Tom Lorish created this route for days just like today. It has landmarks to navigate to when the The route is: get to the first buoy and swim buoy to buoy to #4 and then come back to #1, swim out and around the pier and swim buoy to buoy on the west side. Repeated until you have your distance or the fog burns off.
Jodi and I were swimming this morning. It was 53° and the water was 55°. There was no wind, small surf and a slight swell. I couldn't see anything beyond the surf from the seawall. At the water's edge we could see the first buoy. From the first buoy the second was barely visible so we felt our way along to #2 and on to #4, swam back and around the pier. Things were a bit brighter now so the west side was easier to navigate. We lapped the pier back to the east side and did a second leg to make our distance. Strangely, the fog was always thicker on the east side of the pier.
55° water was sure more comfortable than Thursday's 51° and the water temperature was pretty even.
Niel and Jodi
I'll swim tomorrow at 11.
Sunday will be cooler than the last few days and we'll be back to 70° on Monday so I'm expecting a return to a water temperature in the low 50's.
Foggy, a slight breeze, and bumpy water. Avila was socked in fog when I arrived at 915 AM. By the time I got to the water's edge at 930 a.m., the sun was starting to burn it off. Slowly. Three of my Water Polo girls were swimming with me and they wanted to go around the rock. We decided we'd swim to the fourth buoy on the east side and see what the visibility was like. When we got there, we could see the Rock easily so we went for it. Throughout the swim there was the occasional spot of blue sky that was quickly covered again by fog. The water temperature was 53, 54. It was a good Adventure Swim.
Niel and Jim midway between the Avila and Poly Piers
Avila Beach was sunny, calm and 47°. It was nice to feel the sun on my wetsuit. It was a very low tide so it would be a short swim out to the buoy line.
I got in at 6:50 and went left down the buoy line. I was near buoy #4 when Jim motored up to my shoulder so we stopped and talked about last Sunday's rough conditions compared to this mornings glassy with a small swell. My thermometer, Jim, and I all agreed on a water temperature of 52°. We looped around the kelp at the reef buoy and headed for the end of the Poly Pier.
Jim is a much faster swimmer than I so he swims to other places along the route and comes back to where I am. I was half way between the ends of the Avila and Poly Piers when we ran into each other. I didn't think 'shark' but maybe a playful seal. We had a nice laugh and continued on to the P Pier.
Jim went directly back to the beach from the end of the P Pier. I swam in to the second crossbars, across to the 4th buoy on the west side and along the buoy line to #1 on the east side. The water was a bit warmer near the creek mouth but I wouldn't call it a 'warm spot'.
At the showers the sun felt nice.
These are rills. They can form on the sloping wet sand between the dry sand and the water. At a low tide water drains out of the sand and out onto the surface on the slop to the water. The water makes these small culverts and change to a positive form. They look like miniature trees.
I'll swim with the Saturday group at 7:30 and on Sunday at 11.
Cloudy, with some blue sky showing through. There was a breeze and a lot of bump on the water. The temperature was 53°. It was a good day of swimming. Terrorist alert: towards the end of my Swim two jet skiers were savaging the water. I don't like seeing that.
I got in the water just before 7. Avila Beach was overcast and gray, calm and still with glassy, flat water. With all of the wind we'd had the last few days I expected the water to be cold so I may have psyched myself out. The water felt like 52° - 53°to me, my watch said 54°, my thermometer read 55°. I'm with Tom Lorish today; the water temperature is what it feels like.
Once I got acclimated and relaxed the cold started pushing me and I had a nice strong swim.
Scattered clouds with blue skies and breezy. Despite the breeze, the water was glassy with a good sized bump and roll on it. Like yesterday, the water felt 51, 52 to my well calibrated toes. I know that is at odds with what BMN has been reporting but I am sticking to it. Nice morning swim.
