Monday, May 30. 2011

Rob and I got in a swim today. The conditions were much more favorable than yesterday. The wind was back to a normal summer pattern, with only a very light variable breeze at 10:30 and flat water. The water temperature was 50.5. Ouch! I wasn't sure if the lack of strong winds today would make the water feel any 'warmer' than yesterday's 51 but we had flat water and sunshine. We decided to do a modified triangle route. We started down at the creek and swam to the end of the Avila Pier, then to the last buoy on the east side of the pier and back along the buoy line to the pier and in. We were in the the water for 24 minutes and covered about 1400M. It was nice and warm on the beach afterwards with the breeze picking up between 12 and 1 PM.

We will be swimming again on Wednesday at 5:30.

niel

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In other news... I'm working on putting together a night swim on Saturday June 4th for my birthday. The plan is to get in around 9pm and swim maybe a mile depending on who is there and the conditions. I have 2 confirmed out of towners (from orange county and santa cruz) and possibly a few more. If you want to come out and swim let me know via email at rob@robaquatics.com and I'll make sure to keep you up to date on whatever the latest news is! As a side note... I'm also looking for people willing to paddle in a kayak or on a surfboard to help corral swimmers and keep track of everybody.

thanks!

Rob D.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Our long swim did not happen today as planned. The wind was stiff enough that Chad decided that it was not prudent to take out their boat and I agreed. Today's winds were predicted to gust to 40mph, which didn't sound like a good day do our planned route which would have taken us 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile off shore. At 10:30 I went out on the pier to take the temperature. The water was already white capped half way inside the length of the pier and there were occasional sets of 3' - 4' waves. The water temperature was 51. I saw a couple of seals out by the buoy line, the first of this season. Niel, Chad and Damion were decided to get in and do a swim close to the beach. We got in down at the creek and swam down wind parallel to the shore, under the pier and along the beach on the east side of the pier to the end of the seawall. We turned back and swam to and under the pier again and to the first buoy on the west side. At that point we turned in. We were in the water for 23 minutes. I was still feeling OK but my hands and feet were numb and I just wanted to get dry. Thanks to Damion's father for volunteering to kayak today.

niel

Wednesday Evening, May 25, 2011

Swimming tonight were Rob, Niel, Ryan, John and Damion. John is from Palm Springs and swims with us when he is in town. Damion lives in Shell Beach and wants to resharpen his open water skills. The water temperature was 55 and it was blowing hard from the SW. The wind was pushing wind waves that were 1'+, about 10' apart and just starting to break. It looked like real open water swimming conditions! We decided to do the traditional triangle route counter-clockwise. We went in on the west side of the pier and grouped up at the buoy. The swim down to the creek was an adventure in different stroke and breathing variations, trying to find which combination worked best. At the creek everyone was up for more so we headed to the end of the Avila Pier. The direction of this leg was perpendicular to the wind and had us swimming parallel with the faces of the waves. The third leg to the last buoy on the east side of the pier was downwind, and the one where I swallowed the most water. Something about having the waves pick me up from behind made it hard to get in sync. The last leg back towards the pier was the easiest. We were headed into the wind but in the shadow of the pier. The chop is reduced by having to pass through the pilings so the water got flatter the closer we were to the pier. Rob measured 1600M and I had a total time in the water of 35 minutes.

Sunday, the 29th, we will swim long, to the Fossil Point rock or the end of the Poly Pier, 1.5 or 1.4 miles, if the wind lays down Saturday night as predicted and we have a support kayak. If the conditions are not favorable or we do not have support we will work out something appropriate closer to shore. The swim starts at 11 and there will be a pot luck lunch after the swim.

