Wednesday, July 2nd, 2025

Tuesday Morning With Tom Israel - 

It was Swim around Avila Rock Wednesday.  Typical summer morning at Avila: Partial cloud cover, flat calm water, and 56° water temperature. The swimming was beautiful and going around the Rock is where it's at on a morning like this. 

Tuesday, July 1st, 2025

I had some Surfrider water quality testing to do this morning and didn't in until 8. Conditions were as they have been; 55°, calm and gray with flat, 57° water.  I bumped into Jim as I was heading to the water. We got in at the same time but did our own swims. We crossed paths once near the mouth of San Luis Obispo Creek.       

I had a good swim and made my goal of 5000M for today's distance. I'll do about 4K on Thursday, 5K yards or meters, whichever the group wants to do, on Friday's 7AM holiday swim, and 4K on Saturday. I'm taking Sunday off from swimming to work a Surfrider post holiday beach clean up at Avila. 

At the showers is ran into Bryan. He lives and swims in Ventura but has family here. It has been a number of years since we last met at Avila. He says ocean swimming has been the best thing for the recovery of his shoulder after rotator cuff surgery. 

niel

Sunday, June 29th, 2025

Bumpy Swimming - 

At 11 o'clock it was gray, 59° and breezy in Avila Beach. There was a tall fogbank that was thinner on the west and hanging onto the hills beyond the Harford Pier and on the east it was thick, rolling over Fossil Point and making like it would move into Avila Beach. The water was up to 57°, the surf was minimal and there was already a chop on the water all of the way in to the buoy line. 

I saw Tom Lorish as he was getting in and headed east on the buoy line. I didn't see him in the water. 

Jim, David and I planned to swim two or three triangles.  

The tide was low and it seemed like we could walk to the first buoy.  Swimming down the buoy line was quite bumpy. The chop was out of the SW and swimming to the end of the Avila Pier was a push against the current and through the chop. At the first buoy on the west side Jim went in, shed his wetsuit, and got back in. He is planning on doing the 5K in Santa Barbara next weekend and wanted to see how the water would feel bareback. 

David and I came back along our route for our second triangle. The chop was now larger but our path relative to it was more favorable and it was flatter on the east, lee, side of the Avila Pier. Arriving at the first buoy I had lost my interest in doing a third triangle in today's conditions and came in with David. 

I'll swim at 8 on Tuesday, 7 on Thursday and there is a 4th of July swim at 7 on Friday. You can join us, beat the crowds and justify eating a second piece of pie. Extra points will be awarded to anyone who swims in a colonial, wool, swimming costume. 

We'll swim at 7 on Saturday and I'll skip Sunday to do a beach cleanup at 10 at Avila with my friends from the Surfrider Chapter. 

niel

Saturday, June 28th, 2025

 Saturday Morning --

 

Jodi, Paula and Niel got in the water a bit after 7.  The conditions at Avila Beach were 52° air, gray and calm, with 1 to 2 foot surf, a slight swell and nice clean 55° water. We swam a route Jodi suggested. It involved swimming the buoy line from the 1st to the 4th buoy on the east side , to the end of the Avila Pier, to the 4th buoy on the west side, in along the buoy line to buoy #3, to the end of the pier, to #3 on the east side and continuing until we have been to all of the buoys on both sides of the pier ending at #1 on the east side where we began. That would have been a 3500M swim but we decided to add the buoy line to the 4th buoy and back to #1 for 4K.

I'll swim tomorrow at 11

niel

Friday, June 27th, 2025

Tom Lorish's Friday Swim - 

Similar to Wednesday, but different. There was a partial cloud cover, some blue skies, and a breeze blowing from the west to the east. There was a pretty good wind chop on the water and the water clarity was good. My toes tell me the water temperature was about 55°. Excellent Friday morning vitamin. 