Today was a lovely day at the beach with water that was much warmer than yesterday morning. I measured 54° - 55° from the pier. Avila was sunny, 75° and windy with a holiday crowd on the beach. The wind felt like it was going to keep building into the afternoon. The water was clean and the surf was a friendly 2 to 3 foot.
Jim swam at 10:30. Niel, Paula and Don got in the water at 11. Don lives in the Bay Area and swam with us about a year ago.
Our first plan was to swim to the Avila Rock but the wind got my attention and the thought of swimming from the rock back to Avila into a building wind and chop changed the plan. Swimming to the end of the Poly Pier with a return leg pushing us home sounded like a better idea.
Swimming out to the first buoy was a wake up call, the water was rough and needed a constant push and timing to make good progress. At the Poly Pier we decided to swim to the third crossbars and then back to the Avila Pier. The leg to the Avila Pier was like running downhill on a rough trail, better than uphill but still not easy.
Paula, Don and NIel at the Poly Pier
Once we were inside the buoy line the water warmed up a bunch.
I'll swim Tuesday and Thursday at 7, Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 11.
We'd swim out to the #1 buoy, swim under the pier and to the third buoy on the west side, hook left around an anchored catamaran to make the loop and to the end of the Avila Pier. From there to Fossil Point and then double back along our route. It worked out pretty well.
Jodi and Tom swam together so their plots are very similar, I'm off the back so my plot is a bit different and I have the accuracy of my app on maximum, which makes it twitchy.
It was cold today. The air temperature was 52°, there was thick overcast and a light wind. The surf was 2 to 3 foot. I measured a water temperature of 52° from the pier. The lack of sunshine made it swim like a weak 51°. The water temperature was a bit 'warmer' near Fossil Point but it didn't feel like it until we swam into the drop on the way back to the pier.
Jodi
Niel
Tom
Jim was out there ahead of us swimming back and fourth along the buoys. We met up as we were headed out and he was coming in. He said that there were no warm spots in the water today and he was right.
I'll swim tomorrow at 11. Kurtis, Paula and Ilene may join me. There should be some sunshine.
Breezy air and bumpy water. It was clear, sunny and breezy at Avila this morning when I arrived at 900 AM. The water had a nice bump and roll on it. The water temperature was 53° and the swimming was fine.
I got in at 8 this morning. The water temperature was 55°. There were some cooler spots but it was nice. The swell was coming up, there was a noticeable roll to the water outside of the buoy line. The surf was a bit larger but it was soft and not an issue. The water was clean and a bit spooky, with the sun behind me I had my shadow down in the water following me.
I did two kelp crawls at the reef buoy. There was a mylar balloon caught in the kelp so I crawled out and grabbed it but after I had crawled back to open water I didn't have the balloon. My knot had failed and the offending shiny plastic blob was where I'd found it, so I went after it again, popped it and made it more secure and put it in the trash after I got out.
I'll swim Saturday morning at 7:30 and Sunday at 11.
Sunny and clear with a slight breeze. Toes in the water at 900 AM. The micro climate water phenomenon continued today. It was 51° inside the buoy line and 52 to 53 outside… the bump seemed to have increased during my swim as did the swell. It was a good morning Swim.
It was beautiful in Avila Beach this morning with excellent swimming conditions. Last night the wind was howling in San Luis Obispo so I was was a surprised to find Avila Beach calm and sunny. The surf was small and the water was glassy with a hint of a SE swell further out. Tom Lorish swam yesterday and thought the water temperature was 51°- 52° so I was expecting a cold swim. It was quite cold at the start, 51° or so, but it was enough 'warmer' between the piers that I kept going and completed my planned route.
The weird part was how much warmer the water along the buoy line felt on the return. I don't usually measure the water temperature until the end of my swim because I want to maintain some deniability about how cold the water was. I measured the water's temp before I came in from the first buoy and it was 54°. There is no way it was that temp at the start 90 minutes earlier and I haven't an explanation for how the water warmed up that much.
