Sunday, April 4, 2011

Today's water conditions were not like anything I have ever seen at Avila. The overcast was burning off, there was no wind, the water temperature was 55.5 and the ocean was a complete mess. There was a mix of small and large waves. The surface was not choppy but underlying the waves was a steady series of small swells out of the SW, one foot or so high and spaced about 6' apart, which created a very messy surface to swim in. A lot of water was getting pushed up onto the beach which caused numerous runouts and rips which was combining with a strong eastward current along the shore. A couple of times the competing currents formed rotating whirlpools out by the buoy line! Today's swimmers were Duke, Susan, Sylvia, Niel and Chad. We elected to go out and start along the buoy line and see how things went. Sylvia swam the left side of the buoy line down to the point and back. The rest of us started in the same direction but turned around at the end of the sea wall and swam back to the first buoy. From there we headed out to the end of the pier and turned around and came back along the length of the pier to the beach. Back and forth along the buoy line was across the direction of the small waves and was messy swimming. The legs out and back along the pier were mostly into or with the waves which was harder then easier, but easier swimming. The water today was the same temperature as last Wednesday evening but felt considerably warmer to me. Our total time in the water was 32 minutes.

niel