Sunday, February 27, 2011

It was sunny and surprisingly warm at Avila Beach today. There was a small but steady breeze out of the southwest that had put a small chop on the water. The water clarity looked OK, but was noticeably more silted up near the creek. Kris had come down to the beach with me and was walking along the shore and it was just Rob and I swimming. We decided to go in on the right side of the pier and do the triangle route counterclockwise. I measured a water temperature of 53.5 but I sure felt colder as we started to get in. I finally got started and Rob followed me out to the buoy line. We turned right and headed down the buoys to the creek. The chop was coming oner my right shoulder and was being kind of pesky. A ways past the third buoy the water get murky and I stopped. That is when I noticed that there was no longer a fourth buoy near the mouth of the creek. We decided to turn towards the end of the pier at that point. We were now headed almost perpendicular to the chop which was more changeling. Occasionally a larger wave would break right over my head. The swim from the end of the pier to the end of the sea wall was 'downhill', with the chop following behind us and the last leg along the buoys back to the pier was pretty easy. We were in the water for 30 minutes, entry to exit, and covered a mile. Since we have been swimming at 11 instead of 1PM the water conditions have been smoother and today was a nice challenge to relearn my bumpy water skills. After we got out Duke stopped by at the start of his bike ride to see how we were doing.

Rob will be at the CalTech pentathlon in Pasadena next Sunday but is interested if anyone wants to swim on Saturday. We also have a new swimmer who is interested in swimming on weekday mornings. You can post your interest on the Avila Swimming Facebook page or email Rob (rob@robaquatics.com).

niel

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Rob and I got to Avila early and picked up trash and other junk from the beach. On the east side of the pier I didn't find a lot of trash but I did pick up 8 patties of asphalt, a couple as big as a dinner plate. On the west side Rob found toys, shoes, sunglasses.

The weather was beautiful with big fleecy clouds and just a slight off shore breeze. The air was 55, the water 54. Rob and I discussed the probable cleanliness of the water for quite a while. The color of the water was hard to discern with all of the shadows from the clouds. With the recent rain we both had expected there to be a lot of silt from the creek in the water but it didn't look that bad. We decided that we would be cautious and pass on swimming today. The county does periodically test the water at Avila, but currently they sample on Wednesdays, so their information is not useful in determining if is safe to swim on Sunday.

Rob and I had a very long and relaxing lunch at the beach, long enough to see Duke and Angela pass by three times. By 1 the wind had come up and the water conditions had gone down the tubes. Rob and I tossed around the idea of moving some of our swims back to 1 PM so we would get to train in more changeling conditions. We both seem to pass more people as the water conditions get worse. Unless it is raining Rob and I will be back next Sunday.

niel

Sunday Swim and/or Beach Clean Up

I'm going to be on the beach Sunday morning (assuming it's not pouring rain) around 9:30am to do some beach clean up if anybody wants to join me! Bring gloves and closed toe shoes, I'll have bags and hand sanitizer if you need them. Email me if you want to come out or have questions: rob@robaquatics.com

It looks like the weather is going be ok on Sunday, but we're yet to see how much rain comes down on Saturday and what it might push into the ocean. Hopefully we can swim, but either way I want to go to the beach :)

Rob D.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

We got in a swim today before the weather turned to rain. It was in the mid 60's at Avila with thin high clouds and no wind. There was no current in the water and the surf was small. The water was 53.5. The water looked clean but was an odd color, either because of the cloud cover or possibly because of material churned up by a very low tide. Sylvia, Kim, Niel, Pete and Duke swam today. Niel, Pete and Duke did the buoy line/end of the pier triangle while Kim and Sylvia stuck to the buoy line. Sylvia goes without a wetsuit and Kim wears a farmer john so they spent less time in the water. I had not worn my neoprene cap or ear plugs in some time but today seemed like a good time to break them out, and they did make a big difference. I loaned my spare neoprene cap to Duke and could of done the same for Pete if I had had more. Except for the water temperature the swimming conditions were fabulous, really smooth and easy swimming.

niel

Sunday, February 6, 2011

We have had a lot of unseasonably nice Sundays so far this year and today was one more that made me consider calling my nephew in Boston from the beach, just to see what he was doing today. It was a very nice day for swimming today. It was cloudless with an air temperature in the low 70's and a water temperature of 55. The surf was 2 to 3 foot and there was just enough of a breeze to put a little ripple on the surface of the water. Today's group was Niel. Rob, Sylvia, Duke and Susan. Sylvia didn't feel like stretching out but the rest of us were interested in doing about a mile and a half. The solution was to do an extended buoy line swim, which would allow Sylvia to accompany us on a part of our route. The plan was to head out on the left side of the pier to the buoy line, turn left and follow the buoys to the end of the sea wall. Then to double back along the buoys, continue under the pier and on to the last buoy on the right of the pier at the creek. From there we would swim a leg at an angle over to the Cal Poly Pier and return back along our route to the buoy at the creek, along the buoy line, under the pier and in. I didn't get a chance to check with Rob about what his GPS unit said about our swim but our time in the water was about right for 1.5 miles.

The beach was a warm and comfortable spot for a post swim lunch, or in Duke's case, a nap.

niel