At the showers the sunshine felt nice.
I'll swim Thursday morning at 7, Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 11.
Blue skies and sunny. Beautiful sunny day at when I arrived at 10 00a.m. The water was calm with a slight bump to it and almost no waves to speak of. They were very clear micro climates in the water. The buoy line was about 51, 52 and a little bit out further out was 54–55. Beautiful Monday morning vitamin.
Kurtis, David Cheney and Niel swam at 11. Swimming conditions were wonderful. It was sunny and warm on the beach with a west breeze that strengthened to a steady blow. It was 60° when I arrived at 10:15 and 80° when I returned to my car. The water was 53° but with the sunshine it felt a felt a degree or two warmer. The surf was small and the lifeguards were doing water rescue training on the east side of the pier. I was more comfortable in the water than I should be in 53° water.
Kurtis, Niel and David at the Avila Pier
Today's plan was to start by swimming the west buoy line and beyond to the first crossbars on the Poly Pier, to swim back to the Avila Pier and to continue on along the east buoy line and beyond to Fossil Point before returning.
The first leg heading west was a rough swim because we were headed into the chop and current. The chop one foot and would slap my head every few seconds. Heading back was like running downhill. We were pushed all of the way to Fossil Point. The east side of the Avila Pier was more sheltered from the wind and chop so swimming from the point to the pier was not as physical of a swim.
It was so nice at the showers that I didn't think to use my hot water.
I'll swim Tuesday and Thursday at 7 and Saturday at 7:30.
The group got in at 7:35. It was 53°, gray and drizzly, with a breeze out of the SE that had pushed up a bit of chop. The water was 52° but would feel a degree or two colder due to the wind and the lack of any sunshine. The surf was small and the water was nice and clean. We decided to do a triangle or two. After last weekend's water temperatures in the high 50's we were all a bit startled when we grouped up at the first buoy. We swam east along the buoy line and completed a triangle. There was a sailboat moored near the mouth of the creek. We swam past it on the west side, spoke to the owner, he was from Alaska, to the 4th buoy on the west side and back to the pier. At that point Paula went in and the three of us continued to the 4th buoy on the east side, to the end of the Avila Pier and in. The cold water emersion group was getting out at the same time we did. The sun was peaking out when we were at the showers.
Looking at my notes, last year it was late June when we saw water temperatures stick above 55°, so we will have another month of cold water swimming until summer conditions arrive.
Paula, Jodi, Tom I., and Niel at the 4th buoy
on the east side of the Avila Pier
The lifeguards were training the new recruits. They all ran down the beach until they were even with the 4th buoy on the west side, swam out to the buoy and back to the beach, ran up the beach to touch the seawall, ran back to the water, turned left and ran down the beach until even with the third buoy and did it again, and continued for all of the 8 buoys.
I'm planning on swimming tomorrow at 11. It will be nice is there is some sun.
The swimming conditions are back to our new 'normal' and last weekend's 'tropical' conditions are a vague memory. This morning it was 48°, gray and foggy with one mile visibility. At 6:40 there was no wind, the surf was 2 foot and the tide was very low. At 8:30 the fog had moved off and the clouds were starting to break up. Tom Lorish was going to swim later this morning and he should have gotten some sunshine.
I measured a water temperature of 53° but while I was swimming I was thinking it was 51°. After last weekends water temps in the high 50's I'm still working on accepting 52° water as normal.
I did a Yo-Yo on the west side. The water was smooth and flat but seemed to have dirtied up some. With no sunlight it was hard to tell for sure.
I'll swim with Jodi, Tom Israel and Paula at 7:30 on Saturday and at 11 on Sunday.
Similar, but different. I arrived at Avila at 900 AM. Like Monday there was a breeze blowing from the east to the west, clear skies and dimpled water. The difference was instead of Mondays 55°, the water was down to 52. A big drop but not unexpected with the cold winds that were blowing overnight. Excellent swimming.
