A Strong Offshore Wind and Cold Water Give Us A Beating -
It was a beautiful California fall day in Avila Beach; 80 degrees, sunny, no crowds and a strong, gusty offshore wind. An offshore wind pushes the water temperature down, I measured 55 degrees off of the pier and Heidi's watch tracked 55 to 52 degrees along the buoy line. Duke, Niel, Stephanie and Teresa wanted to do about 1.5 miles and decided to swim over to the Cal Poly Pier and evaluate the conditions once there. Amy, Heidi and Mackenzie swam the buoy line. John and Jonny did the left half the buoy line, went to the end of the Avila Pier, around a boat that was anchored on the west side of the pier and back to their starting point. For everyone this was the coldest swim since last spring.
Teresa and Stephanie getting in with Duke already at the surf line.
Stephanie, Teresa and Duke at the last buoy at the mouth of SLO Creek.
The water felt significently colder than the last few Sundays.week
Duke, Teresa and Stephanie at the Cal Poly Pier.
I thought that we agreed to swim to the next (3rd) set of cross bars
and from there head back to the Avila Pier, but,
when I got to the 3rd cross bars everyone was continuing straight
on so we wound up at the end of the Cal Poly Pier.
About 400 meters from the end of the pier the chop began to increase and at the end of the pier it was 1 foot plus and pushing hard offshore, from 30 degrees left of our heading to the end of the Avila Pier. The swim to the end of the Avila Pier was a tough 725 meters, pushing hard all of the way against the current and chop. The chop would break over my head so I was constantly thinking about which way and when to breath in order to swallow less water.
All four of us were smiling when we were back on the beach, which was a combination of relief at being about to stop swimming and joy at completing a tough swim.
After changing it was nice and warm up near the sea wall so all of us relaxed with coffees and snacks until it was time to go be responsible adults.
niel
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