Sunday, August 26th, 2018

In the water today were Duke, Brandy, Paula, Niel, Tom, Jeff, Jonny, John and Eric.

It was gray and overcast at the beach with no wind, knee high surf and 58 to 60 degree water. There were small wind waves out of the SW.

We swam down to Fossil Point , to the end of the Avila Pier, to the last buoy at the mouth of the creek and back along the buoys to our starting point for 1.41 miles. I do not stop my watch when we stop to regroup so the swim time in the plot is total time in the water.

Duke and Tom

Duke, Brandy, Jeff, Paula stroking it in and Tom at Fossil Point.

Jeff, Tom, Duke and Eric (behind the water drop) at the end of the Avila Pier

niel

Sunday. August 19, 2018

Today's post and route map is by John Hampsey:

Avila Blog-- Sunday, August 19, 2018

Gorgeous warm day... the fog clearing just as we gathered on the beach. We had some new swimmers today which made for a vibrant group and good camaraderie. Alice from Santa Cruz, Brandi, Kaori, John joined Heidi, Maria, Karen, Duke, Jonny, Jeff from New Zealand, and me. Now that most of the schools are back in session, the beach was less crowded and the water was clear and the warmest in a long time—65degrees! The swim route was to be to the first buoy, then past a sea-otter frolicking on its back, under the Avila Pier to the last buoy by the creek, then across to the Cal Poly Pier crosstie. From there, the plan was to swim to the end of the Cal Poly Pier and back across to the end of the Avila Pier. But a sailboat regatta was happening in the sea-reaches by the Cal Poly Pier, and Duke thought it more prudent to swim to the end of the pier and back and not mess with the boats. We broke into two groups at that point: the larger group headed to the end of the Cal Poly Pier and the smaller group (Jonny and me) decided to swim to the end of the Avila Pier. When the strap on my goggles freakishly broke, I was faced with the prospect of swimming all the way back close-eyed. But Jonny managed to repair my goggles using a piece of kelp and all was well. The distance for our swim was 1.3 miles, and the distance for the larger group was 1.7 miles.

Back on the beach, we all gave our best wishes to Maria who is off to South Africa for the World Championship in the Half-Iron Woman. Congrats and good luck to Maria! 

I was planning on swimming Wednesday and Friday evenings this week but life is intervening and cutting down on my recess time. :-(

The conditions looks to be nice so I hope that some of you make it to the beach.

niel

Wednesday Evening, August 15th, 2018

Phil, Craig and Niel swam a triangle clockwise. It was sunny and warm with no wind and flat water. There were seals, otters and dolphins messing about inside the buoy line. I didn't measure a water temperature but it felt like 62 to 64 degrees.  What a great way to finish off a work day!

This is Craig and Phil at the end of the Avila Pier.

I won't be swimming again until Wednesday of next week.

niel

Monday Evening, August 13th, 2018

Niel and Matt swam over to the Cal Poly Pier, back to the Avila Pier and in along the pier. The conditions were great. There was some chop but it was laying down as the wind went down with the sun so things flattened out during our swim. The water temperature was a balmy 63 degrees.

What a great way to put a busy Monday behind you.

Matt at the mouth of San Luis Obispo Creek

Niel and Matt at the Cal Poly Pier

I'll be back Wednesday evening, in the water at 6.

niel

Sunday, August 12th, 2018

At 10:30 the fog was still in at Avila Beach. It was t-shirt warm and a good number of people were in the water. I measured a water temperature of 60.5 degrees. Our unusually clear water condition have returned to the more typical Central Coast water fog where 6 feet of visibility is the normal.

The fog looked like it might clear but we decided to stick close and do a clockwise triangle route in case we lost all visibility. We has some of the larger waves of the summer, 3 to 4 foot monsters and it was calm and flat. 

In the water today were Duke, Phil, Niel, Karen, Heidi, Maria, Jeff (here from New Zealand for a month) and John.  