Looking west from Fossil Point towards the Avila Pier
It was a beautiful morning in Avila Beach today. It was clear and sunny, 52°, with no wind, clean water and small waves. I swam from the end of the Avila Pier to the Poly Pier and back, then over to Fossil Point and back.
With the cooler weather I was expecting the water temperature to be below the 55° that Tom Lorish reported yesterday morning. Wading in was OK but my hands and face told me the water temp was in the low 50's. A quarter of the way to the Poly Pier the temp dropped one to two degrees and I began thinking that this would be a shorter swim than I had planned. I was more comfortable when I turned around at the P Pier. Coming back I was anticipating the temperature drop but it never happened. The water felt more like the mid 50's on the east side of the Avila Pier. On my way in I measured 55° at the buoy line. I don't know were the colder water was for the second half of my swim. 55° was fine by me.
Off of Fossil Point
The water was glassy the whole way except for some swell bouncing off of Fossil Point.
And it was sunny and warm at the showers.
I'll swim Thursday at 7 and Saturday at 7:30 with Tom Israel, Jodi and Paula.
Blue skies and breezy. There was a cool breeze blowing from east to west. The dimpled water was flat with no swell to speak of. The water temperature cooled off from yesterday to about 56°. It was a lovely Monday morning vitamin.
I took the water temperature from the Avila Pier and read 58.5°. It was sunny and in the low 70's with a light SE breeze with 2 to 3 foot surf.
Tom Lorish texted that he had taken some of the CP women from the water polo team for a swim.
Before Kurtis and I got in we were treated to a surprise visit from Jackie Bloom and her husband. Jackie was a regular swimmer with the Avila Dolphins back in the day and I have not seen her in many years.
I wanted to do a Poly Pier loop. Kurtis was looking for a mile plus so we decided to swim the west buoy line to the Poly Pier and out along the pier to a point where Kurtis felt it was his point to head back and I'd continue on for the rest of the loop.
Kurtis swam to the third crossbars on the Poly Pier and from there headed for the beach at the yacht club. I swam to the end of the pier, to and around the reef buoy and back along the east buoy line to our starting point.
Kurtis and Niel at the 4th buoy on the west side, near the mouth of the creek.
It was so comfortable and relaxing in the water today, I enjoyed swimming today in a way that I have not since last summer. Starting tomorrow the air temperature will drop back down to a seasonal level and I expect that the water temperature to drop as well.
I'll swim Tuesday at 7AM but I'm expecting a water temperature below 55°
A couple of sunny days with temperatures in the upper 80's and the ocean warmed up to a nice swimming temperature. Jodi, Niel and Paula got in at about 7:40. It was sunny and calm with 2 foot + surf and clean water. There was a wind chop offshore that would soon reach Avila.
The water felt cool but not shocky and was very relaxing.
Paula had not been in the ocean since January and Jodi was just over a cold that was COVID, so we planned a triangle route to let people drop off when it seemed like a good idea. We all swam the same route doing a triangle and a half.
Clear skies, sunny and warm. It was already 67° air temperature when I arrived at Avila at 920 AM. There were clear wind and lines dividing the dimpled water from the glassy calm water. I could feel the difference when I was swimming as well. The water temperature was 54° and the swimming was excellent.
People were flocking in when I arrived and even more when I left.
The air temperature was up to 62° at 7:30, compared to 47° on Tuesday, but all of the other conditions were the same. The warmer air temperature was not enough to outweigh the gray sky and 52° water temperature, so it was still a chilly swim.
Saturday Jodi, Paula and I will swim at 7:30 and and with the temperature in the upper 80's on Friday and Saturday we have a shot at more summer like conditions.
Heavy marine layer, flat dimple water and 2 to 3 foot waves rolling in. The water quality was improved from Monday and the temperature was about 52°. It was a nice morning Swim.
