just hold her pace. We swam shoulder to shoulder all the way down to where we originally started. She stopped to make sure I really wanted to keep going, I was all smiles so we kept moving.

Rachel and I on dry land

I think she wants to swim to New Jersey now?

...thinking about it :)

We swam out another 10-15 minutes until we got out to where we were going. While we were stopped we took a second to talk and I asked her to snap a couple pictures for me since we weren’t mid-race or anything and Coney Island was off in the background. After our little photo break we cruised it on back to our start point and turned in towards the beach. We thought we were the only ones still in but 2 other swimmers had also extended their swim and came in a few minutes behind us. Dave brought us towels and we walked up onto the sand and I hurried up and dried off. I was pretty functional and not shivering so I was pretty happy with that. I knew however that I needed to hurry up and put real clothes on before the wind got to me. I hurried into a pair of jeans and a sweater. Some of the other kids were already back in their cars getting heated up. That didn’t strike me as an entirely horrible idea.

I hopped back in Cristian’s car with 2 other swimmers and we chatted and warmed up simultaneously. Eventually Dave came around taking some coffee orders. I don’t drink coffee but I was down for a walk. We went down the street a bit into little Odessa and hit a tiny cafe. It was really breezy between the buildings and I got a little chilly on the inside from it. It’s weird, I’m much better underwater than out of it. After we all hung out in the parking lot for a while Dave and his wife had to take off and the rest of us that were still there made our way to lunch at a Turkish joint not too far from there. Once we were all sufficiently loaded up on felafel, salad, and a little bit of Turkish Beer everyone had to get on with their days. We dropped 3 at the subway and then Cristian was cool enough to take me to the airport.

Although I was only really here for like 36 hours I had a great time in Brooklyn with the CIBBOWS gang. Everyone was so cool and so nice to me and I really hope I can come back sometime soon to play in their little piece of ocean. For those of you that prefer your water a little warmer don’t forget that next year’s USMS 5K champs is going to be there in August, I highly recommend going out to swim with them! Big thanks to Dave Barra for planting the idea in my head and picking me up to go race on Saturday morning, and big thanks to Cristian for putting me up for the night in his super awesome house and taking me back to JFK today. My little whirlwind trip to Brooklyn this weekend had about 5 miles worth of making new friends in cold salt water… I’d say it was a weekend well spent!

the only way to see a new town is from the water

November 8, 2010 | 4 Comments »

2010 CIBBOWS Veteran’s Day 5k Wrap Up

**check your results here! (pdf download)


Looking for a cold water adventure to extend your open water season into November? This is it dude! With an air temperature that wasn’t quite 50 degrees and water temps hovering around 54-55 it was a special kind of cold that I hadn’t experienced before. I’ve swam in much colder water without a wetsuit, but the effect of piling cold air on top of things really makes a big difference! Although this is pretty crazy to most people, it was excellent experience for me and some of the things I have percolating in the back of my head for sometime in the future.

early am at Coney Island

My whirlwind cold water NYC adventure started Friday night in San Luis Obispo. I hopped a plane to LAX and then a red eye to JFK. I landed a little after 7am having gotten not much sleep and hurried out to the street to hop in open water marathon man Dave Barra’s car. He was cool enough to come pick me up and drive me out to the swim which saved me a huge amount of city-I’ve-never-been-to stress. We got to Coney Island and the NY Aquarium way early and hung out in the room they had set aside for event participants. Since we had a while I tried to partake in a mix of socializing, helping here and there with set up (at one point I was pushing a generator on a dolly down the Boardwalk!), and attempting to take a mini nap. Somewhere in the middle of all of that I made a trip down to the water to dunk my feet and formally introduce myself to the Atlantic Ocean. That water burned pretty good… I guessed we were a solid 55 degrees which matched what was announced later in the day. While moving about I finally got to meet some swimmers that I had been wanting to meet in person. Suzie Dods was there (and ran the NYC marathon on Sunday!)… funny we both live in California and would meet for the first time in New York. And I met Mo Siegal as well who just did the Ederle swim amongst a big list of other huge swims this summer.

the Atlantic Ocean... we meet at last

At 10:30 we got a pre-race briefing on the course and safety. Once it got closer to 11 we marched on out to the water. The good news is it was sunny, the bad news is it was still cold outside. Down by the start I decided to just embrace it. I stripped down to my suit and BodyGlided myself up and chatted with the other swimmers. I think we had upwards of 50-60 people participating and a good majority of them were going skins although there were wetsuits in the mix.

marching towards our frosty piece of ocean for the day

They lined us up on the beach and did a bit of a countdown to the start. As one would expect there was a little rush to the water and then most of us slowed down considerably as that water started hitting a little higher! I took my sweet time getting in as I am prone to do with cold water. I eased in and let the small waves get me wetter as I waded deeper. By the time I pushed off and started swimming for real I think there was only one person still working on getting in behind me.

notice we're all only ankle deep at best...

