Sunday, April 28. 2013

Avila Beach had a couple of surprises for us this morning.  First, it was gray and overcast, not sunny like San Luis Obispo, and the water temperature was up to 56 degrees.  IT was calm and the water was glassy.  Allison said that there had been a lot of jellyfish in the water when she and Rob were there Saturday evening but there were only a few to be seen around the pier pilings this morning.  These are the small (3 - 4" dia.) flat ones. I have seen them at Avila in large numbers but not for many years.  We had 11 swimmers today; Marta and Susan James had come over from the valley along with Niel, Rob, Sylvia, Amy, Leslie, Tom, Monte, Jennifer and John Hamsey.  Accompanying us were Allison on her kayak and Mark on his 10' surfboard.    We did the triangle route clockwise.  Niel, Amy and Jennifer came in from the end of the pier. The rest of the group completed the triangle.  The complete route was approximately 1.1 miles.  

niel

Wednesday Evening, April 24, 2013

Avila was calm and overcast. The water was flat but there was an occasional set of waves. The water temperature was 54 degrees.  John, Niel, Rob, Mark and Byron got in the water.  Rob was kicking with his fins and hand place.  Niel, Mark and Rob swam half of the buoy line while Byron and John continued on to do a triangle and a half, for a total of 1.6 miles.  Rob stayed in and played in the surf. 

We wll be swimming Friday evening at Lopez and Sunday at 11.

niel  

Sunday, April 21, 2013

It was a beautiful day at Avila Beach today; sunny, warm and almost no wind.   The water temperature was 52 degrees.   Swimming today were Amy, Susan, John H., Rob and Sylvia.  Rick, Rhonda and I kept to the beach.  We have a complete buoy line now so the thing to do was to swim the buoys.  The group made the circuit in 35 minutes.  The lifeguards were training, in and out of the water, back and forth along the beach, and on and off the Harbor Patrol boat.  Having them here was handy when a gentleman on a jet ski strafed the buoys. Perhaps he thought that they were set up as a slalom course?  The Harbor had a conversation with him and then left the area at a low speed.  Thanks guys!

We will be swimming Wednesday evening at 5:30.

niel

Wednesday Evening, 17 April 13

It was sunny and breezy with cold water.  The same story that we have been hearing for a while. The water temperature was 51 degrees.  The wind was out of the west, the water choppy, but the wind was going down with the sun so conditions were improving.  Byron, John Segal and  Curtis swam.  Rob had one of his very rare times when it just didn't feel right to get in the water, so he sat out with Allison and I.  It is a good thing to listen to those voices.  Byron is working on stepping up his distance and wanted to do about a mile and a half so the boys set out along the length of the pier.  From there the route was to the end of the buoy line at the creek mouth (and yes, we have buoys along the west side of the pier now), east along the buoy line to and under the pier, reverse course and go west back along the the buoy line to the creek, back to the end of the Avila Pier, then to where the buoys would end on the east side of the pier and finally parallel to the beach until they arrived back at the pier.  That was a triangle route and a half, or 1.7 miles.  Everybody looked tired, happy and cold.  We saw a whale, a seal and a otter from the beach.  We'll be back Sunday.  The weather should be beautiful.  Byron wants to do another 1.5+ on Sunday so be ready to do some distance if you want to hang with him.

niel 

Sunday, April 14, 2013

We had real open water conditions for today's swim; cold water and lots of wind.  It was sunny and comfortable up near the wall where we were sheltered, but the wind was strong, steady and out of the SW, the same as earlier this week.  I measured a water temperature of 52 degrees at the usual spot on the pier but the wind and the current made it both feel colder and produced some upwelling in places that for a real temperature drop.   Swimming today were Casey, Rob, John H., Byron, Amy with Allison paddling.  Sylvia, Niel, Sharley and Rick stayed on the beach.  The group did a triangular route clockwise on the left hand side of the pier.  At the end of the first leg Casey bailed and got on the kayak with Allison.  He was wearing a farmer john wetsuit which just wasn't enough for a 0 body fat triathlete in today's conditions.  He couldn't get comfortable enough to get his face in the water.  Byron said that the the second leg to the end of the Avila Pier was like wrestling a bear, throwing yourself into the current and chop and trying to get somewhere.  Everybody came in along the pier.  The water near the end of the Avila Pier was much colder.  I've noticed this several times before.  It must have something to do with the wind direction and how the resulting current reacts with the end of the pier, causing deep water to be pulled to the surface.  By distance this was about a half mile swim, by effort it was easily equal to twice that distance. 
Rhonda arrived at the beach after the swimmers were out of the water, completing a training  run to Avila from their home in Arroyo Grande.  She covered 20 miles in 3 hours and looks ready to kick butt in her qualifying tri in Texas.

We will be swimming Wednesday evening at 5:30.

Thanks to Rob and his GoPro for the pictures.

Hey, I needed some additional style in my life so I ordered a new, colorful band for my Road ID.  $5 and no more plain black!  
With my order came a coupon for $1 off for up to 20 other orders by friends, so get yourself a colorful wristband for your Road ID or one of their nice lights for your running shorts or bike.

