Sunday August 1,2010

Our cold summer weather continues. It was very gray at Avila his morning with thick clouds all the way of the horizon. Visibility was fine but there was no warmth. The water temperature was 57.5, a little wind with a lot more south in it than is usual, (more typical of when we are expecting rain) but no real chop and an occasional 3+ft. wave. The water was dirty, possibly because to the southern wind. No fishermen on the pier, virtually no birds or any sign of sea life. Niel, Sylvia, Brittany and Chad swam. Rick and Rhonda enjoyed lunch on the beach. We swam the buoy line. Brittany dropped off at half way. The water was oddly warmer on the creek side of the pier. This was not a major swim but afterwards I felt good, Sylvia was smiling and I think it helped Chad cure his jet-lag.

I'll be here on Wednesday evening.

niel

Wednesday July 26th, 2010

It was a beautiful night in Avila and the ocean was nice and lively. You could see the occasional whitecap from up on the beach and there was plenty of chop out there waiting for us. We didn't have an official water temperature reading tonight but the consensus was cold... probably 56ish

We were 5 swimmers deep tonight and we all took the same route. We did the triangle around the pier in the clockwise direction. The leg from the end of the left side of the buoy line to the top of the pier was straight into the chop and pretty burly.

If anybody has and interest in swimming an open water race there's some good ones coming up the next couple weeks around California. On Saturday we've got the Santa Cruz Rough Water, it's approximately 1 mile and very popular. You can register on the beach but make sure you're early, there was quite a line last year for same day registration. On August 15th is the Naples Island Swim down in Long Beach which features 1 and 3 mile swims. I'll be at both of them, if you want to go or have questions let me know! (you can catch me at rob@robaquatics.com)

Rob D.

Sunday, July25, 2010

Avila had a high layer of solid gray clouds at 10:15. Not really fog because I could see the sand slide at the very south end of the Pismo dunes, but there was no sun and no wind of any kind. It was not very cold, 60+, but gloomy. Actually, it was perfect weather for the San Luis Obispo Triathlon. I had a 7:30 start time and it was nice and cool from start to finish and almost spitting on part of the bike. The lack of wind at Avila made the swimming conditions in the ocean better than in the pool at the race. The water was 57 and glassy with just little ripples or wavelets on the surface. You could water ski out there. I wanted to do the buoy line easy and work the soreness out, which was fine for Duke and Eric. Rob and Sylvia were at a long course meet in Fullerton. Everyone else might of been at the Triathlon. We had a very nice swim. I felt better at the end than at the start.
The sun came out at 12:45 and it warmed up a lot.
I will not be swimming this Wednesday evening. I'll be at the Fair having my annual immersion in heat, country music, pig races, funnel cakes and corn dogs. I should plan some extra long workouts for the remainder of the week to aid my post-fair recovery.
I'll be back at the beach next Sunday.

niel

Wednesday Evening, July 21. 2010

It was sunny, crowded and breezy at Avila at 5 PM. The wind was the 'traditional' Avila afternoon breeze from the NW. The chop was under 1' with not much white capping but certainly more than anything you would ever experience in a pool, offering an opportunity for a real ocean swim. The water was clean and 58 degrees. I saw no seals and hardly any shore birds before we swam. This evening we had Samantha, Bob, Ryan, Eric, Niel and Rob. We went in on the west side of the pier to best avoid the fishing lines that were trailing way off of the east side of the pier with the wind. We swam down the buoy line to the creek and grouped up to decide how we felt about the conditions and to plan the rest of the swim. Samantha chose to stay along the buoy line. The rest of the group elected to do the 'traditional' (or habitual) triangle swim. The leg to the end of the Avila Pier was across the chop. From there to the last buoy to the east of the pier we had a nice push and the leg home was into the chop. This was a great opportunity for me to make use of breathing on either side, choosing whichever worked better for that leg, and to remember to keep my head down. When it gets choppy I tend to want to lift my head up when I breath, instinctively thinking that I will be more likely to get a liquid free breath, but it actually works better to stay relaxed, keep my head down and just breath into the pocket of air at my shoulder on whichever side works better. We picked up Sam on the leg back to the pier and saw three seals nearby. The swim took us about 40 minutes and felt great.
Sunday Rob and Sylvia will be at a Masters long course meet in Fullerton. I am doing the SLO Triathlon. I should be at the beach in time to swim at 11 but if I am last I'll catch up in the water.

