Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Wednesday July 26th, 2010


It was a beautiful night in Avila and the ocean was nice and lively. You could see the occasional whitecap from up on the beach and there was plenty of chop out there waiting for us. We didn't have an official water temperature reading tonight but the consensus was cold... probably 56ish




We were 5 swimmers deep tonight and we all took the same route. We did the triangle around the pier in the clockwise direction. The leg from the end of the left side of the buoy line to the top of the pier was straight into the chop and pretty burly.


If anybody has and interest in swimming an open water race there's some good ones coming up the next couple weeks around California. On Saturday we've got the Santa Cruz Rough Water, it's approximately 1 mile and very popular. You can register on the beach but make sure you're early, there was quite a line last year for same day registration. On August 15th is the Naples Island Swim down in Long Beach which features 1 and 3 mile swims. I'll be at both of them, if you want to go or have questions let me know! (you can catch me at rob@robaquatics.com)

Rob D.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Sunday, July25, 2010

Avila had a high layer of solid gray clouds at 10:15. Not really fog because I could see the sand slide at the very south end of the Pismo dunes, but there was no sun and no wind of any kind. It was not very cold, 60+, but gloomy. Actually, it was perfect weather for the San Luis Obispo Triathlon. I had a 7:30 start time and it was nice and cool from start to finish and almost spitting on part of the bike. The lack of wind at Avila made the swimming conditions in the ocean better than in the pool at the race. The water was 57 and glassy with just little ripples or wavelets on the surface. You could water ski out there. I wanted to do the buoy line easy and work the soreness out, which was fine for Duke and Eric. Rob and Sylvia were at a long course meet in Fullerton. Everyone else might of been at the Triathlon. We had a very nice swim. I felt better at the end than at the start.
The sun came out at 12:45 and it warmed up a lot.
I will not be swimming this Wednesday evening. I'll be at the Fair having my annual immersion in heat, country music, pig races, funnel cakes and corn dogs. I should plan some extra long workouts for the remainder of the week to aid my post-fair recovery.
I'll be back at the beach next Sunday.

niel

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Wednesday Evening, July 21. 2010

It was sunny, crowded and breezy at Avila at 5 PM. The wind was the 'traditional' Avila afternoon breeze from the NW. The chop was under 1' with not much white capping but certainly more than anything you would ever experience in a pool, offering an opportunity for a real ocean swim. The water was clean and 58 degrees. I saw no seals and hardly any shore birds before we swam. This evening we had Samantha, Bob, Ryan, Eric, Niel and Rob. We went in on the west side of the pier to best avoid the fishing lines that were trailing way off of the east side of the pier with the wind. We swam down the buoy line to the creek and grouped up to decide how we felt about the conditions and to plan the rest of the swim. Samantha chose to stay along the buoy line. The rest of the group elected to do the 'traditional' (or habitual) triangle swim. The leg to the end of the Avila Pier was across the chop. From there to the last buoy to the east of the pier we had a nice push and the leg home was into the chop. This was a great opportunity for me to make use of breathing on either side, choosing whichever worked better for that leg, and to remember to keep my head down. When it gets choppy I tend to want to lift my head up when I breath, instinctively thinking that I will be more likely to get a liquid free breath, but it actually works better to stay relaxed, keep my head down and just breath into the pocket of air at my shoulder on whichever side works better. We picked up Sam on the leg back to the pier and saw three seals nearby. The swim took us about 40 minutes and felt great.
Sunday Rob and Sylvia will be at a Masters long course meet in Fullerton. I am doing the SLO Triathlon. I should be at the beach in time to swim at 11 but if I am last I'll catch up in the water.

niel

Monday, July 19, 2010

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Weather you chose to call it high fog or low clouds, it was very gray at Avila Sunday morning. The clouds were high enough for the visibility to be unobstructed, I could see bird rock off of Shell Beach, so the gray was going to be more of a mood thing than actually interfering with our ability to swim. There was very little wind and just enough of a ripple on the water to keep it from being glassy. Two foot surf, a water temperature of 59 and no sea birds or seals in sight. There was a lot of loose kelp in the water. Samantha from the Central Coast Tri Club was here with two new ocean swimmers. She worked with them along the buoy line, helping them get comfortable in this big pool. Our group was Sylvia, Niel, Peter, Duke, Dale, Rick and Eric. Big Steve is watching our stuff and requiring his toe test skills. There was some boat traffic around so we did not stray too far from the area around the Avila pier. We swam the buoy line clockwise, out to the end of the Avila Pier, to the buoy at the creek and back along the buoys to the pier. The warmer water temperature sure takes the edge off that that comes with 55 degrees and under and makes it very comfortable to be out in the water.
Rob was in Indiana this past weekend and completed his first 10K swim in the Morse Reservoir in Noblesville, Ind. With a water temperature in the mid 80's and an air temperature in the 90's I think that this swim should count as a double. You can check out his post about the race at robaquatics.com. The additional effort required to compete in water that warm with that much sun on your back makes dehydration (while swimming!) a real issue. Rob, you need to get some of your competitors from the mid west and Atlantic states out here for some miles in water that is a good 25 degrees colder. It would even up the odd for you.

