Sunday July 1, 2012

We had 16 swimmers today!  That is probably a record.  The conditions were wonderful; a light breeze from left to right, no surf higher than your knee and a water temperature of 59.  
Swimming today were; Rob, Niel, Chad, Byron, Sylvia, Dale, Lynn and Cherie (who are friends of Rob's from southern California), Robert (who came over from Bakersfield to try swimming in the ocean with us), Steve (from Morro Bay,his first time swimming at Avila), Duke, Berto, Gerry Gross, Brad (former Cal Poly tri team member who swam with us once before), Shawn and L.G. who are life guards at Avila (apologies to L.G., I'm not sure that I got your name correctly) and lastly, but most importantly, Beth who was with us in her kayak making sure we could be seen and stay safe.
With a group this large and a range of experience and abilities we started by all swimming down the buoy line to the left. We regrouped at the last buoy and assessed how people were doing.  We split into two groups; Rob taking the group that was either newer to open water or just didn't want to go as long as the others back along the buoy line with the intent of going under the pier and on down the line to the creek.  The rest of us headed towards the end of the Avila Pier to do a classic triangle route.  Both groups met up at the end of the buoy line at the creek.  Shawn and L.G. swam in while the rest of us swam back under the pier to our starting point at the first buoy on the east side.  Most of the group headed in while Rob, Niel and Brad decided to do another lap of the triangle route.  The wind had picked up a bit but the chop was only really noticeable when we were heading east, into the wind.  We completed our second circuit and came in along the west side of the pier.  I had us in the water for 1h 13m, covering  about 2.25 miles.


There's a ton of pictures posted from today's swim on Facebook here


Wednesday 4th of July Swim


There will be two swims on the 4th of July, a 3 miler that will start early and a regular swim getting in at 11.
The long swim will be an out and back route to Pirate's Cove.  We will have kayak support.  We will get in the water at 8:30 AM and expect to be back at Avila between 10:00 and 10:30.  Rob and I have scouted the route and have plotted a path that will take us between the kelp.  So far we have Rob, Niel, Duke, Dave and Byron going. 
The 11 o'clock swim will be a usual swim, with the route and distance planned according to the interest and abilities of those who show up to swim. 
Bringing food to share after the swim is encouraged.  For those who do I will deduct 5 min. a mile from your swimming time in the next blog :-) . 


niel