Monday, Memorial Day, I want to go longer and do a lap of the Martini Swim which is 2.4 miles. This is dependent on Rob returning form Long Beach on Sunday afternoon with his kayak. If we do not have a bot or it is too blown out, again, we'll figure out something. It is BYOlunch on Monday.

niel

Sunday, May 22, 2011

When I got to Avila at it was still and sunny. The water looked really clear, the tops of the waves were a nice transparent green. I got a water temperature of 55. There were three jet skis playing in the surf down at the far end of the beach near Fossil Point. Sylvia and Yvonne were out along the left side of the buoy line and turning towards the end of the pier. When I got back to our stuff on the beach the jet skis were leaving and heading back towards the port. The two stand up skis took off at high speed and it looked like they came within 100M or less of Sylvia and Yvonne who were on their way to the end of the Avila Pier. That was clearly a violation of the required distance that a powered craft must maintain for a swimmer, anywhere in the water. Next a fishing boat pulled up towards the the end of the pier and moved over to the moorings on the west side. Yvonne said that this boat, though moving slowly, cam closer than comfortable. This was before 11, when the lifeguards man the towers so I do not know if any of these operators was cautioned by the Harbor Patrol. Duke, Chad and I decided to do about a mile along the buoy line, for no other reason than we had not do a swim that was all parallel to the beach in a long time. We went out, turned left and swam to the end of the sea wall to approximatively where the last buoy used to be. While we were regroup we agreed that it today's conditions were superb, it was flat, the water was clean and even warmish. We agreed to do the next leg to the creek without stopping. As we emerged from under the pier onto the west side we were surprised by a reasonable chop coming straight at us. As we continued towards the creek the chop kept building up until it was really pushing me around. When we stopped at the west end of our route the surface was whitecapped and there was a strong breeze blowing. We road the chop back to our starting point and came in. This swim was about a mile in 31 minutes in the water. The wind was now blowing sand down the beach so we hurried to shower off and get dry. By the time we had settled down in our chairs the water was whitecapped into the surf line on the east side of the pier. About 12:30 Duke reluctantly left for his scheduled 40 mile ride and Chad faced a run to the port and back. I didn't have anything else planned today so Sylvia and I visited until Chad returned.

There will be a potluck lunch after next Sunday's swim so bring something to share. Swimmers and guests are welcome. The route of Sundays' swim will be determined on the beach. If we have kayak support I'd like to go longer and more offshore; to the rock off of Fossil Point (1.5 miles), or to the end of the Poly Pier and back (1.4 miles). If we do not have support or the conditions are not favorable, the group will make something else up.

niel

Wednesday Evening, May 18, 2011

Niel, Rob and Ryan swam tonight. It had been very windy all day but Avila Beach was showing off when I got there at 5. There was only a light offshore breeze that would gust occasionally but this turned out to be its dieing gasps. This water was 55 degrees, clear and had only a rippled surface. We swam the 'classic' triangle route; Out on the left side of the pier, left to the last buoy of the line, turn right to the top of the Avila Pier, from there to the mouth of the creek at the end of the beach on the right side of the pier and back parallel to the beach, under the pier to our starting point and in. Rob measured this excursion as 1500 M. With all of the time we had spent visiting at the turning points we were in the water for 32 minutes. When we got out the wind had died completely and left us with a beautiful still evening at the beach with the sun setting into a big bank of fog that was pushing up against the hills behind the port. Pretty nice!

niel

Sunday, Mat 15, 2011

Rob, Niel and Chad. swam today. The water temperature was 54. The rain showers we had Saturday night were not enough to muddy the water. There was a steady wind from the south and wind waves from the SSW. There wasn't much surf but the wind waves were 1' to 2' with an occasional 3 footer and not breaking. The waves were only 3 seconds apart. The swimming conditions didn't look too challenging when we got in, without whitecaps it didn't look too bumpy. We made up this swim as we went along. We swam out to the end of the Avila Pier, then to the phantom buoy at the creek, doubled back along our route to the end of the pier and swam to the last buoy on the east side at the start of the sea wall. We came back along the buoy line towards the pier, angeling in early to avoid the lines of the fishermen on the pier. This swim turned out to be mush rougher than we expected. On the first leg on our way out to the end of the pier it seemed like I never got out of the surf line. Swimming in the wind waves was just like working through the surf. It wasn't like swimming through a chop. The waves were big enough to really push you around and they would break over your head. It was easy to swallow a lot of sea water. Each leg was different but they were all a lot of work. We were in for 41 minutes. This swim was just over a mile.

