I was pressed for time this afternoon, kinda the theme of my weekdays recently, but I had to get to the pool because I had something new and fun to try out… today in my bag I had an H2O Audio Interval iPod Case for a 4th Generation Shuffle! H20 Audio sent me the case a little while ago and I finally got around to buying the newest version of the Shuffle last night. My experience with the 2nd generation Interval was ok but not great, so far this is doing way better. It’s shaped better to fit your goggles and contour to your head. They also sent me the Pro Fit Kit which has a bunch of different ear bud options. This was a very good call. There’s 9 different styles and sizes in there to complement the 5 sizes you get stock with the Interval case. I found a “tree tip” style cover that did a really good job of staying stuck inside my head while swimming.

Before I left my office to go swim I got everything set up, picked the playlist I wanted running while swimming, put on the ear buds, locked it shut and tossed it in my bag. At the pool I attached it to my goggles and was impressed with the system they have for it. They’ve gotten way smarter with how they do these things. I put the ear buds in real deep so I wouldn’t lose them and took off swimming. No major leaks, nothing fell out, so far so good. I did all four strokes with it and sprinted a couple 50s without dislodging anything. Obviously I need to do more swimming with it to see how well it really does over time, but so far it’s doing much better than the previous Interval case I bought back in 2009.

In terms of actual swimming I didn’t do much. Maybe 1500 yards. I had some calls to make at lunch, and until they make an underwater bluetooth swim helmet I need to do these things on dry land.

In other news… as one gadget comes into my life another goes away… I’m sending my Panasonic Lumix in for warranty replacement. It still works, but there’s some moisture inside the lens that fogs up pretty much only when I want to use it which is handy… boo. I get a big fog blob in all my pictures so it was time to go. So yet again I’m left camera-less and you guys are probably going to start getting some Rob D. swim art the next week or so :)

Today was beautiful on the coast and I spent as much of it as I could outside by the ocean. I left the house around 8:30 and headed for Avila Beach to see what was going on down there. The sun was shining, it was a little chilly still, and the water was totally flat. I brought a board and fins with me just in case, but there was no surf to be had.

Since I couldn’t ride any waves I ate breakfast at the Avila Grocery and then went exploring. I walked down the pier and checked out what the seals and the fisherman were up to. We had maybe 10 guys fishing but I didn’t see anybody catching anything. I noticed the gate to the landing below the pier was open so I went down there to look around. It’s been a lot of years since I’ve been down there and it looks like they’ve redone the whole thing since the last time I checked it out. It’s kind of neat to be above the water but below the pier. It was a really low tide and I could see sea anemones and starfish clinging to the pilings along with tons of smaller muscle/barnacle type things. I got some interesting pictures down there.

After doing some more walking I went to my truck to get my chair and swim gear and took it to the beach. Sylvia was already there and we chatted for a while. Since a lot of people know we meet there a lot of heads pop over the railing above our meet up spot and yell down to us. My folks walked by and said hi and later Pete K. dropped in as well. Between random visitors I dozed off a little in my chair while soaking in the sun… it was warming up and felt great.

Eventually we had 4 swimmers total – me, Sylvia, Duke and Chad. We weren’t sure exactly where we wanted to go today. We decided to swim straight out to the end of the pier and then decide because even though it was warm on the beach the water temps had tanked after our out of season spike on Wednesday. We didn’t get an “official” reading at the pier, but the nearest NOAA buoy was reading 51-52 and we guessed it was 53 at best where we swim.

We were all pretty slow getting in the water today, even the guys in wetsuits were hurting in the water. Each set of waves had maybe one that was big enough that you couldn’t avoid it, so when that finally showed up it pretty much meant we had to start swimming because we were all wet now.

I felt pretty good on the way out to the end of the pier, my hands thawed out and once I got the cold out of my system I could really enjoy that warm sun on my back. We had an onshore breeze blowing so this leg had a little bit of mild chop, but nothing that bad. Duke, Chad and myself got to the tip of the pier at about the same time and agreed amongst ourselves to aim for the reef buoy out towards the point. We generally don’t swim over there so we figured it would be different and interesting. We waited (and drifted in the current) for Sylvia to catch up to see if she wanted to come along or do her own thing today. She was in for the full swim so we all set off together to the buoy.

We angled right for the buoy and the three of us guys held fairly close together. We stopped just shy of the buoy because it’s always surrounded by a bunch of kelp and as much fun as kelp is I prefer to not swim over it unless I really have to.

No one was particularly motivated to go long today so from here we decided to go over to the buoy line, swim it to the pier and then turn towards home. Between the reef buoy and the buoy line I picked up the pace a bit and pushed it for maybe half the distance. I need to work on swimming faster more often in open water. I fall to easily in my “forever” pace when I hit cold water. It’s like my body doesn’t want to go fast because it’s worried I might be in for the next 4-8 hours or something :) We took a brief pause at the buoy line to regroup and then set off again. I did maybe 50m of butterfly just to move my shoulders in a different direction and keep my heart rate up.