niel

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Weather you chose to call it high fog or low clouds, it was very gray at Avila Sunday morning. The clouds were high enough for the visibility to be unobstructed, I could see bird rock off of Shell Beach, so the gray was going to be more of a mood thing than actually interfering with our ability to swim. There was very little wind and just enough of a ripple on the water to keep it from being glassy. Two foot surf, a water temperature of 59 and no sea birds or seals in sight. There was a lot of loose kelp in the water. Samantha from the Central Coast Tri Club was here with two new ocean swimmers. She worked with them along the buoy line, helping them get comfortable in this big pool. Our group was Sylvia, Niel, Peter, Duke, Dale, Rick and Eric. Big Steve is watching our stuff and requiring his toe test skills. There was some boat traffic around so we did not stray too far from the area around the Avila pier. We swam the buoy line clockwise, out to the end of the Avila Pier, to the buoy at the creek and back along the buoys to the pier. The warmer water temperature sure takes the edge off that that comes with 55 degrees and under and makes it very comfortable to be out in the water.
Rob was in Indiana this past weekend and completed his first 10K swim in the Morse Reservoir in Noblesville, Ind. With a water temperature in the mid 80's and an air temperature in the 90's I think that this swim should count as a double. You can check out his post about the race at robaquatics.com. The additional effort required to compete in water that warm with that much sun on your back makes dehydration (while swimming!) a real issue. Rob, you need to get some of your competitors from the mid west and Atlantic states out here for some miles in water that is a good 25 degrees colder. It would even up the odd for you.

niel

Wednesday Evening, July 14, 2010

It was beautiful at Avila this evening. It was sunny and warm and there were more people on the beach and in the water at 5 PM than I usually see on a Sunday at noon. Part of the reason must of been a water temperature of 63! Whoah, this was unexpected. The wind was offshore, blowing from left to right, which usually pushes the water temperature down, but for some unknown and welcome reason had not yet had its usual effect. The wind was steady and strong enough to put up a mild chop but other than that the swimming conditions looked wonderful. I saw only one lonely pelican and no seals before we got in. It was David, a triathlete and strong swimmer who I last saw here a couple of weeks ago, Rob and myself. We decided to do something just a little different. We swam directly out to the end of the Avila Pier and from there over to the second set of crossbars on the Poly Pier, where a couple of harbor seals popped up to check us out. From there we swam to the last buoy at the creek and then along the buoy line, under the Avila Pier and back in to our starting place on the beach. There were some spots with big changes in water temperature and at the buoy at the creek you could feel the much colder water 3 feet below the surface. Near the end of the Avila Pier I was thinking that my wetsuit with sleeves was too warm. The swim took us 40 minutes.

niel

Sunday, July 11, 2010

At 11 o'clock we had low gray sky's, no wind, no chop, no swell and small waves. Not too many people on the beach on this non-holiday weekend. The water temperature was 57 and I saw one seal in the surf while I was taking the temperature. Not many sea birds around but there were a good number of optimistic fishermen on the pier. It was couples day at Avila. We had Big Steve and Nan, Niel and Kris, Duke and Angela, Al and Dale and Rick Marina and Sylvia. Rick, Niel, Duke and Dale swam the triangle/buoy line counter clockwise, swinging by the end of the pier, for about a mile in give or take 30 minutes. We had beautiful swimming conditions; flat water with no current. The sun came out as we were finishing up. By 12:30 the wind was coming up and I think that there were going to be whitecaps on the water by 1.
The next swim will be Wednesday evening at 5:30.

niel

Wednesday Evening, July 7, 2010

Avila was sunny and fog free at 5 PM. There were still quite a few people on the beach and in the water, which is always a good sign. The water temperature was 57.5 with good visibility. There was a steady wind from the west and a chop on the water that was just short of white capping that extended all of the way in to the surf line. There were quite a few fishermen on the pier, a few small groups of pelicans in the air and one seal playing in the surf. We had four swimmers; Rob, Pete, Joel and Niel. We did the triangle counterclockwise, starting on the right side of the pier to avoid the fishing lines that were streaming downwind on the left side of the pier. I thought that the water temperature was comfortable (in my full wetsuit) and the chop was enough to make me mindful of my head position but not to the point of upping my seawater intake. Nobody was interested in pushing it so we just had a nice swim.

