Tuesday, March 9th, 2021

Duke's 2000

This morning at Avila Beach everything indicated that a storm was on the way; the cloud cover was increasing, there was a bit of wind out of the SE, the surf was 3 to 6+ foot and being pushed by an incoming tide, but beyond the break the ocean was rippled but glassy. If someone was to wait long enough for it there were nice flat periods between the sets so I decided to get in. The air temperature was 43 and the water was 50 degrees.

Just in time Duke and his daughter Nikki pulled up next to me, so I was going to have someone to swim with.

Duke said that his legs were shot after riding sprints the day before so he was looking to do about 2000M. I had planned on doing a triangle on each side of the pier which would be a bit longer but he was OK with that. Nikki left on a 30 to 45 minute walk and would meet us when we got out.

There was some pounding involved in getting out through the surf, I could feel the extra push from the coming storm even in the white water. Duke and I both were pushed over by some foam that turned out to be quite solid.

We met up at the end of the Avila Pier and congratulated ourselves on a big start to our swim. I wanted to head to where the last buoy is in the summer so agreed on our landmarks and set off. Down near the phantom buoy I looked for Duke and found him a ways out to sea, so I caught up and now that we were out even with the end of the Avila PIer instead of in at the 'buoy line' I suggested an alternate route. We could swim to the end of the Avila Pier and perhaps on to the end of the Cal Poly Pier. The is seemed shorter (really?) to just swim directly to the end of the Cal Poly Pier so we set off on that course.      

Duke and Niel before heading to the end of the Cal Poly Pier.

It was nice and smooth here.

  

I hadn't been swimming long when the thought bubbled up that this leg would be about 1200M without the usual stop at the end of the Avila Pier.  Then we ran into some 'conditions'. The storm was pushing a swell and one foot chop from the SW and as we swam west we were steadily more exposed and the surface got rougher. When we were halfway between the two piers it was rough and every time I looked to spot my course a correction to the left was necessary.  I'd lost track of Duke in the messy surface and was happy to see him when I arrived at the Cal Poly Pier. He wasn't very happy with me for suggesting this route, and we had another 1000M to do to reach the beach.

So Duke's 2,000 went a bit long at 3,325M and rough to boot. We were both happy to be done.  

Thanks, Duke, for being there. I would not have had that adventure swim if you had not been there today.

I'm planning on swimming thursday morning at 8:45, after my 7AM Zoom meeting, but getting in will be dependent on the surf and a guess about the water quality after a rainy Wednesday. I could switch to Olde Port Beach. I'll text if Avila looks unhealthy. 

niel