niel

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Wednesday Evening, July 14, 2010

It was beautiful at Avila this evening. It was sunny and warm and there were more people on the beach and in the water at 5 PM than I usually see on a Sunday at noon. Part of the reason must of been a water temperature of 63! Whoah, this was unexpected. The wind was offshore, blowing from left to right, which usually pushes the water temperature down, but for some unknown and welcome reason had not yet had its usual effect. The wind was steady and strong enough to put up a mild chop but other than that the swimming conditions looked wonderful. I saw only one lonely pelican and no seals before we got in. It was David, a triathlete and strong swimmer who I last saw here a couple of weeks ago, Rob and myself. We decided to do something just a little different. We swam directly out to the end of the Avila Pier and from there over to the second set of crossbars on the Poly Pier, where a couple of harbor seals popped up to check us out. From there we swam to the last buoy at the creek and then along the buoy line, under the Avila Pier and back in to our starting place on the beach. There were some spots with big changes in water temperature and at the buoy at the creek you could feel the much colder water 3 feet below the surface. Near the end of the Avila Pier I was thinking that my wetsuit with sleeves was too warm. The swim took us 40 minutes.

niel

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Sunday, July 11, 2010

At 11 o'clock we had low gray sky's, no wind, no chop, no swell and small waves. Not too many people on the beach on this non-holiday weekend. The water temperature was 57 and I saw one seal in the surf while I was taking the temperature. Not many sea birds around but there were a good number of optimistic fishermen on the pier. It was couples day at Avila. We had Big Steve and Nan, Niel and Kris, Duke and Angela, Al and Dale and Rick Marina and Sylvia. Rick, Niel, Duke and Dale swam the triangle/buoy line counter clockwise, swinging by the end of the pier, for about a mile in give or take 30 minutes. We had beautiful swimming conditions; flat water with no current. The sun came out as we were finishing up. By 12:30 the wind was coming up and I think that there were going to be whitecaps on the water by 1.
The next swim will be Wednesday evening at 5:30.

niel

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Wednesday Evening, July 7, 2010


Avila was sunny and fog free at 5 PM. There were still quite a few people on the beach and in the water, which is always a good sign. The water temperature was 57.5 with good visibility. There was a steady wind from the west and a chop on the water that was just short of white capping that extended all of the way in to the surf line. There were quite a few fishermen on the pier, a few small groups of pelicans in the air and one seal playing in the surf. We had four swimmers; Rob, Pete, Joel and Niel. We did the triangle counterclockwise, starting on the right side of the pier to avoid the fishing lines that were streaming downwind on the left side of the pier. I thought that the water temperature was comfortable (in my full wetsuit) and the chop was enough to make me mindful of my head position but not to the point of upping my seawater intake. Nobody was interested in pushing it so we just had a nice swim.
Rob is competing in a 2 mile race in a lake in Virginia this weekend and he has reports that the hot weather may push the water temperature into the upper 80's or even higher! Does Blue 70 make a cool suit?

niel




Sunday, July 4, 2010

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Kind of an odd day at Avila but a nice day for swimming and eating. It was gray over the beach at Avila and sunny a quarter of a mile inland and over at Pismo. What wind there was had changed from its typical summer direction of out of the NW and was coming from the west and southwest, holding the fog over Avila. With the fog it was very calm, with no chop and no sign of the 'big' southern swell that had been predicted. The water temperature was 57, the water had good visibility. There were numerous fishermen on the pier and seals and a nice pod of dolphins along the buoy line. On the beach we had Sylvia, Niel and Kris, Rob, Chad, Dale and Al, Dave Van Mouwerik, Rick and Rhonda Marina and Pete. We had 8 swimmers. Nobody was feeling like hammering it so we swam both sides of the the buoy line in about 30 minutes and headed for our pot luck lunch on the beach. The fair ranged from shrimp through broccoli salad to homemade apple pie with vanilla ice cream. We probably should of stayed in the water longer.

Rob and I will be swimming Wednesday at 5:30.

niel