Sunday, October 7, 2012

Fall was no where to be seen at Avila Beach on Sunday.  It was warm, clear and there was very little wind.  The water was 59 degrees,, green and had some occasional set of 3 to 4 foot waves.  The water had been retested on Wednesday and was safe to swim in.  We had a nice group of swimmers; Duke, Niel, Rob, Amy, Sylvia, Yvonne, Loren, Rob #2, Brad, Chad, John and Dale, and three paddlers; Brittany, Allison and Beth!  There was a regatta forming up off of the end of the Avila Pier so we decided on a route that would give the boats a chance to start their race while we were close to shore.  We swam out and formed up at the first buoy on the left side of the pier, and then swam under the pier and down to the last buoy in the line near the mouth of the creek.  With so little wind and no current the swimming conditions were great.  By the time that the group had reformed at the last buoy the boats in the regatta were down off of Port San Luis, so we were free to swim to the end of the Avila Pier and do a complete triangle.  We had a wide range of swimming abilities and speeds in this group so having the three kayaks with us was great.  Allison was able to hang back with the slower swimmers while Beth and Brittany took the front and back of the main body.  Besides the safety of having an escort the kayaks help other boat traffic realize that we are in the water and provide guidance to those swimmers who are still honing their open water navigation skills.  We swam to the last buoy on the east side of the pier and back along the line to our starting point covering about 1.15 miles.   With such a large group we spent a lot of time forming up and chatting at the turning points so this swim was more of a series of sprints over 44 minutes. For pictures from the swim check out our facebook page.

Don't miss Dave VanMouwerik slide show this coming Saturday about his successful Catalina Channel crossing;