May 31, 2015

We had 10 swimmers do the buoy line today.  There were thick gray clouds down to the horizon, no wind, 2' surf and 55 degree water.  It did not look warm and everybody was feeling cold before we got in. Swimming to day were Sylvia, Niel, Amy, Rick, Tom, Leslie, their friend Brian, Stephanie, John Hampsey and Jess. Jess was visiting the area, lives in Oakland and swims in the northern part of San Francisco Bay and at the Aquatic Park.  IF felt colder than 55 to me getting in and it wasn't until I got to the end of the buoy line that I began to feel comfortable. The water was flat and clean and made for great swimming.  

The buoys have not been moved but my Garmin 910 read only .72 miles at the end, which is about .3 miles short of usual......... The only thing that was different was that I was stopping the tracking when we stopped in order to  time only my swimming.  It is just another mystery.

Stephanie and Rick at the start

 Amy and Brian at the start

Tom and Leslie at the last buoy towards the point

Jess and Rick at the same spot 

Tom, Jess, Rick and Leslie before heading under the pier for the second half of the route

The Fourth of July Not Duke's Birthday Port to Avila Swim

Duke's birthday is not on the 4th of July but it is close enough that I'm naming this swim after him. Besides, it was his idea.  The route starts at the little beach at the foot of the Harford Pier, goes to the end of the pier, to the end of the Cal Poly Pier, to the end of the Avila Pier and in to the beach, where we will have a potluck post swim feed. This is a 1.75 mile swim with a long stretch of the course a 1/2 mile offshore.  I'd like to have three support paddlers; front (navigate), a middle rover and a sweep at the rear.  Mark has stepped up with his SUP, so we need two more.  If anyone has a friend or spouse that would like to support this swim it would be much appreciated. We also will need to organise rides over to the port or alternately rides back to pick up the cars afterwards.  Let me know if you are intending to do this swim so I can give the lifeguards a head count.  I want to start this swim (in the water) around 9:30. That will make parking easier and have us back on the beach before it gets too crazy at Avila.

Be advised, several of our swimmers have done this swim successfully but the water quality at the Harford can be kind'a 'industrial' and there are a lot of seals and sea lions there.

niel

Sunday, May 24, 2015

I was out of town so this post was written by John Hampsey.

The day was sunny but windy and cool. The strong breeze was coming out of the west/northwest, according to our magnetically challenged compass. The water was choppy and rough; the water temp around 53. Six entered the water—Amy, Amy Hewes, her brother Bo, John Hampsey, Sylvia, and Aly. Sylvia and Aly did a shorter swim and the other four swam south toward Fossil point. We all took in some water along the way because of the choppy water. After meeting at the last buoy, we decided to take on the quest of swimming to the end of the pier right into the current, wind, and white capped water. It was an edgy and adventurous swim. Hard to stay together and know where the other swimmers were because it was difficult to see over the choppy waves. And our heads kept crashing down against the water between waves. It took a while, but we all made it to the end of the pier, Amy H creatively coming in from the southwest. We then headed to the second buoy north of the pier and from there diagonal into shore. We were all a bit chilled, but it was a great and exhilarating swim into the Avila blue.

Thanks John!
niel

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Avila was grey, overcast and cool. There was a light breeze out of the SW which was just enough to mess up the surface of the water and 1 to 2 foot surf.  The water temperature was 54 degrees. Amy 1, Niel, Shawn Turner, Drina and John Hampsey were going to swim. Sylvia, Rick and Rhonda were on the beach.  Shawn is from Carmichael, does most of his swimming in Folsom Lake and swam with us about 3 years ago when he was last in the area.  We did a simple buoy line swim. We all thought that the water felt cold when we got in and it took 10 or 15 minutes of swimming to get comfortable. The sun came out while we were in the water and made things feel much warmer. We spent a total of 40 minutes in the water and covered a mile.  There is no map today because I left my watch at home.

niel

 Shawn and Drina

 Drina and Shawn

Amy and John

Sunday, May 3, 2015

Lots'a Boats Today

There was the inflatable towing a wake boarder around down by Fossil Point so we decided to swim on the other side of the pier.  It was gray and cool when 6 swimmers got in; Niel, Ali, Duke, Amy 1, Tom Lorish and John Hampsey. John was back after spending several months on a book tour in support of his new memoir.  Because of his break from the water he chose to swim the buoy line on his own.  

The water temperature was 55.5 with great visability. We decided to swim to the Poly Pier and then to the end of the Avila Pier. When we grouped up at the last buoy at the creek we had a couple of Pale Kai outriggers for company and we were joined by a strange ocean creature. 

