Sunday, October 11, 2015

We had a great swim today.  Twelve people (Niel, Sylvia, Pete, Amy, Dale, Nicole, Marcus, John Hampsey, Rick, Damion, Gerry Gross and Pete) swam in water that was 65+ degrees. There were 4 to 5 foot waves but the tide turned just before we got in so the surf was laying down as we swam out. At John's suggestion we did a bit of an adventure route;  from the first buoy  out and around a moored sailboat, on to a buoy that marks a reef which is past the end of the buoy line, back to and under the pier to the third buoy on the west side and diagonally in to the shore at base of the pier.  .9 mile in 38 minutes. The water was so comfortable people were just floating and visiting when we grouped up at the turning points, no need to keep swimming to keep warm!


The 2016 Will Swim For Food - Saturday January 16th, 8AM

This is a annual fundraiser for food banks; raise money and go for a 1 mile swim around the Santa Cruz pier in January. Rob did this swim in 2013 and a group from Avila has gone every year since. Rob, Niel, Ali, Stephanie, Tom and Leslie have raised more than $5000 for foodbanks. This is a swim, not a race. There is no entry fee or cost to the swimmer. You sign up and raise pledges from people who think you have a crazy idea of fun. There is no minimum amount of pledges.  Pledges can be directed to any foodbank in the U.S. 
The ducks are a very fun part. If you, or a donor, pledges $150 or more at one time they will receive a full size duck decoy that they can decorate as they wish and the swimmer can tow behind them during the swim.

Stephanie, Niel and Tom

It is a very fun event for a great cause that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to feed adults and children in our communities that are hungry.
  The website for this year's swim doesn't seem to be quite complete yet, there is still stuff there from previous years, so I'm not sure that you can actually sign up now but I've begun working on my idea for this year's duck(s). 

http://willswimforfood.com/ 


niel

Sunday, October 4, 2015

It is October and the weather has changed. Avila was cool with patchy clouds, no wind and 61 degree water. There was a swell from the south that was moving the buoys around  but no wind or chop. 

In the water today were Niel, Tom, Damion, Pete, Amy, Danielle and two people who joined us after we were in the water. They were from the bay area and had done Scott Tinley yesterday.

The water was comfortable and it was nice to get reaquainted with elevator feeling from swimming across a swell.

After we got out the clouds cleared off, it warmed up and was very pleasant on the beach.

Thanks to John Hampsey for writing the post last week when I was out of town. 

niel

                            

  

Sunday, September 27,2015

Swimming today were Amy, John, Sylvia, Angela, Damian, Duke, Dale, Stephanie, Kim, Lloyd, and Pete.

At 10:45am the tide was full, and mist and fog enshrouded Avila for the first time in quite a while. The beach was open and quiet, the water flat with moderate surf breaking on shore. We decided to swim the buoy line but shake things up by heading to the right first. So we swam under the pier and went north to the last buoy by the creek, then doubled back and swam under the pier to the last buoy by Fossil Point, then back to the pier and in. Distance was a little less than a mile. Proteus, the ancient sea god, looked kindly on us today because the water seemed to get warmer the longer we swam until, by collective assessment, we deemed it 70 degrees!

--John Hampsey

Sept. 27, 2015

Sunday, Sepetmber 20, 2015

At 10:15 Avila Beach was warm, clear, sunny and flat. The water was 65 degrees. In September of 2013 the water temperature was 55 degrees. It is going to be difficult to get reacclimated once water conditions return to a more typical temperature.

Swimming today were Niel, Lloyd, Sylvia, Amy, John Hampsey, Leslie, Tom, Nicole, Daniel, Dale and Pete. There were two jet skis jumping the surf at the east end of the beach so we stayed inside the buly line in the no boat zone. We had a lot of different abilities and interests today and wound up doing 4 or 5 different routes.  Just as we were wading in a single seal stuck his head getting inside the surf line. I guess that he was just curious as that was the only time I saw him. Tom, Lloyd and I did a lap of the buoy line. The wind started to pick up during the second half of our swim but the chop never got too large. 

Tom and Lloyd at the creek mouth.

niel

Sunday, September 13,2014

Swimming today were Dharmesh, Niel, Pete, Sylvia, Amy, John, Marcus, Damion and Gerry Gross. We enjoyed very warm water - 67 to 70 degrees and flat conditions with building chop. No signs of big fish.  Everybody did some variation of the buoy line. 