Rob is competing in a 2 mile race in a lake in Virginia this weekend and he has reports that the hot weather may push the water temperature into the upper 80's or even higher! Does Blue 70 make a cool suit?

niel

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Kind of an odd day at Avila but a nice day for swimming and eating. It was gray over the beach at Avila and sunny a quarter of a mile inland and over at Pismo. What wind there was had changed from its typical summer direction of out of the NW and was coming from the west and southwest, holding the fog over Avila. With the fog it was very calm, with no chop and no sign of the 'big' southern swell that had been predicted. The water temperature was 57, the water had good visibility. There were numerous fishermen on the pier and seals and a nice pod of dolphins along the buoy line. On the beach we had Sylvia, Niel and Kris, Rob, Chad, Dale and Al, Dave Van Mouwerik, Rick and Rhonda Marina and Pete. We had 8 swimmers. Nobody was feeling like hammering it so we swam both sides of the the buoy line in about 30 minutes and headed for our pot luck lunch on the beach. The fair ranged from shrimp through broccoli salad to homemade apple pie with vanilla ice cream. We probably should of stayed in the water longer.

Rob and I will be swimming Wednesday at 5:30.

niel

June 30th, 2010

We were four swimmers deep tonight... Rob, Pete, Eric and David. We did the triangle starting with the right hand side of the pier. The water was fairly calm and WARM! No official reading but my human thermometer says high 50's, maybe even 60! Hopefully that sticks around for the weekend.

The plan is to come back out on Sunday at the regular time and have a pot luck lunch after the swim.

See you there!

Rob D.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Today, in addition to the regular Sunday swim, a small group had planned to go long and do what we call the Martini swim. The Martini route starts by following the Avila Pier out along its length to the end. From there, straight to the end of the Cal Poly Pier, then to the rock off of Fossil Point and then back to the end of the Avila Pier and in along the pier to the beach (see, the route is shaped like a martini glass, and this swim can be done in either direction). However, the fog was unusually thick Sunday morning. At 10 it was hanging on the surface of the water thick enough to make it hard to see the end of the Cal Poly pier and impossible to see the rock off of Fossil Point. If it did not improve the poor visibility would be a problem for the 2.4 mile swim that was planned for today, as the longest leg of the route would be the .93 mile stretch from the end of the Poly pier to the Fossil Point rock. Getting lost in the fog 3/4 of a mile off shore could result in a lot more swimming than planned. Things got more complicated when I checked the water temperature and got at reading of 53.5, so we could add cold water to the chance of getting lost in the fog. The water temperature seems to be swinging between extremes this summer, since we have already experienced both 50 and 60 degrees since spring. Well, ocean swimming is about adaptability, so we modified the route, the weather cooperated and we had a great swim. At 11 we had seven swimmers ready. The fog had lifted and was thinning, so the visibility was OK but due to the colder than expected water temperature we modified the route to provide bail out points should a swimmer get cold. The entire group would swim the right side of the buoy line to the last buoy at the creek. From there the regular 1 mile +/- swim would continue to the end of the Avila Pier and then back to the buoy line. Those going long would swim to the end of the Poly Pier, back to the end of the Avila Pier, (giving both a bail out route back to the beach for anyone getting cold and a much closer mark to swim to if the fog thickened) and from there to the rock, back to the pier and in. Sylvia and Dale were going to hang out on the beach. Susan, Gary Cushing, Eric, and Rick Marina were going to do about a mile. Duke, Rob and Rob's friend Matt from S. Cal. would go long. I was providing kayak support for the long swim. With the fog there was no wind so other than being cold, the water was flat and perfect for swimming. When we returned to the Avila Pier Matt decided to go in while Rob and Duke continued on out to the rock and back. Twice a harbor seal came by to see what we were doing. It was 12:30 when I dropped Duke and Rob off at the buoy line so they had been in the water for about 90 minutes adn had definitly earned a Att'a Boy! and a nice lunch.

If conditions are favorable I'm interested in doing this swim in the fall. Watch this post or check with me at the beach if you are interested.

Next Sunday is the Fourth of July. We will have a pot luck lunch after the swim.
See you then.

niel






*More pictures available here on Facebook and over on Rob's website

Wednesday Evening, June 23, 2010

Flat and Warm - There were still quite a few people on the beach, and even some in the water at 4:45, which is always a good sign. The lifeguards are now on duty until 6PM. There was no surf or swell and just enough breeze to ruffle the surface last night. The water temperature was 58.5. We had seven swimmers out to enjoy a very beautiful evening. Niel. Pete, Rob, Ryan and Eric were joined by Vince and Dave. Vince lives in Santa Barbara, is in his early 70's and seems to of spent most of his life swimming in pools and the ocean. He had seen the SwimAvila website and decided to drive up and join us. Dave caught up with us once we were in the water. I did not get a chance to speak with him but I believe that he is a local triathlete. Hopefully we will see more of both of them at future swims. We swam the triangle route clockwise. At the end of the pier Ryan and Dave elected to come in along the pier while the rest of the group continued on to the buoy at the creek, then back along the buoy line, through the pier and in.
I picked up a green cap and goggles that had been left at the top of the stairs. Dave was the only green cap, so if anyone knows Dave have him call me at 805.704.1817.

