Sunday, April 4th, 2010

Rob was late getting home from a meet in Semi Valley, rain was predicted and and I had an invitation to breakfast, so, nobody swam today. Rob and I are going to try for Wedmesday at 5:30.

niel

Sunday, March 28, 2010

It is spring break and there were lots of people at the beach today. The weather was beautiful, warm and sunny with no wind. The water was very clear and 53 degrees with no chop or current. We had one seal playing along the surf line. Rob and I swam down the buoy line to the creek, over to the Cal Poly pier and doubled back along out route. Sylvia swam the right half of the buoy line. Kris went for a walk and joined us on the beach.
This Wednesday's evening swim will be at 5:30 unless it is canceled due to rain.

niel

Wednesday, March24th, 2010

Rob and I swam at 6 on Wednesday evening. The water was 56 and had a small chop but no whitecaps. The only other beings out there were about 6 gulls. We swam the right side of the triangle and then retired to the Avila Grocery where Kris joined us for dinner. The food was good and reasonably priced. Rob and I are going do this again next Wednesday, but a half hour earlier at 5:30. Sundays are still on as usual.

niel

Sunday March 21st, 2010

Niel and Pete make their way into the ocean

Today was a great day to swim. It was sunny with thin clouds and no wind. The ocean was as flat as it gets and very clean looking with no chop or swell and just an occasional 2' breaker to ruffle the surface. The water temperature was back up to a more seasonal correct 54. Swimming today were Rob Dumouchel, Steve Mowrey, Pete, who is from Atascadero for his first time swimming with us, Dani, who swam with us last summer and Niel. Sylvia and Kris were on the beach. We swam the triangle route counterclockwise. Rob brought along a waterproof camera (tied to the leash of his wetsuit) so there may be some photos.

For anyone who is interested in swimming with us please check the swimavila.com website for details on how to find us and when we swim.

Now that the time has changed we are going to try swimming Wednesday evenings. Rob and I are swimming this Wednesday(3/24) at 6PM, same location as on Sundays. If it works well we will keep doing it. Clam chowder afterwards is a real possibility. A bowl at the Avila Market is $6.50, or about $10 at the Custom House.

niel

Niel and Pete at the end of the pier
Dani coming around the pier
Niel and Steve plotting the next leg of the swim
Rob taking a break
shot of the pier from the water

Rob and Niel getting suited up, Sylvia hanging out in the background

Sunday March 14th, 2010

Beautiful springtime conditions today; sunny, comfortable on the beach, some nice waves and a steady offshore breeze that was holding up the faces for the surfers and pushing the water temperature down. The water was 51 and reasonably clear with no silt washing out from the creek. I do not believe that I have seen that temperatuer since last spring. On the beach we had Sylvia and Kris and for swimmers we had Niel, Steve Mowrey and Andrew. It was great to see Steve, he is getting back into racing and has some events coming up. Andrew is a Masters swimmer from Fresno, was here with his family, had seen this blog and wanted to get in the ocean. We swam both halves of the buoy line and I found myself more comfortable with the water temperature than I thought I would be. Outside of the water temperature we had very nice swimming conditions.
Dave VanMouwerik came by and visited for a while. He was here with his son and two other friends get in some ocean swimming time before next Saturday when his son will be trying out for the Avila Life Guards. Good luck to him.

niel

Sunday, March7th, 2010

It was sunny and warm on the beach except for when the clouds were hiding the sun. The water temperature was 55.5and the tide was way out. The water was clean enough for a swim except for directly in front of the creek where it was muddy. Not much in the way of waves. The wind was coming up but there were no whitecaps. I decided to swim the triangle on the left side of the pier both ways, clock ways and then counterclockwise. The wind pushed up the chop quite quickly so I had a rougher swim than I expected requiring that I work out where and how to breath and to stay loose for those occasions when my reaches ended in air instead of water. It took me 40 minutes. There never were any whitecaps. The wind seemed to die down after I got out and Kris and I had a very pleasant lunch on the beach.

niel

Sunday February 28th, 2010

High tide was at 9:14 AM and there were some 5' - 6' sets. When we got there at 10:15 the waves were running up almost to the bottom of the stairs. Kris and I set up on the strip of dry sand next to the wall. Lots of driftwood, pieces of pilings, kelp and oil blobs on the beach. The water temperature was 56 but I thought it was too dirty to go in. It was t-shirt and shorts comfortable near the wall so Kris and I read, had lunch and then headed for home.

niel

Sunday February 14th, 2010

It was a nice day at the beach today. After the rain ad being out of town it had been a month since I was in the ocean. It was sunny,clear and warm at Avila. The water was 56 and somewhat dirty looking due to the high surf. The wind was steady and offshore. It was close to high tide and the tops of the big sets were kissing the bottom of the pier. There was also a plume at the mouth of the creek. The sandbar that is usually at the mouth has been pulled out so the creek is now running directly into the ocean. There ware about a dozen surfers in the water on the east side of the pier. Pete Kelly said that he had counted 50 surfers in the water earlier, closer to high tide. Sylvia elected to work on her tan lines. I was lucky with my timing and had no trouble getting out. I swam down to the last, and now the only, buoy on the Pismo side, went to the end of the pier and in to the middle of the buoy line on the port side, avoiding the dirty water near the mouth of the creek. It was not a day to cross under the pier so I came in on the port side. By the time I was having lunch the beach had filled up with families and kids, enjoying the sun and the long weekend.