We swam to our usual spot part way along the Poly Pier, grouped up and headed for the end of the Avila Pier. Half way there we found that a sailboat regatta was forming up at our destination so we revised our route and headed directly back to our starting point. We wound up getting in a little over a mile in about 32 minutes swimming time.

You can see in this photo how clear the water was.

 

Tom wanted to get a half water half air photo and got it done along with a couple of others   that turned out nicely.  

Next weekend Duke will be in Huntington Beach and I will be in Irvine.

Everyone have a safe and fun swim and I'll see you in two weeks.

niel 

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Duke, Niel, Lee, Eric (now spelled correctly), Amy 1, Tom Lorish, Drina and Ali all had a real ocean swim experience today.  It was sunny and comfortable but the wind was out of the SW and picking up. The water was 54 degrees and we the swim zone buoys are back.  At 11 o'clock the water was white capped in past the end of the pier. We decided to swim out to the end of the pier, to Fossil Point and then back along the shore to where we started.  The swim out to the end of the pier was much bumpier that I had anticipated.  When I looked up to spot the group at the end of the pier I was looking right into a breaking whitecap.  This was only the first mouthful of water I was going to get on this swim. We grouped up at the end of the pier and headed towards the point.  We were swimming across the chop at an angle, getting tossed and bent by the waves. The chop was high enough that finding the other swimmers required stopping and getting on top of a swell, so there were a lot of course corrections. We swam into a strong current  on the way back to the pier that did lay down as we got close to the pier.  This swim was more work and real ocean fun that I have had in some time.  1.2 miles in 42 minutes from start to finish.

4th of July Swim
Saturday, the 4th of July we are planning a 1.75 mile adventure swim.  The route will be out along the Harford Pier (at the port) to its end, to the end of the Cal Poly Pier, to the end of the Avila Pier and in along the pier to the beach. 

There will be a potluck lunch afterwards. We will need paddlers. Three or four kayaks, paddleboards or SUP's would be a nice level of support and give us a good profile in the water.  The majority of the route is a half mile offshore so you should be an experienced open water swimmer to consider this swim.
This will be a great way to start the holiday.  
You can post your interest on the Central Coast Open Water Google Group, respond on this  site or talk to me at the beach. 

niel

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Thanks to Amy 1 for writing up the swim blog;  niel

Sunday, April 19

When we arrived pier-side, we were greeted by dolphins cavorting well inside the buoy line. Both the reappearance of the buoys and the dolphins gave us cheer as harbingers of spring and safe waters. The morning was overcast, cool, with little swell, although the swell increased by the time we put in. Without Neil, we had no confirmation of water temp, so, by fiat, I’ll put it at 54 degrees.

Suiting up were Duke, Amy1, Casey, Erik, Drina and Amy2. The non-suited included Pete and Sylvia, who took their own ever-hardy ocean paths. The rest of us made our entry, met up at the first buoy and turned toward the point. We converged at the last (fourth) buoy, did some bobbing and headed back to the first buoy. This was Amy 2’s first trip under the pier, so we discussed do’s and don’ts, as in: “do watch where you’re going,” “don’t go under near a fishing line,” “don’t swim into a piling.” We will review the list when John Hampsey again joins us, since he has been known to be pier-challenged. All succeeded the passage and we were on to the creek buoy, back to and under the pier. Duke announced that this event required a loop back around the first buoy (buoy on the left shoulder) and into shore. Those who did not make the required loop were disqualified. I had no competition for last place in this event.

Although the dolphins neglected to ceremoniously lead us back to shore, the sun was out by the time we beached. Great swim. I have no idea how long it took.

Amy 

Sunday, April 12, 2015

We had spring conditions today; 52.5 degree water, a strong offshore breeze, warm air temperatures and small waves.  Niel, Duke, Jeff and Erik were joined by Amy and Michael who were looking to do some open water swimming.  We decided to stay on the left side of the pier because Wednesday's storm had really dirtied up the water and there was no way to know if the water around the creek mouth had cleaned up.
We went farther out along the pier the usual, grouped up and then swam parallel to the beach towards Fossil Point. We regrouped where the jog is in my route and continued on to the point, returning along the same route. The wind had pushed up a current and small wind chop that we had to work into on the way back. We covered 1.18 miles.