niel

Wednesday Evening, May 11, 2011

It had been windy all day Wednesdayand there was still a strong breeze blowing at Avila Beach at 5 PM. The wind was blowing from right to left, almost parallel to the beach, and the resulting chop was starting to break into whitecaps. I got a temperature of 55, which seemed odd as the station over at the port had been reading 50 - 51 all day. I wondered if the steady west wind was pushing warmer water from the creek, which is at the far western end of the beach, towards the pier. We'd find out soon. Rob and Ryan were here so we would be a threesome this evening. We decided to go out on the west (windward) side of the pier and swim the phantom buoy line to the creek, turn to the end of the Avila Pier and then swim to the second, and last, buoy on the east side before returning to the pier. It felt colder than 55 getting in. There are 'wind aided' times in track so I think there should be 'wind deducted' water temperatures for ocean swimming. This applies especially when I look over at Rob, getting in with wearing just his shorts and a single cap. The leg down to the creek was almost directly into the chop. I quickly stopped thinking about the water temperature and focused on timing my stroke, breathing and keeping a strong pull against the steady slap of the chop that was breaking into my head. We regrouped near the mouth of the creek and headed towards the end of the pier. I was feeling comfortable with the water temperature at this point so 55 seemed reasonable. This leg was across the direction of the wind. I was getting bent every which way by the waves and it felt like I was getting a full body massage. We grouped up at the end of the pier and started for the last buoy on the east side of the pier. Just after we started on this leg the water temperature dropped a couple of degrees, so my idea bout the water from the creek was right. The wind was behind us on the third leg and I occasionally got picked up and surfed down a small face. There were several fishermen on the pier near the surfline so instead of swimming parallel to the beach towards the pier and turning in to the beach we decided to angle from the buoy directly to the beach opposite our stuff and not risk getting near the lines trailing out from the pier.

We swam just about a mile and were in the water for 31 minutes.

niel

Sunday, May 8. 2011

Today Avila was back to more normal conditions. It was crowded for Mother's Day, windy and the water was 54 degrees. The wind was out of the SW and was not steady. but when it kicked up it was really messing up the surface with a breaking chop. Sylvia, Yvonne and Rob had gone out early for a loop around the pier. They were just coming in when I went out to check the water temperature. When we met up on the beach they reported that it had been really rough off of the end of the pier and generally rougher swimming conditions on the west (windy) side of the pier. We took that in mind when we planned the 11 o'clock swim. Rob was going to go again with the three of us; Susan James, Niel and Ryan. We decided to start out along the east side of the pier and to swim to the end. then to swim to Fossil Point and then return to our starting point by swimming parallel to the beach along the buoy line. The leg towards Fossil Point would be with the wind and chop at our backs. The last leg would have the chop coming towards us at a 45 degree angle from the left but it should moderate as we came closet to the pier. Rob had said that it has felt colder than the 54 degrees that I had measured but we figured that the combination of the wind and the partial cloud cover would make it feel colder. Getting in it sure felt colder to me. We regrouped at the end of the pier and made sure that Susan and Ryan knew where we were headed to so no one would overshoot the point and wind up at Pirate's Cove. This leg was the longest and the most fun. A few times the chop would combine enough for me to get picked up and get a bit of a ride down a face. The leg back to the pier was just a slog. It was a matter of finding a rhythm that worked with the period of the chop that would allow you to keep a good stroke and not swallow to much water. We finished up and everyone felt like they had done a real ocean swim and accomplished something. The swim was 1.4 miles and took 40 minutes.