niel

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

I was in Cayucos celebrating my birthday and missed going to the beach today. The water in Cayucos looked dirty but there were a lot of surfers out. At high tide the waves were hitting the bottom of the pier, 1-1/2 to 2X overhead, so a little muddy water wasn't going to keep them out of the fun. I did get some good pictures. I don't know if the waves were as large or the water was any cleaner at Avila. Did anyone get wet?

niel

Sunday, January 24, 2010

It was a day of brown and black. I was concerned about the water quality due to the runoff from the rain so I rode to Avila adn had lunch on the beach with Sylvia. The ocean was chocolate colored from runoff. While the SLO County Health Department has yet to post any advisories for poor water quality, Sylvia told me that virtually all of the beaches in Santa Barbara county were closed due to polluted runoff so it seemed like a good day to stay out. The tide was very low and a lot of material has been pulled off of the the beach buy the storm surf. Most of the beach sand had a salt and pepper appearance due to the quantity of oil particles that were mixed in with the sand and there were numerous globs of tar that ranged in size from a silver dollar to desert plate. Sylvia and I picked up some non-natural debris from the beach, including some shattered pieces of boat hull. Gerry Gross came buy to check out the surfing conditions. He told me that on Wednesday the surf was cresting out beyond the end of the Avila pier and then reforming and breaking again closer in, which was wilder that he had ever seen it including the years that he lived at Avila. There is more rain predicted, beginning tonight and off and on through next Friday, so it is had to predict if the water will have cleared up by next Sunday.
It is hard to remember now that less than a month ago I was wondering if the string of beautiful Sundays was ever going to end and that we would get some winter weather.

niel

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

It was just starting to spit rain when I got to the beach. The swimming conditions looked OK; the breakers had not pushed up too much yet and it was flat out at the buoy line. The water temperature was 55.5. Sylvia and I watched the ocean for a while and had a chance to speak with Barry Cleavland. Barry swam with us some years ago, was out on a bike ride and was taking a break at the foot of the pier. She had also spoken earlier to Duke and Angela who were out on a walk. Duke is on the disabled list with two broken ribs due to a bike crash. I'll let him tell you the whole story. It began to change from spitting to rain, Barry needed to get back to town and Sylvia and I decided that the two of us didnt create sufficient critical mass to get us in the water. Swimming next Sunday looks questionable. With the amount of rain we are supposed to get in the next 5 days the water quality is likely to be poor from all of the runoff. If it is sunny, I'll always come to just have lunch on the beach.

niel

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

It was another very nice day at Avila Beach. It was warm and sunny with some 6' to 7' sets of waves. The tide was very low so the large waves were starting to break just inside the buoy line. There was a slight left to right wind and current. Sylvia swam out to the buoy and I did the triangle route clockwise. Getting in and out was easy a long as you waited for the breaks in the sets.
Sylvia brought by a great book that a lot of you would be interested in. It is Swimming Anatomy, ' Your illustrated guide for swimming strength, speed and endurance' by Ian Mcleod. It is exercises categorized by stroke and body part with great illustrations.

niel

Sunday, Jamuary 3, 2010

If you were out here from Ohio for the Rose Bowl game, today's weather would make it very hard to go home. It was clear and sunny at Avila with just a slight offshore wind. The air temperature was in the upper 60's and the water was back to a seasonally correct 54.5. I continue to thank the ocean gods for that nice bump up in the water temperature on New Year's Day. There have been some high tides and the wash line is up to the bottom of the stairs. There were some nice waves today but they were spaced out enough that getting in and out was not a problem. Rob and I swam around the pier and Sylvia got wet enough to enjoy the warm sun up next to the wall. Duke and Angela came by on their way out for a run. They are going to do a bike training camp and will be back at the beach in a couple of weeks.
Rob haas posted a selection of the pictures from New Year's Day on the blog at http://swimavila.blogspot.com/


niel

New Years Day Swim Pictures!

Friday, New Year's Day, 2010

We had very nice conditions and a great turnout of our New Years Day swim. It was overcast with an air temperature in the mid-60's that felt quite warm when the sun peaked through. The sea was flat with no wind and small surf. The water temperature was a unseasonable and very welcome 59. The Health Department had posted a water quality warning early in the week but it was cleared on Wednesday. Tom Lorish (wetsuit) swam out from the beach to the end of the pier to escort us back in. Niel, Mat Farmer, Kevin Watkins, and at 72, Sylvia Glenn jumped off of the the end of the pier (no wetsuits). Dale (wetsuit) and Leslie (no wetsuit) went in off of the floating dock at the end of the pier. The support crew who carried our stuff, took the pictures and created the energy to make it possible consisted of; Big Steve and Nan, Duane and Linda, Matt's whole family, Fred Casillas and Tom Mc Neill and Moodie. We had an outstanding pot luck lunch on the beach with more food than we could finish. I had a great time and look forward to seeing everyone at the beach in the coming year. Give me a day or so to get the pictures posted on the website.

niel