Sunday, November 3, 2013

We had nice conditions and and a good group of swimmers today.  It was sunny with only a slight offshore breeze and the water was 57 degrees.  Pretty decent for November.  Swimming today were Ali, Niel, Rick, Sam, Amy, John Hampsey and Duke.  Sylvia stayed on the beach and Rhonda came by as we were getting out.  We decided to do a mile by swimming down past the end of the the buoy line to Fossil Point and back.  You can tell by my trace that we took different lines and I would up a ways inside the group at the turn around.  We all turned in at the second buoy to avoid getting too close to some fishing lines near the pier.  We covered 1585 meters in a total time of 35 min. 44 sec.  Ali deserves recognition for being the only one in the water today without any neoprene. 

Here is a follow up on the Will Swim For Food fundraiser.   The swim is Saturday December 14th. It is a one mile swim around the Santa Cruz Pier and is a fundraiser for local food banks. Last year over $50,000 was raised and this year they have set a goal of $80,000.  You can check out the history of this swim at http://www.willswimforfood.com/index.php
Rob did it last year and I am joining in this time so there is a Avila Dolphin team! We are raising money for the SLO Food Bank and so far have $885.00 pledged.
The water will be in the low 50's but wetsuits are welcome.  There are four ways you can participate;  
If you want to join the swim you should e-mail Rob at robdumouchel@gmail.com or Nick Alaga the event director at director@willswimforfood.com  and let them know that you want to be a swimmer.  Nick will send you a link so you can create your pledge page, set your fundraising goal and join the fun.  
If you want to donate you can do so to an individual swimmer through the website, or, if you want to donate by cash or a check you can give your donation to a swimmer. It will be recorded toward our fundraising total and the swimmer will forward the donation to the Food Bank .
Lastly, you can sponsor a duck!  Check them out on the website, this looks like great fun.  For $150.00 you can sponsor a full sized duck decoy. The donor gets to decorate it and select swimmer who will tow it around the pier. 

Correction - Lastly, our own fast swimming Jon Harmse completed the Florida Ironman Saturday in 10:52:31.  He was bib number 1282
Congratulations to him and hope to see him next Sunday.


niel