Avila was a nice place to swim this morning. The water was flat and clean with a small swell running. About one wave in 8 required some attention. There was a solid ceiling of fog or low clouds so it was all grey down to where the horizon should be. The air temp was 47° and I measured a water temp of 53°, but with the lack of sun it felt more like 51° or 52°. I got in on the west side of the pier and did a couple of simple triangles. When I got out I felt a bit chilled, hustled into my wool and fleece and headed home for breakfast.
I'll swim Thursday at about 7 and Saturday at 7:30.
Clear but hazy skies, a cool breeze, and a little bit of rock 'n' roll. The ocean was moving, rolling, rocking, but it didn't translate into much of a wave. The water was about 51° and colder in some spots. The amazing water clarity we had last week was gone by yesterday and still cloudy today. The swim was a good Monday morning vitamin.
There was partial sun and it was very windy in Avila Beach. The air temperature was 59° and the water was 51.5°. The wind was strong, constant and from the west. There were one to two foot whitecaps in to the surf line. The surf was up with the usual 2 to 3 footers bookended by 5 foot plus breakers.
There was 'sunshine' but it was a tease. Avila was in the shadow of a huge single high thin cloud that covered almost half of the sky, so there was blue sky to the east and west but not at the beach.
The lifeguard academy is under way so the candidates had plenty of water conditions to augment their training.
Kurtis joined me today which was a nice surprise. He lives in Morro Bay and it has been several years since he swam with us. Recently he had been swimming in tropical waters. He brought a farmer john wetsuit and wasn't sure he would be warm enough.
The lifeguards were in the water on the left side of the pier so we got in on the right side at 11 o'clock. The water was very rough so I planned on doing a triangle or so depending on how the swimming was. Kurtis and I discussed that with his lack of recent cold water experience he should get out as soon as he was not having fun. We waded in and met up at the #1 buoy.
At the #1 buoy Kurtis was really feeling the cold so he headed back to the beach. I spoke with him afterwards., going in wads the right call and he will be back next Sunday with a full surfing wetsuit.
Swimming was all about timing and getting banged around. Starting out going west into the chop and then SE across the chop was a full tilt way to begin but I quickly found the right rhythm and settled in. From the end of the pier to the 4th buoy on the east side was down hill and from #4 to #1 the water was in the shadow of the pier so the chop was smaller. I had a nice swim.
When I arrived back at the #1 buoy the lifeguards were at the pier learning how to peel a panicked swimmer off of a piling and to then deal with the flailing swimmer who, now that they no longer had the piling to hang onto, now wanted to climb up on you.
I'll swim Tuesday and Thursday at 7, Saturday at 7:30 and next Sunday at 11.
Tom Lorish swam earlier this morning and had the same conditions.
Saturday morning the air temperature in Avila Beach was 55° with solid overcast, no sun, no horizon and a light wind. I measured a water temperature of 53° off of the pier.
This big boy was steadily working the Avila Pier Mussel Buffet. He'd pull one off of a piling, swim out from under the pier, crack the shell with a bite, chow down and go back for another.
Tom Israel and I got in at 7:30. The surf was small, we swam to the end of the pier and decided to go to the Avila Rock.
The water felt like it was 52° - 53°, it is still very clean and the swimming conditions are excellent. The water warmed up a bit about half way to the rock. We swam to the south of the rock to miss the kelp and hung out for a bit watching an otter cracking clams. A west wind had come up and the swim back was into a medium chop. From the end of the Avila Pier we swam to the 4th buoy on the east side and back along the buoy line to make our distance.
Tom and Niel at the Avila Rock
The clean water encouraged some fun.
After 90 minutes swimming in cold water Tom and I enjoyed some calorie replenishment.
King Arthur's Gluten Free Brownies are the best brownies ever. There is magic in the box.
I'll swim tomorrow at 11. It would be nice if there was some sun.