To get started we had to swim to a white buoy and then hang a left to swim up towards Brighton Beach. I couldn’t see the buoy in the glare of the sun so I just followed green swim caps. On that first stretch to the first Orange buoy (there was one orange buoy on each end of the course) I was really doubting the wisdom of my decision to fly cross country over night and then hop into a really cold long swim. My body was burning and the wind across the top of the water wasn’t particularly pleasant. I’ll admit there was a little internal debate about the merits of just turning in at the one mile point (you could swim 1 or 2 miles or go for a full 5k). That idea wasn’t in any danger of winning out, but it was at least getting heard :)

As I made my way out to that buoy I was aiming for green caps again since I couldn’t actually see the buoy. I figured a lot of the swimmers in the water were locals and knew where things were. I gradually passed various groups of swimmers that got a head start on me while I was busy taking my time getting in the water.

Things really thinned out after the 1 mile marker where the majority of the swimmers turned in, but I still had some company around me. I’m not sure how many did each swim (1 mile, 2 mile, 5k) but a little less than 10 of us went the full distance.

As I swam out towards the pier buoy it felt like the current was working against me a little bit… once I swam around it it felt like it was going against me there too. Fun! A lot of other people said the same thing so it wasn’t just me. I saw someone stop a few times near me and I stopped just to make sure she was cool. I think she was just having a goggle malfunction. Since I was stopped anyways I grabbed my camera for a few quick shots. Before I got started again Mo Siegal came cruising through and made sure to say hello :)

pit stop not too far past the buoy by the pier

Although I was definitely cold I was totally in control of it now. My only major worry was my left shoulder which has been giving me trouble. I could feel that it was pissed off while I was swimming, but the cold numbed it out enough that it didn’t really effect my swim too much. I just put my head down and ground out that last stretch to the other far end buoy. I couldn’t see it for a long time so I just guessed at where it was. I sort of drifted out a ways until I could actually see it. Once that orange ball finally popped up I readjusted my line and aimed for it.

The last leg of the swim was a blur. I was happy to be there but happy to almost be done. At the white buoy I made the turn home and swam it in. I stood up once my hand scraped sand on the bottom. Like I usually do I walked it in to the finish line because I’m not much for running. I was done around 1:45 which is slow for a 5k but given the cold and the current I think it was just fine. At the finish line I was greeted by Dave with a borrowed towel (I traveled so light for this trip that I didn’t have room in my backpack for a towel) and then some volunteers wrapped me up like a baked potato in one of those weird tin foil looking space blanket things. I didn’t really want it though so I asked to be de-baked-potatoed so I could just dry off. I was doing pretty well on the beach with just a towel chatting with some of the people down by the finish line. A lot of them were a little taken aback by my post cold swim not so coldness. I’m not sure how or why my body processes it so well but I’m glad it does. It did strike me as a good idea however to go get some dry clothes on. I walked it back to the aquarium and by the time I got to the boardwalk I had a bit of a tremor going from the wind blowing across me. It wasn’t a full blown shiver, but it was the closest I’ve gotten to one from swimming.

hanging out with Dave Barra on the beach

CIBBOWS is a fun crowd, I like them a lot. Post swim we had a room at the Aquarium to hang out and warm up. I got into some dry clothes and skipped the hot tea and coffee and found myself a beer. It was a pretty good idea. Once everyone was settled and cleaned up from the swim a bunch of us went down to Ruby’s Bar which is a long time Coney Island mainstay that’s being pushed out of it’s current location. I don’t know all the details but a lot of people are less than pleased with this and a large group of people were out to support them on what was looking to be their last day in business on the boardwalk.

hooray post swim beer!

the scene over at Ruby's... live music, Coney Island characters, and boardwalk food

After a couple of hot dogs we split and drove all over with Dave and Rachel. He dropped me off at Cristian’s house who was putting me up for the weekend. He was also the race director for the swim and a fellow nominee for World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year! We ventured out for some dinner at a Korean joint in his neighborhood and then I pretty promptly crashed out. After a red eye flight, a few beers, and a big long cold swim my body was done for the day! The good news was Sunday was going to include one more trip to the beach :)

**for more pictures check out the Rob Aquatics Facebook page or Capri’s flickr account

November 7, 2010 | 3 Comments »

Staycation Hotel Pool Workout!

why hello there

So I’m staying a couple of nights at the Shore Cliff Lodge in Pismo Beach this week as a mini in town vacation. We’ve got a sweet ocean front room with epic views of the local coastline. Fantastic reminder of why I live here :) Being that I am working this week I haven’t gotten much time to enjoy all this hotel-y goodness in the daylight so I traded my usual Thursday Santa Maria workout for a hotel pool workout. Surprisingly the pool at my hotel is pretty decent! Not made for lap swimming, but it does happen to overlook the Pacific Ocean so I can forgive a lot based on just that :)