Jeff, Heidi, Maria, Duke, Phil and Karen forming up at the start.

Jeff, Duke, Mria, Karen and Heidi at the left end of the buoy line.

The Avila Pier is in the background.

Phil, Jeff, Duke, Karen, Maria and Heidi at the end of the Avila Pier.

As we finished the sun broke through and the wind came up. In 15 minutes we had clear skies and a whitecapping chop in to the buoy line.

I'm swimming Monday and Wednesday evenings of this coming week, conditions permitting (see my post form 8/8). In the water at 6.

niel

A Breaking Swimming Story from our Avila Dolphin Swim Ambassadors in Sitka Alaska: 

Tom and Leslie Lorish are on vacation in Alaska and did a 3K swim in Sitka.

Leslie reports - 

Cold rainy and foggy here in Sitka   Tom and I did the 3k swim.  Lots of eel grass and jumping pink salmon in the water   Nice race!!  The people Up here are wonderful 

Brrrrr!   Glad it’s over with   They have a warming tent and some people are having a very bad hypothermia reaction   They have a doctor on site so that’s good 

Sorry  no idea what the water temperature was but it was very very cold at 2 spots where the rivers dump into the bay  If I can guess I’d say 51 and under 50 in those two river mouths.

Tom says to him it felt like 53-57  and at river mouths under 53   I will say that the river mouths felt brutally cold and they had warned us about that but it still took my breath away

Wednesday, August 8th, 2018

Our First Evening Swim of the Year.

Heidi and I met at the beach at 5:30. It has been 85 degrees in San Luis Obispo so I was surprised how cool it was at Avila Beach. Fog was hangin over Pismo and Shell Beach and a SE wind was blowing it towards Avila. Avila was sunny when I arrived but I was glad to have my emergency fleece from the back of the Subaru because the breeze off of the fogbank was chilli. 

The east side of the Avila Pier with the fog beginning to wrap 

around Fossil Point and into Avila Beach. 

I measured a water temperature of 60 degrees. The surface conditions were a medium chop and no waves.  The wind was dropping so things became smoother as we swam. 

We did a counterclockwise triangle and as we swam the fog closed in on Avila. 

Heidi at the buoy near the creek mouth looking east

checking out the fog bank moving into Avila Beach.

Niel at the end of the Avila Pier with the fog complete to the west of us.

From the end of the pier we could not see the buoys on the east side of the pier so we navigated by glimpses of the headlands and headed for where the last buoy should be.

We got a bit too far to the right (see the plot) but we did find the easternmost buoy. We could just see the next buoy in the line so we swam back to the pier one buoy at a time.

We covered a bit over a mile and had a great time. 

niel

Sunday, August 5th, 2018

This was the best day we have had this year. The conditions were warm, sunny, calm, flat, clean and a 60 degree water temperature. 

 We planned a 1.5 mile swim, starting off going down the buoy line to the left, to the end of the Avila Pier, over to our spot on the Cal Poly Pier and back to our starting point. 
In the water today were Niel, Duke, Heidi, Karen, Matt, Jim, Phil, Sue, Kerri and John Hampsey.

 

Heidi, Karen, Duke, Matt and Jim at the eas end of the buoy line.

Kerri and her sister Sue at the same spot.

Jim, Duke and Phil at the end of the Avila Pier

Matt and Jim at the same spot. 

The Cal Poly Pier is in the background, some 615 M distant.

Duke at the Cal Poly PIer

Evening Swims:

I'm up for some evening swims in the coming weeks. This time of the year it is usually really beautiful at Avila at the end of the day. 

I'm planning on getting in the water at 6. This may turn out to be a bit late so after the first time it may be adjusted earlier.

My plan is to swim on 

Wednesday, the 8th

Monday the 13th

Wednesday the 15th

Wednesday the 22nd

Friday the 24th.

Those are the evenings that will work for me this month. Everyone is welcome to work out other days to suit people's interest and availability.

I hope to see some familiar faces this coming Wednesday at 5:45.

niel