Rob, Ryan and I will be swimming Wednesday evening at 5:30 if anyone wants to join us.

niel

Wednesday Evening, May 4, 2011

It's All in the Top 18"! That was the story of Wednesday nights swim. Springtime is when the water at Avila gets coldest and the last 10 days it has been 51 or 52 with the cold spots certainly in the high 40's. Starting on Monday of this week we had offshore winds and unseasonably high temperatures and at 5 PM on Wednesday the air temperature at Avila Beach was 85+. I did not know what to expect for a water temperature and I had to read the thermometer three times to be sure that it was really reading an even 60 degrees. There was a very light breeze that was just able to ripple the surface and no visible current. The waves were small to tiny and the water looked very green. Rob and I decided to swim out parallel to the Avila Pier to its' end, then diagonally to Fossil Point and back parallel to the beach to our starting point. This would be a long mile. Getting in felt great but occasionally a wave would stir up the water just right and I'd feel a shot of very cold water well up around me. When we regrouped at the end of the pier it was clear to both of us that the warm water was limited to an 18 inched thick layer on the surface. Below that it was still frigid. The solution was to get to swimming and keep your feet up out of the chill zone. I was in front and when we stopped at the point Rob mentioned that he had tried drafting in my bubbles but had had to give it up as my kick was stirring up the water and it was really cold following my feet. With the glare from the setting sun right in our line coming back parallel to the beach was sort of Braille swimming. I navigated by sighting on a hotel on a hill to the right of our course and stayed straight enough to just miss running into one of the buoys. The water near the surf line felt so comfortable that neither of us wanted to get out so we played in what waves there were until a long lull. Rob's friend Dani joined us. She had taken advantage of the weather to pass on her bike ride and come to Avila for some boogie boarding, a very wise decision on such a hot and beautiful day. Sunday is supposed to see a return of our overnight fog and 70 degree temperatures so I do not expect to see a 60 degree water temperature again for a while.

niel

Sunday, May 1, 2011

It was beautiful at Avila Beach this morning; sunny and warm with a very slight offshore breeze. The water was flat with no current and almost no waves. The only thing to keep it form being absolutely perfect was the temperature, which at 51 was a balmy 2 degrees higher than what was being reported by the tide and temp station a couple of miles to the west at the port. The beach closure that was posted Friday had been lifted, with a cryptic note on the County's Beach Health Advisory website that stated that upon testing, the bacteria count in the 'spill' that had caused the closure was found to be within state standards. When I walked out on the pier to take the temperature I saw Sylvia and Yvonne swimming in along the length of the pier on the west side. They had gone out the west side of the buoy line and were finishing up along the pier. Swimming at 11 were Chad, Duke, Pete, Jerry Gross and myself. Before we got in Alan Freeman came by for a visit. Alan has been living in Hawaii for many years but used to live in San Luis Obispo and was an original member of the Avila Dolphins. Before abandoning the central coast for endless warm water he completed many cold water individual and relay races (no wetsuit) including a solo Catalina Channel Crossing. With his normal water temperature running 20 to 30 degrees higher than todays temperature he rightly elected to stay on the beach, visit and enjoy the beautiful weather. We decided to swim on the east side of the pier and swim parallel to the beach all of the way to Fossil Point and back. Getting in didn't feel too uncomfortable until I put my hands in the water and they seemed to pop right back out all on there own! I had to work at keeping them in the water and when I started swimming the water on my face was 'bracing'. I was wearing a full 3mm wetsuit, a neoprene cap and earplugs and wanted it all. By the time we got in the wind had begun to pick up a bit and 3/4 of the way to the point we started to swim through some chop. As we swam past the little reef that is near the point I was just getting numb enough to get 'comfortable' when the surge over the reef pushed some water up from the bottom and dropped the water temperature several more degrees. Ouch! We grouped up at the point, trying to keep our feet high in the water and started back to the pier. Once we got back and regrouped we headed in. We were in for 28 minutes, which made this swim just under a mile. My hands and feet never did stop feeling cold. The sand was warm and felt great walking up the beach. The showers felt unusually warm too. By 12:30 it was getting hot on the beach so we each soaked it up until we had to leave.

niel