So really not much all that swimmerly to report here, just wanted to share a little of the wonderfulness that is Pismo Beach with you all :)

preparing for upwards of 100m of swimming, bubble ring blowing and handstands

view from my room of the Pismo Pier

November 4, 2010 | 2 Comments »

Wednesday Night Swim/Body Surfing Adventure

this view is totally worth the cold

5 of us went out for a short swim tonight at Avila and we were greeted by some big waves! We had some really clean 6-7 footers rolling through the beach tonight! That’s pretty major for Avila. Although we were there to swim I was definitely looking forward to some body surfing action at the end of the swim!

the beach right before we got in... that sun was going down fast!

To make things a little more exciting I had about $550 worth of electronics in my speedo. That’s not a sentence you get to write everyday huh? My new camera (a Pentax Optio W90) showed up to the office before the swim so I took it along with my Olympus that I’m not so much a fan of to the beach. I’m really glad none of these big waves stripped my suit and my speedo based camera store off into the depths of the ocean! That would have been embarrassing and expensive.

wave building on its way towards us

It took a little doing to get out to the buoy line tonight with the big waves rolling through, and then there was a bit of a current pushing us around out there as well. The water felt pretty cold but Niel’s new thermometer called it at 58… the surf report on the radio was calling for 54-56… not sure who was right but the surf report felt closer to the truth. The plan was to swim down the short south end of the buoy line , go over the top of the pier and then turn towards the beach. Not quite a mile, but we didn’t have much daylight so it was probably about as much time as we could have reasonably spent in the water anyways.

out at the first turn

I was pretty frosty at the first stop, but I mellowed out as we moved along. I had a moment where I thought I got hit by a jellyfish though which was kind of funny. I was prickly cold for a while and a rough piece of kelp smacked me on the arm. With as over sensitive as I was at that moment it felt like a sting across the top of my bicep! Totally weird sensation.

floating off the tip of the pier

At the top of the pier we took some time to regroup and float around. 2 swimmers took off for the beach early because one of them was getting really cold. While Pete finished catching up me and Niel enjoyed the view. Big swells were making themselves apparent out there. You’d be minding your own business and then just raise like 2 feet for a moment as they steamed for the beach. It was getting me excited about what we might have to surf back at the beach.

swimming it in... those lines are me and Niel

some local kids were out body surfing too... look for the black dots in the waves

We had some epic body surfing tonight on the way in. Big, clean, easy to catch waves all over the place. I caught one wave that was pretty much the best wave of my life. I got a piece of the top of it and sped forward towards the beach. I felt like I was skipping across the top of the water! Totally rad ride! My girlfriend saw it from the pier and affirmed that it was indeed awesome :) I went back out for one more and caught another big guy. Wasn’t quite as epic as the first but still pretty legit. If the sun weren’t almost gone I could have spent way more time playing out there!

staring back at the waves after getting out

So now we’re done for real with Wednesday night swims… we’ve pushed it as far as we could, but when the time changes this weekend there’s no way we can squeeze out anymore. I’m going to miss these Wednesday night swims, they were one of the best parts of my work week. Now I need to find a lunch time ocean buddy for Tuesdays or Thursdays… any takers? :)

goodbye Wednesday night...

| 2 Comments »

2010 World Open Water Swimming Awards Voting is Open

OpenWaterSource.com just launched the voting for their World Open Water Swimming awards. There are categories for Man of the Year, Woman of the Year and Performance of the Year. Voting is open from November 1st 2010 until the end of the year.

They’ve done a great job of nominating people out of the open water community from all over the world. I’m particularly excited to see people like my buddy Dave Barra nominated as Man of the Year and my friends from the Swim22 Catalina Relay nominated as a Performance of the Year.

To give you an idea of the spirit of these awards here’s a little text lifted from the site:

The 2010 World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year award is meant to is meant to honor the individual(s) who (1) best embodies the spirit of open water swimming, (2) possesses the sense of adventure, tenacity and perseverance that open water swimmers are known for, and (3) has demonstrated the most impressive open water swimming performance of the year.

One other notable nominee, at least in my humble opinion, would be… well… me! :) I’m a little shocked and very flattered to have made the cut as a nominee for Performance of the Year for my work as an “Open Water Documentarist.” How cool is that? Also I need to add Open Water Documentarist to my resume, it sounds a lot fancier than “swim blogger.”

Here’s what they had to say about me:

If you like what I do here and you want to vote for me click here and look for #16

Make sure you check out all 3 categories and cast your votes!

November 1, 2010 | 4 Comments »
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