 Amy, Michael, Duke, Erik and Jeff  

Duke describing the route back from Fossil Point. 

niel

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Surprise, surprise, we had a 'normal' spring day today with springtime conditions.  All of the wind earlier in the week had helped push that water temperature down to 51.5 degrees, which is not unusual for this time of the year, in a normal year.  According to my records if the water had held its unnatural warm temperature until the end of April we would have done an entire year of swims without seeing a water temperature below 55 degrees.  Well, it is still some kind of a record.  We had 6 swimmers today; Sylvia, Niel, Pete, Drina, Amy and Tom. Since Sylvia and Pete decline to wear wetsuits they got in and did what they could.

Pete getting in

The rest of us swam down towards Fossil Point and back.  Tom thought that we should all do bunny ears for the photos.

Tom

Niel

Drina

Amy did her ears with her feet.

The water was pretty clear so I was able to get a fish eye view of Tom.

It definitely felt colder than last week but everyone, Peter included, didn't think that it was as cold as they expected.

The weather is going to change this week so the water temperatures may pop back up before next Sunday.

niel

 

Sunday, March 29, 2015

It was full summer at Avila Beach today.

It was sunny and warm, actually too hot by 1 PM. There was a fog bank far offshore that wrapped around towards Pismo Beach and lots of families on the beach.  We had three new swimmers, Brandon, Chris and Breanna, joined Niel, Eric and Jeff. Sylvia did her own swim and Mark was with us to paddle. We did the triangle clockwise, cutting it a bit short and and covering .89 miles.  At the end of the Avila Pier Breanna headed in parallel to the pier while the rest of us swam towards the creek mouth and parallel to the shore back to the pier.
The water was 56.5 degrees with an occasional head high wave and only a slight breeze from the east. It felt like weak offshore breeze conditions.
There is no plot today because Garmin downloaded the data and then flung it somewhere, but not to my account. I'll post it if it shows up later.

Here we are at the end of the first leg.

and at the end of the Avila Pier

niel

Sunday, March 22, 2015

We had company at the beach today.  The lifeguards didn't take any action so it appears that until the swimming zone buoys are back in place we will have to share. 
The water was 57.5 degrees and back to it's normal opaque clarity.  It was comfortably warm but there was a breeze out of the south that seemed to be strengthening. We had Mark with us again today on his inflatable SUP so with him to act as a flag and jet ski spotter we decided to swim on the west side of the pier. Swimming today were Niel, Tom, Ali, Amy and Jeff.  Pete Kelly did his own thing. 

We headed out, under the pier and down to the mouth of the creek and from there over to the Poly Pier and back on a line directly towards the Yacht Club at the base of the pier. The wind kept building so we had to do some extra work on the leg over to the Poly Pier and got pushed really well on the way back. By the time we were out whitecaps were starting to form.  The chop built up more than I expected but I enjoyed the chance to work on the rough water part of my ocean swimming skills.

Here is a nice shot that Ali's mom took from the pier. 

Mark was nice and visible. 

Having the camera along seems to encourage a certain kind of behavior. 

By the time that Mark got back to the base of the pier the wind 

had him paddling on his knees. 

niel

Sunday, MArch 15, 2015

We had a really nice swim today.  It was warm, maybe in the upper 80's, at Avila with thin high clouds, no wind and very clear 57 degree water.   Niel, Tom, Leslie, Ali, Sylvia, Duke, Jeff and Rick were there to swim and Mark joined us on his new inflatable SUP.   We decided to swim over to the Poly Pier and sort'a made up a route from there. Sylvia swam to the Poly Pier and came directly back.  The dogleg in my route on the way to the Poly Pier is a present from Garmin GPS. Duke and I both had a distance of 1.34 miles.

At the end of the beach before heading over to the pier in the background. 

Grouping up at the pier

We swam along the length of the pier for a ways. I decided to simplify my navigation and swim between the pilings.

Grouped up and ready to head back to the ocean end of the Avila Pier, which you can see to the left of Mark's paddleboard.

The water at the end of the Avila Pier was extremely clear so I got this fish eye view of Duke and Rick. 

Rick had the great idea to do the Three Pier Swim that we have not done since the late 1990's. The route  begins on the beach at the west side of the Harford Pier, goes out and around the end of that pier, to the end of the Cal Poly Pier, on to the end of the Avila Pier and in to the beach. This route is 1.75 miles and will require kayak support and some shuttle service to the start from Avila would be great.  Now is a good time to start planning. Since July 3rd is Duke's 60th birthday he would like to do this swim on the Fourth of July, which sounds like a great idea. We could follow up the swim with a potluck brunch on the beach. 

and

There are alternatives to swimming at Avila Beach and we have this to consider courtesy of Big Steve.  Anybody up for a road trip?

niel