On the way back to shore I stopped half way and looked for a wave to body surf, it was pretty slim pickings. We had two in a row roll through but they broke to far out for me to get on. I kept waiting until I finally found one I could ride and sprinted up into it. I was carried to the beach way up on top of it… whooooo! I walked out in search of one more but apparently I was being greedy… one wave was all I was being alloted today. After waiting forever for something I gave up and waded back to the beach.

On the beach I ran into one of my buddies that I used to work with when I was in the car business and we talked for a while on the sand. Luckily it was sunny and warm there so i didn’t have to get worried about getting cold while standing around all wet. From there I got back to my chair, changed into dry clothes and spent probably the next hour just hanging out on the beach with everybody that swam today.

So far pretty awesome day! I decided to keep it rolling instead of going home. I ate lunch in SLO and then drove out to Los Osos and Montana de Oro to check out the beach and poke through the tide pools. It’s a little out of the way, but just unreasonably gorgeous out there. You have to walk maybe half a mile from the parking lot to the water, but it’s totally worth the effort.

Last time I went to MDO my feet got pretty beat up on the rocks. I tend to go barefoot where ever water is involved, but this area is a little too rough for me. Luckily not too long after that experience SwimOutlet sent me some water shoes from their Sporti line to check out. They definitely did the job for the bottoms of my feet, but were no match for the big unfriendly grains of sand on this beach. They’d be awesome for around a pool or at a water park, but if you get them full of coarse sand there’s no way to get that out without taking them off and trying to rinse them out.

It was fairly empty down by the water at this point in the day and I had all the tidepools and rocky outcroppings largely to myself. I took lots of pictures and found all kinds of anemones, hermit crabs, starfish and other cool stuff like that. I didn’t see much in the way of mammals this time though… last time I was out seals and otters were pretty abundant. They must have been hiding somewhere a little calmer because the surf was ripping pretty hard where I was hanging out.

After watching a seagull unsuccessfully attempt to swallow a starfish bigger than its head for about 10 minutes I decided it was time to go… as funny as it was it was obvious he wasn’t going to win or give up so this could take all day :) I hiked back up through the hills to my truck and begrudgingly made my way inland. I should be back in oceanic action tomorrow with some Boogie Monday excitement… it’s only been a few hours but I already feel the need to be salty again! Ahhh, it’s going to be a long Monday!

I woke up early Saturday morning to hit Morro Bay for Central Coast Stand Up’s demo day for April. They do this really cool thing where you can come out and ride boards for free and even get some instruction if you’re totally new at it. I showed up a little too early so I started my day with a walk down towards Morro Rock from Coleman Beach.

I’ve been especially curious about how the water moves around Morro Rock ever since my trip to SF for the Open Water Safety Conference. I had a conversation with somebody that wants to swim around it and since then I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to go about that without, you know, dying. So I guess this was more of a recon mission than a walk, or at least it sounds way cooler that way :)

Walking down the path to the Rock itself the signage wasn’t too promising… we started with one that warns boaters that the harbor mouth can be impressively dangerous followed by one right up against the rock that proclaims wading and swimming to be unsafe. Obviously they’re not talking about me though… that sign must be for other people, haha

Once I walked out as far as I could without feeling like I was going to get arrested for being on the rock proper (climbing on the rock itself is strictly prohibited), I looked out to sea and watched the water hit the jetty. The waves were bursting up over the top of it on a pretty regular basis. I was picturing myself getting tossed on the rocks, ouch. If I ever go about this it will be very very very carefully. It’s only a 3-3500m swim depending on where you stop/start, but very conditionally gnarly.

I talked to some local paddlers about it, and pretty much everybody thinks I’m kidding when I first explain the idea. Once I convince them I would totally do it though they had plenty of advice. The idea of a  swimmer out there stresses them out because it’s cold, rough, rocky and supposedly sharky… they feel uneasy doing it on paddleboards even. I’m going to let this idea keep stewing, but I think it’s definitely on the to do list it’s just going to take a lot of planning and the right day for it to be done in a fun and safe manner.

When I got back to Coleman Beach the Central Coast Stand Up guys were still up on the path above the beach waiting for the lifeguard trainees to clear out. They had to do their 500m ocean swim that morning and were using the same spot we were about to. If I had known that was going to be going on I would have come back sooner and tried to crash their swim :) I’ve never swam in Morro Bay… I’ve fallen in it, but never swam on purpose.

