This was the first Wednesday evening swim of 2012 with John, Rob and Niel getting the water. The water temperature was a more typical 54.5, sort of, but more on that later. There was no wind and the water was clean but there was a strong current running parallel to the shore from west to east. There were sets with 5 to 6 foot faces separated by smaller waves so getting out was going to take some timing. With the recent rain and concerns about water quality none of us had been in the water in a while. Rob was feeling a bit out of practice at getting acclimated to the cold and was not sure how long it would take him to get his chill going or how long he wanted to stay in, so we planned a shortish swim and he started wading in while John and I were still getting suited up. John and I waded in and waited for a break in the surf. The large surf hurried up Rob's getting wet and we all arrived at the buoy line at the same time. It was low tide and with the surge from the surf this was not a day to swim under the pier so we were going to stay on the east side of the pier. We swan directly out to the end of the pier and then towards the last buoy on the east side. As I was swimming out I was thinking how much more comfortable 54.5 degrees was than the 50 to 52 we had been swimming in since December. It was cold but my face and feet didn't feel frozen and I didn't have an ice cream headache. Then about 100M before the end of the pier the water temperature took a 2 to 3 degree drop. When we grouped up at the end of the pier a 'wow' was about all anybody said before we got moving. The big swell meant that we had to use a landmark on the cliff to keep our line to the buoy. The swim back along the line to the pier required some extra work to push into the current. Getting in to the beach was also a matter of timing. We had moved inside of the buoy line to wait out the large sets with John about 40M farther in then Rob and I. I thought that the sets were laying down when two jumbo sized waves rolled in. Rob and I swam out to get out of the break zone while John had to go under and hug the bottom. That turned out to be the thrill of the evening. We had an easy swim in in the lull that followed. After all of the flat water we have had since December this was the most real ocean swimming experience for us in months.
This was a short swim but with the conditions we were in the water for 29 minutes.
There might be some rain of Saturday so watch Rob's blog or the Central Coast Open Water Google Group for a final decision on Sunday's swim.
Rob has Friday's off for a while so if anyone wants to get in a TGIF swim he's your buddy.
niel
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