Sunday, January 23. 2011

Avila was sunny and warm with big surf today. There were a lot of people enjoying the beach and about a dozen surfers or boogie boarders in the water. Being Avila, the quality of the waves was poor, but this wasn't keeping people from trying to get rides. The water temperature was 54 and the water was cloudy from the wave action. While I was taking the temperature the surge from the swells was moving the thermometer back and forth 20' to either side of me and would of taken it a lot farther if I had let more line out. High tide was at 11:37 and there were occasional sets of 6'+ waves while we were getting ready to get in. There was only a slight offshore breeze so there was very little chop, once we got outside of the surf zone the swimming conditions would be very favorable. Swimming today were Niel. Sylvia, Pete and Kim. Rob and his camera were in LA this weekend so we not only missed him but we don't have any pictures of today's swim. The swim plan was to get out through the waves and meet up at the first buoy, at which point we would decide on our route. We got split up by the timing of the sets so Pete and I waited out at the first buoy for Kim and Sylvia. I was lucky in my timing; after diving under two breaking waves I was able to swim up the face and through the lip of the next three and get out past the break. We decided to do the triangle route clockwise in stages, as Sylvia and Kim were not sure how long they were going to want to stay in. We went down the buoy line to the left to the big rock at the end of the sea wall, regrouped and turned towards the end of the Avila pier. Sylvia and Kim decided to go in along the pier while Pete and I decided to angle towards the end of buoy line at the creek and come back in along the buoys to the pier and in. With the surge from the waves nobody was going to swim under the pier today. The water on this side of the pier was several degrees colder. Again, Pete and I were lucky in our timing and we turned in to the beach just as a big set was rolling through. This allowed us to swim steadily in behind the big waves and have an easy time of getting into the beach. Getting in and out and keeping everyone together took some extra time today. I was in the water for over 50 minutes which is a long time to cover the mile or so of today's swim, but sometimes an ocean swim has a different concept of distance.

niel