Rob, Niel, John and Ed had a 'real' ocean swim Wednesday evening. There has been strong winds all day with gusts up to 30 MPH that had the ocean's surface well churned up. The good news was that since the winds were offshore, the water close to the beach in Avila would not be as choppy as those farther out. The bad news was that the winds were offshore, which pushes down the water temperature. There were a few fishermen on the pier so we decided to swim on the right (windward) side of the pier and avoid any possible entanglement with fishing gear. The plan was to swim down the buoy line to the creek and then decide how much more we wanted to do. Even Rob, was unsure about how long he would want to stay in this evening. John, Ed and I got out faster than Rob. I have no idea how he even got in because the water on my unprotected skin hurt.
Rob had his GoPro camera on his wrist and got a bunch of fun photos.
We grouped up at the buoy line and headed towards the creek. The wind was angling off of the shore, blowing from Avila towards Pismo Beach, so we were crossing the chop on this first leg.
Rob at the buoy line reconsidering the wisdom of his no wetsuit philosophy.
At the creek we agreed to head to the end of the pier and to then come in to the beach along the pier. The leg to the end of the pier has the wind directly behind us so we got a nice push.
We grouped up at the end of the pier and everyone was ready to head in. This leg had the roughest conditions. I was switching between breathing on the right, left or alternating, before settling on alternating. The timing seemed to be the most in sync with the chop so I was breathing the least water. We got out 28 minutes after we started. Rob was the same color as his cap but he was smiling.
You can see all of his photos from last night's swim on his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/
The wind is supposed to be laying down so conditions on Sunday should be for flatter and warmer water.
niel
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