Tom's Lorish Swims - 

Partial cloud cover, low tide and flat glassy water. In short, a typical Avila  summer day. The water temperature felt about 53° and the water clarity was excellent. Excellent morning Swim. 

Tuesday, June 24th, 2025

The wind keeps pushing the water temperature down and making it hard to think of June as summer. This morning the water temperature was 53°- 54° and with the gray sky it was a winter swim.  Otherwise the swimming conditions were perfect: small surf, no wind, an air temperature of 52° and glassy water.   

I had an appointment at 9 so I did just one triangle. 

I checked my records and last year the water temperature was in the mid 50's, more or less, well into July and not consistently above 55° until August. The highest water temp I recorded last year was 59°. 

I'll be wearing my winter weight wetsuit for another month or so. 

I'll swim at 8 on Thursday and at 7 on Saturday. I have a conflict on Sunday so I may not swim that day.

niel    

Sunday, June 22nd, 2025

Tom Israel and Niel's Sunday Swim - 

Our plan was to swim west along the buoy line and on to the first crossbars on the Poly Pier, to the end of the pier, to and around the reef buoy on the east side of the Avila Pier and back along the buoys to the Avila Pier, with possibly some extra distance added at the end.  The air temperature was 68°, the water temp was up to 56°, the surf was 2 to 3 foot and there was a light wind and small swell out of the SE.  

Tom and I swam out to the buoy line, dodged some fishing lines, swam under the pier and to the Poly Pier. The water was warmer than yesterday but there were still a lot of areas of colder water. We swam out along the P Pier and picked up some chop from the SW when we passed the third crossbars. There was a day charter fishing boat off of the end of the P. Pier that was idling while they cleaned their catch. We didn't want anything to do with them so we changed our plans and swam back in along the P. Pier to the second crossbars. From there we decided to swim to the end of the Avila Pier. The chop had come up quickly to 1 foot plus and we were swimming across it.  It was a slog getting to the Avila Pier with a lot of course corrections.  To the reef buoy the chop was quartering behind us so it was downhill. The return to the Avila Pier was again across the chop for a hard finish.         

Tom and I agreed that neither of us would have done 4K in today's conditions by ourselves.  

At the showers it was nice and warm in the sun while the wind was blowing umbrellas down the beach.  

I'll swim short at 7 on Tuesday, at 7 on Thursday and Saturday and at 11 next Sunday.

Duke shared this link of the Alki Beach Open Water Swim group in Seattle.

https://youtu.be/xc7XsNzBA68?si=mqkJ66kYGCYA04wK 

niel

Saturday, June 21st, 2025

This morning's swimming conditions were both wonderful and surprising; it was 47°, sunny with glassy water and a small swell, 😊and the water was 52° to 54° 😱.  The wind that began yesterday afternoon had pushed the water temper back down to winter numbers.   

Niel and Jodi at the end of the Poly Pier.

Jodi suggested that we do a big circle; down the east buoy line to the 4th buoy, around the reef buoy, to the end of the Poly Pier, back in along the pier and to return along the west buoy line to the Avila Pier. That route would be about 3200M. I'm already out of practice for sub 55° water so getting in was a wake up call. It took me until I was around the reef and headed towards the Poly Pier until I was evened out with the water temperature. I was grateful that I had decided on wearing my winter weight wetsuit before heading to the beach. Being evened out lasted until we were even with the end of the Avila Pier where the water temp dropped another degree or two. I was looking for warmer water the rest of the way to the end of the Poly Pier where it warmed up a bit. We swam in along the pier to the second crossbars. We decided to not swim to the first crossbars to avoid the kelp near the shore and instead swam to the end of the Avila Pier. 

We had not thought about what the swim to the P Pier had been like and 150M from the pier we swam back into the icebox.  It warmed up some near the Avila Pier. From the end of the pier we swam back the way we had come, to the #4 buoy on the east side and back along the buoys to #1 and in.  We had a nice finish for 4,087M in 1:35.