At www.roadid.com

Coupon Number: ThanksNiel26103478

The coupon is good for $1 off any Road ID order placed by 05/14/2013.   

niel  

Quick bonus update for Friday night... we had a great crowd! 8 swimmers (Rick, Byron, Rob, Penny, Jason, Kim, Bridget, Judy), 1 SUPer (Danilu), and 2 waiting for us on the beach (Rhonda and Allison). Of our 8 swimmers 4 were out for the first time this season, or in some cases ever! Due to heavy wind and lots of chop in the water the group kept inside Mallard cove. Some did 2 big triangles, others did 1 1/2.

A lot of Friday night regulars have races, concerts, and other places to be this week so I'm not sure that we'll have a swim this coming Friday. If you want to go out get the word out on the Open Water email group and we'll see if we can't get you some partners. We should be back to normal the week after.

Rob D.

Wednesday Evening, April 10, 2013

The ocean was a bit messy this evening, perfect for a real ocean swimming experience.  It was sunny and clear with a gusty wind out of the SW.  The ocean surface was a mix of small chop and wind waves.  The water temperature was 53.  Swimming this evening were Niel, Curtis and John.  We went out on the west side of the pier, turned right and swam parallel to the beach towards the creek.  This would turn out to be the leg with the toughest conditions.  I wasn't swallowing any water but the current was strong enough to make me think I was in one of those endless pools.  The buildings along the shore just weren't moving much.  Everybody was enjoying themselves enough that at each stop we decided to do more so we wound up doing the triangle route covering 1.1 miles in 38 minutes.  The water felt significantly colder than 53 degrees.  Maybe a combination of the wind, current and wave action was pulling up water from the bottom.  As we were approaching the pier on our  last leg Rob caught up with us.  He had be delayed at work but made it to the beach.  He had his hand plane with the GoPro camera attached and was doing some body surfing. 


niel

Sunday, April 7, 2013

We had some great ocean swimming conditions today!  There was a gusty offshore breeze that was doing a good job of messing up the water.  It was also blowing the tops off of the 3 to 4 foot sets that would roll in.  It was sunny and cloudless and almost too warm next to the wall.  The water temperature was 54 degrees.  We had a nice turnout today; Marie joined us for her first Sunday swim after three Wednesday evenings swims with us, Rob, Byron (congrats!) Sylvia, Duke and Angela, Niel, Brad and Tom and Leslie Lorish, who are familiar faces that we have not seen in too long of a while.  We swam out, duck diving under the surf (if was a day to wear your cap over your goggles) formed up mid-way down the pier and swam east parallel to the beach to the end of the sea wall.  When we regrouped everyone was happy so we headed to the end of the Avila Pier.  We got spread out along this leg but once we got back together Sylvia, Leslie and Maire elected to go in along the pier while the rest of us swam towards the mouth of the creek and back parallel to the beach, under the pier and in. With the swell it was a little dicey passing under the pier.  Byron got kissed on the ankle by some barnacles.   We spent a lot of time visiting when we were in a group so I'll call this a Sprint and Gossip Swim.  We covered 1.2 miles in 45 minutes.

niel 

Friday, April 5th 2013 at Lopez

It was a windy one on Friday night! The wind speed toggled up and down throughout the course of the evening but it never stopped. We had 4 swimmers (Rob, Penny, Brad, and Byron) and one land locked kayaker. We brought the kayak out but it was so windy Allison would have had no chance to actually keep up with the swimmers in the water.

The group started by swimming to the north corner of Mallard Cove. We negotiated the rest from there. Byron and Brad swam to what I'll call Dead Branch Beach (that has a nice ring to it yeah?) while Penny and I swam about a third of that distance. When we all turned around to swim back that's where things got interesting. The wind was really blowing outside the cove and there was a lot of chop to contend with. The wind was coming across us at an angle and you had to aim about 30 degrees to the right of where you wanted to in order to hold the line you wanted. It was pretty fun and challenging. Once we made our way around the point to get back into Mallard Cove the wind was at our backs and the swim in was much easier.

Afterwards we hung out a little bit while the sun went down and the wind whistled through the tops of our bottles. Not a bad way to end the work week :)

Rob D.

Wednesday Evening, April 3, 2013

We had some weather and water conditions this evening.  There was a steady wind from the SW so the water was choppy and there was a combination of low clouds and fog that looked like it could close in on our patch of beach.  We had four swimmers;Rob, Niel, Marie and Mark and Allison with her big red kayak to keep us company.  This was Mark and Marie's third ocean swim so we decided to go out along the pier and left along the beach and plan the rest of our swim once we grouped up about halfway down the beach.  I arrived too late to get a water temperature but it felt like it was still in the mid 50's, throwing in a correction for it feeling colder due to the lack of sun and a steady wind.  When we grouped up down the beach we decided to swim to the end of the Avila Pier.  We talked this over a bit since this leg would be directly into the chop which would be a new challenge for Marie and Mark.  They were game and we had Allison along as backup so off we went.  They did fine and were actually all smiles when we arrived at the end of the pier.  Having 'conquered the chop' Rob and I were able to offer them some tips about how to be comfortable in rough water and to not swallow too much ocean.  The sun came out as we came in along the pier having covered 3/4 of a mile in 33 minutes. 

Friday's Swim at Lopez Lake; Check the Central Coast Open Water Google Group for carpooling opportunities.  The swim starts at 6PM.

niel