Eventually we got to take over the beach and get some stand up boards out on the water. I had one in particular that I wanted to get some time on and made sure to hurry up and hop on it before someone else did. Just like the last time I went to a demo day the guys from Angulo were there and brought a DAWG which is a big wide 12 foot board that’s really stable and tracks pretty well. It’s set up for bigger dudes plus some gear so you could take it fishing and do stuff like that with it. I think it would be a rad platform for teaching ocean swim lessons from. I have to settle up with the tax man and get a few other big expenses out of my way first, but I think I’m going to buy one of those pretty soon… unless somebody wants to sponsor me and send me free boards… eh? anybody? :p

After I got some time in on the board I want to buy I perused a few other boards for fun. I rode a board made more for surfing that was way too tippy for me. I could see where it’d be awesome in the surf, it was super easy to turn, but that’s not where I’m going with an SUP. I also rode the Angulo Shaka, that board is pretty awesome. I rode it once before and totally dig it… it’s not right for what I need a board right now for, but if I had the money just laying around I’d have one of those too… time to start buying lotto tickets I guess :)

When I was all SUP Demo-ed out I ran over to San Luis Obispo to hit the surf shop. In anticipation of getting a big board of some sort I’ve been outfitting my truck to carry something 12 feet-ish. I put a new adjustable Thule rack on it last week but I still needed some pads for the rack and tie down straps. I think I’m ready now… all I need is the actual board and I’m set! Soon soon soon… I hope!

I’m really stoked that Matt over at Central Coast Stand Up puts these events on. They’re great for people like me that are in the market and need help figuring out what they want. It’s also cool because it lets people try the sport out for free and get some help from experts. There was a family that came out to try boards who had never SUPed before. Matt got them started on land but followed them out into the water a little ways. Andy from Angulo spent some time out there as well helping them get their bearings and learn to ride. It was fun to watch them have fun, I think this sport is going to keep blowing up because you can do it anywhere with enough water to float a board. I think these may also be the next big thing in open water safety craft. It gives you a great vantage point over the swimmers, and something you could actually land one on if you had to.

I just got wind of this today from a Monterey Kelp Krawler friend… how rad would that be? San Luis Obispo county would be an awesome spot for an Ironman Triathlon. We have Avila Beach as the perfect swim arena for a 2.4 mile swim, they could do “the Martini” to get the distance in with one loop. The cycling here is world class and epically beautiful, and if you’re going to run a Marathon it might as well be along the coast with sea air and an ocean view!

The article from Cal Coast News alludes to a swim from Avila to Pismo, but that’s probably a major misunderstanding seeing as that’s closer to 7 miles than 2.4. Also a full Ironman worth of swimmers along that Shell Beach coastline would be a safety and logistical nightmare. It sounds like they need to call me, I might know a thing or two about this particular piece of ocean :) If Ironman needs an Avila Beach Swim Consultant I’m totally the guy!

You can read the whole article here, and if they do pick SLO for Ironman you can pre-swim the course with Rob Aquatics! Starting in May I’ll be doing open water classes and small group swims out of Avila Beach… expect a full announcement later, but this seemed like a good time to at least give it a quick mention :)

My trip to Santa Maria was dual purposed today… I needed to squeeze in a swim and a trip to Target and get back to work on time. Normally I wouldn’t break up a swim just for that, but there were some things I really needed to get for the house like yesterday and I really didn’t want to drive all the way down there twice in one day (it’s 25ish miles each way).

Once I hit the pool I proceeded to slack a little bit and talk on deck while soaking in some sunshine, it was really nice out today. I brought my swimsense along with me again today and dove in with it to start my warm up. 25 yards into it I realized it was on the wrong wrist (you program which wrist you’re going to wear it on) so I swapped it over to the other one then got back on with my swim.

After the warm up I decided to do my own thing today. Normally I wouldn’t just detach from the workout like that, but I needed to just swim for a while with no breaks. Mike is going to nationals so he’s on a bit of a mission right now, no slacking and minimal shit talking between sets that are really fast… that’s not where I was at today at all. Instead I swam for a little less than 20 minutes which according to my swimsense watch was 1250 yards. Wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire today, but it’s exactly what I needed to do right now.

Once we hit about the half way point I bounced out of the pool and ran off to do my errands. Tomorrow I’ll be back in oceanic action with an Avila Beach swim, and if there’s waves maybe I’ll drag out my board and mess around in the surf for a while too :)

My friend Dani is a genius. Somewhere around October we went boogie boarding as a cool down for a 10 mile swim I did and a major race she had done… the desire was there to turn it into a regular thing but not too long later we lost the sunshine after work and had to give it up. For spring she worked in boogie boarding as her Monday night workout as opposed to all the biking, trail running and ironmanning she’s usually up to (she did a half ironman yesterday!). We’ve gone out to the ocean the last two weeks on Monday and I think we’re going stick to this for as long as we have the daylight to do it.

We hit the water around 6 and didn’t get out until after 7, it was great. The waves were meh but it’s hard to not have fun bouncing around in the ocean after a long day at work. I figure instead of writing a bunch I’d just share some pictures and a short video from the end of my board on a quick 10 second ride towards the beach!

**did I mention I’m just kidding? I don’t eat anything out of the ocean… strikes me as a karmically ill advised maneuver for an ocean swimmer :)