Saturday, December 13th, 2025

Niel's Saturday Morning Swim Report - 

We were all plesdantly suprised this morning to arrive at a fog free Avila Beach. The south county had been socked in late yesterday so I was trying to plan a swim that could be done in dense fog with no buoys for guideance. Repeated laps out and back around the Avila Pier wasn't tempting, so overcast skys with visability for miles ment we could swim to wherever we chose. 

Except for the boats. There was a large commercial ship anchored east of the Avila Peir that might have been a kelp harvester and a sail boat on the west side of the pier that was anchored inshore of the end of the Avila Pier. Not knowing what their plans were we deicide to swim to the Poly Pier, out to the end of the pier and to figure things out from there.  The water temperature is still 58°, the air temperature was 51°, the surf was 3 foot and there was a short swell on the water that made for lumpy swimming conditions.   

When we arrived at the end of the P. Pier both ships had gotten underway and were well offshore. We decided to swim to the reef on the east side of the Avila Pier and to come back along the 'buoy line' to our starting place. 

Niel, Jodi and Tom

I'll swim Tuesday and then be out of town until the 23rd, when I plan to swim at 7AM. A swim with friends on Christmas morning might be nice, we'll see how everyones schedule comes together. We should definitly swim early on January first, before the Polar Bear Plung at noon. Stay tuned to this blog for details. 

niel