Sunday, April 8. 2012

I gott'a be careful what I say.
Rob and I are out on the pier waiting to pull up my thermometer when I hear myself saying 'Today's swim should be great. It can't be any colder than last Wednesday', (when it was 49 degrees). Well, the number was a weak 48 degrees. I was unwilling to call a 47 and a fraction. Rob and I both let out a long Ohhhhh which ended with thoughts of what this swim was going to be like. On the bright side it was beautiful at Avila today; sunny with just a slight breeze, nice clear water and small surf. We had a big crowd as well and some new guests. The regulars were Rob, Niel, Sylvia, Yvonne, Duke, Susan James, Amy and her brother Bo. Bo was visiting from Santa Monica and has jumped in with us before. New to swimming at Avila were Alicia and Tim. Tim is from Australia, he is an accomplished triathlete and is here with his family for 6 months. Alicia is a Poly grad who enjoys open water swimming but had not been swimming at Avila before. 48 degrees is the lowest water temperature that I know of at Avila so they had picked quite a day to try this out. Sylvia has not been in the water much lately and decided to sit out. Yvonne got in early on her own with the stated intent of just going to the first buoy and then getting out. At the first buoy she turned left and continued down to the second buoy before heading back and got a round of applause by the rest of us. We were a bit scattered getting in with everyone but Tim grouping up at the first buoy. All of Tim's previous ocean swimming experience has been in Australia in 70 degree water and he made a smart decision to bail on this swim rather than risk getting too cold. We grouped up at the last buoy and headed to the end of the line towards Fossil Point. The route meeting at the last buoy was a short one as no one wanted to tread water for long. Rob and Alicia headed back along the buoy line and the rest of us went to the end of the pier. When we counted heads there no one voted for going longer so we came in along the pier to the shore. We were in for 28 minutes. Today was just about my limit in two ways; I've never been in water that was colder and, like on last Wednesday, I was starting to get chilled on the last leg of the swim. If the temperature drops any more I'll probably sit it out.
We will be back Wednesday evening, getting in at 5:30. I'm sure that it can't be any colder than today;s 48 degrees. :-)


Rob will post his pictures from today's, and all of our swims, on the Avila Beach Open Water
Facebook page.


niel