niel

Sunday, July 20, 20210

It was beautiful at Avila when I got there this morning; sunny, calm and flat. However before I was done taking the temperature (54) a bit of a breeze out of the West had started up. At 11 it had strengthened to the point of setting up a head high chop with occasional whitecaps that extended inside the buoy line, so it was going to be a real ocean swimming day. Swimming today were Niel, Sylvia, Patrick, Dale, Duke, Chad, Brittany, Matt Farmer (!), and Peter. We went out on the left side of the pier, through the pier and down to the last buoy. This was by far the roughest day that Brittany had been out in so she went short and returned to the beach. Matt (no wetsuit) decided to return back along the buoy line and go in. The rest of us went to the end of the Avila Pier and on to the last buoy on the left, and back along the buoy line to the pier and in. The first leg towards the creek which was directly into the chop was the roughest. Those head high waves are big enough to break over your head making them easy to inhale, but not large enough to lift you so you can breath. The downwind leg from the end of the pier to the last buoy on the left was fun and fast, with opportunities to surf the bigger waves. The last leg back to our starting point was on the leeward side of the pier and was not as rough as the first leg on the windward side because the pier itself deflects some of the wind and the chop gets flattened out when it passes through the pilings. Everyone was smiling once we were back on the beach getting warmed up in the sun, having enjoyed the challenge of a swim with real ocean 'conditions'.

niel

Wednesday Evening, June 16, 2010

It was sunny at Avila with an unusual left to right breeze. The wind was stead enough to have pushed up a small chop. The water was 57. I have only seen seals and shore birds occasionally and there were none in sight tonight. We had eight swimmers; Duke, Rob, Pete, Dana, Dave, Ryan, Joel and Niel. Joel is a member of SLO Tri Club and this was his first swim with us. We went out to the buoy line and left to the last buoy. It was strange swimming into a chop in this direction but it was just big enough to be interesting and not challenging. The water felt much warmer to me compared to recent swims and I was very comfortable. From the last buoy we swam to the end of the Avila Pier. At that point Niel, Rob and Ryan came in parallel to the pier and the rest of the group angled over to the last buoy on the right side of the pier, near the mouth of the creek and from there back along the buoys to the pier and in. The longer swim was about 1.3 miles.

niel

Sunday, June13th, 2010

The conditions at Avila Beach were a bit of a surprise today. It was warm and sunny in San Luis Obispo so I threw a sweatshirt in with my swim stuff as an afterthought. When I got to the beach I was greeted with FOG and a very cool breeze blowing onshore out of the fog bank. I was actually sunny over the beach but there was a wall of fog from the end of the Cal Poly pier to Fossil Point that was just hanging there. The breeze that I mentioned had built up a medium chop that had not yet formed any white caps. The water temperature was 55 with small surf. We had nine swimmers today; Sylvia, Dale, Brittany, Chad, Duke, Dave, Dana, Dale and Marni. My shoulder seems to like resting so I was sitting this one out. Everybody headed down the buoy line to the left and came back and through the pier. Sylvia and Brittany came in and the rest of the group continued on to the last buoy at the creek. At that point Marni, Chad and Dale returned back along the buoy line and Dana, Dave, Duke and Eric headed over to the Cal Poly pier. From there they swam to the end of the Avila pier and came in to the beach along the pier for a total time of about 50 minutes.



Sylvia and Dale were at the Alcatraz swim last Sunday (the day after Rob's Around Alcatraz swim) and were shut out by fog. Bummer! They were on the boats and out at the rock when the race was called because the fog was not lifting and they were moving out of the time window for the tides. Sylvia said that while they were waiting on the boat at the start point that she could not see Alcatraz from the boat. The start of Rob's race the day before was delayed because of fog and the late start cause the swimmers to experience some difficult and potentially dangerous conditions. Canceling the race was a tough but correct call by the organizers because getting into the water outside of the tide window could result in a swimmer getting a tour of the Golden Gate or having an encounter with a container ship. The organizers held a consolation race in and around the Aquatic Park in which both Sylvia and Dale placed first in their age groups.

I'll (and probably Rob) be there on Wednesday.

niel