Sunday, MArch 15, 2015

We had a really nice swim today.  It was warm, maybe in the upper 80's, at Avila with thin high clouds, no wind and very clear 57 degree water.   Niel, Tom, Leslie, Ali, Sylvia, Duke, Jeff and Rick were there to swim and Mark joined us on his new inflatable SUP.   We decided to swim over to the Poly Pier and sort'a made up a route from there. Sylvia swam to the Poly Pier and came directly back.  The dogleg in my route on the way to the Poly Pier is a present from Garmin GPS. Duke and I both had a distance of 1.34 miles.

At the end of the beach before heading over to the pier in the background. 

Grouping up at the pier

We swam along the length of the pier for a ways. I decided to simplify my navigation and swim between the pilings.

Grouped up and ready to head back to the ocean end of the Avila Pier, which you can see to the left of Mark's paddleboard.

The water at the end of the Avila Pier was extremely clear so I got this fish eye view of Duke and Rick. 

Rick had the great idea to do the Three Pier Swim that we have not done since the late 1990's. The route  begins on the beach at the west side of the Harford Pier, goes out and around the end of that pier, to the end of the Cal Poly Pier, on to the end of the Avila Pier and in to the beach. This route is 1.75 miles and will require kayak support and some shuttle service to the start from Avila would be great.  Now is a good time to start planning. Since July 3rd is Duke's 60th birthday he would like to do this swim on the Fourth of July, which sounds like a great idea. We could follow up the swim with a potluck brunch on the beach. 

and

There are alternatives to swimming at Avila Beach and we have this to consider courtesy of Big Steve.  Anybody up for a road trip?

niel