Having sunshine at the showers was nice and we felt good going home. 

I'll swim tomorrow at 11. 

niel                  

Friday, June 20th, 2025

Tom Lorish's Friday Swim - 

The conditions at Avila were pretty much the same as they have been for the last few days. Flat, glassy, and blue skies. The water temperature was about 56°. It was a nice morning swim. 

Thursday, June 19th, 2025

The swimming was excellent today. 

The air temp was 54°, the water was 57° but felt colder, the surf was 1 to 2 foot and Avila was in a hole in the fog so the sun was shining.  

At 7 the ocean was glassy with a mild SE swell. About half way through my swim the swell became a chop that grew to be a hand slapper that had to be pushed into.  The water temperature varied a lot depending which side of the pier I was on and how far offshore I was.                               

I'll swim Saturday at 7 and Sunday at 11.

niel

Wednesday, June 18th, 2025

Tom's Wednesday Swim - 

Low tide, flat and glassy. Toes in the water at 9 AM. Blue skies and sunny and the water felt about 55° to me so I am thinking it was probably 57.  Still getting recalibrated from the warm water. Excellent swimming conditions. 

Monday, June 16th, 2025

 Tom Lorish's Water Polo Tournament in Spain -

At the 2025 Masters Barcelona cup for water polo, we won gold in the 40s and silver in the 50s.  It was a very competitive and fun tournament!  Teams from Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Turkey and us.  Super cool.  

And Tom's Avila Swim Report - 

Foggy, flat, and glassy.  After two weeks in Spain, I am back and happy to see the Pacific Ocean again.  The Balearic Sea was beautiful and warm and I love swimming there, and it's always good to get back to the good old pacific.  All I know about today's Swim is the water was colder than it was in Menorca! I will guess it was 57°, but that is just a ballpark guess. It was a good morning Swim. 

Sunday, June 15th,

A Beautiful Day for a Swim at Avila Beach and a Bit of Drama -

At 10:30 it was 60° in Avila Beach and there was a wall of fog that started at the boardwalk and hid the buoy line. There was a slight SE wind and swell. The water temperature was 57°. David Cheney and I would swim while his wife Alex would play in the waves. 

I wanted to do another 4K swim and David wanted to go a bit shorter so we took my three triangles route and David would come in before I did. 

Niel and David

The fog began to clear when we were suiting up and we swam in sunshine. The swimming conditions were glassy until noon when the regular west wind came up and pushed up a small SW swell.

While swimming the west on the west buoy line we encounter a swimmer in trouble. A man was hanging onto the third buoy and was a picture of exhaustion. His arms were wrapped around the buoy and his head was down on his arm. He was wearing a wetsuit but no goggles or cap. David spoke to him and he waved us off. Neither of us liked the idea of dealing with a panicked swimmer so we continued to the 4th buoy and watched him from there. We could not see the #2 lifeguard tower well enough to know what the guard was doing. The guy left the buoy and headed for shore, swimming hard for about 50M and then stopping to tread water. We watched him do this five times until he reached shallow water and then we continued our swim.

On the third lap David went in from the end of the pier and I completed the third triangle. 

This coming week I'll will swim on Thursday and Saturday at 7 and on Sunday at 11. 

niel                

Saturday, June 14th, 2025

Niel, Iliene, Jodi, Tom Israel and Paula swam a 7 AM this morning. It was 55°, sunny and clam in Avila Beach. There was fog hanging on the hills to the west. The water temperature was 58°.   

We swam the west buoy line and over to the second crossbars. I was going short so I swam from there to the end of the Avila Pier and in. The group swam to the end of the Poly Pier, back to the third crossbars on the P Pier and over to the end of the Avila Pier for about 3,000M. The fog had come in and once they lost sight of the Avila Pier during the crossing.   

That's Ilene, Tom, Jodi and Paula starting towards the Poly Pier.

I'll swim tomorrow at 11

niel