It is going to be very hard to recover from this summer when water temperatures return to a more normal 55 degrees but we'll enjoy it while it lasts. 

niel

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Kind of a crazy plot today, I guess every time my Garmin lost its sync it jumped around. Anyway, we had a great day at the beach. The water was very comfortable.  At knee deep in the foam my thermometer read 64, the lifeguards posting was 65 and the pool thermometer that the guards have tied to a buoy read 69. Whatever it really was it was nice. The wind was coming up so the water was a bit choppy but it was very warm on the sand so the wind was welcome.  Niel, Tom, Claudia, Susan, Katie, Brett, Calvin and Damian swam all or part of the buoy line. Duke and Angelia arrived after we got in. They did the buoy line too. 

 Forming up at the start 

Claudia, Damian and Niel at the creek buoy.

As I was taking this picture a healthy looking sea otter popped up and gave us the stink eye for a while. 

niel

Sunday, August 23. 2015

We had a big crowd today with 17 swimmers and many new faces.  The water was 62 to 64 degrees and had the look of a mile red tide. There was small surf and light wind waves and chop. Swimming today were Niel, Bridget, Rick, Karen, Dale, Lorin, Tom, Markus, Nicole, Brett, Dave, Stephanie., Duke, Sylvia, John, Claudia and Pete Kelly. There were at least four different swims. Everybody swam left (east) along the buoy line to the last buoy. Dale and I came back along the buoy line. The group with Dave continued to Fossil Point, to the end of the Avila Pier and ?  The group with Duke and Rick went to the end of the Avila Pier and then over to a point a third of the way along the Poly Pier. They came back to the western end of the buoy line and came back to the Avila Pier. Sylvia did a lap of the buoy line. Stephanie, and maybe a few others, swam to the end of the Avila Pier and came in along the pier.

Dave doing his famous 'chicken dance' before full immersion

The crowd at the last buoy before we split up.

And this from Kevin Watkins -

Hi Niel

Saw in the latest email that Avila's water temp was 68 on Sunday!  That jogged a memory so I went back to the results of the 1997 Avila Ocean Racing Classic.  Please share with the group.  Here's what I wrote:

"Held at the pier at Avila Beach California on August 23, 1997.  145 competitors entered four events

Conditions: Perfect.  Clear, sunny skies, little or no wind, glassy seas.

Water Temperature: 64 degrees for the first events, warming to 66 degrees for the one mile swim (thanks El Nino)"

As I recall we experienced a humdinger of a winter a few month's later!

Best,

Kevin

Sunday, August 16.2015

We had a nice crowd today including a special guest, beautiful conditions, and I'm still nursing some tendonitis but I'm back in the water.  The water was flat and clean. The lifeguards got a water temperature of 68 degrees (!) and it felt like that was pretty close. Swimming today were Duke, Niel, Sylvia, Bret, Katy, Leslie, Tom, Rick, John Hampsey and Claudia and I may have missed one or two. We all went left to the end of the buoy line where we split up into several swims; I did the left half of the buoy line. Claudia did the left half twice. Sylvia did the entire buoy line. Duke, Bret, Katy, Leslie, Tom, Rick and John went to the end of the pier.  Bret, Katy and Leslie came in from the end of the pier while the remaining swimmers swam around  a boat on the west side of the pier and came back along the buoy line.

Hey, that is Rob Dumouchel dropping in while visiting the Central Coast 

This morning Dave Van Mouwerik began an attempt to swim across Estero Bay, a distance of 14.4 statute miles, from China Harbor near Harmony to Sponner's Cove in Montana de Oro.   https://esterobayswim.wordpress.com/
As of this writing he was doing well and was schedule to complete his swim around 3 PM.
You can track his progress on his Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/dvanmou

Sunday, August 9, 2015

August 9th

A happening crowd of dolphins gathered below the stairs, 14-15 swimmers in all. There were several new people and I was unable to snag all their names. Water temp was about 62, the air calm, the sea smooth.  We all entered the water together, briefly regrouped at the first buoy, then headed south and linked up again at the last buoy. At that point Dave VM, Dale, and Dave’s nephew followed the buoy line back, went under the pier and to the creek and back. The rest of us went on to Fossil Point, stopping just sort of the caves. The water felt lush and Zen-like. We were in the zone! The group split again, with Rick and Duke and Stephanie heading out to the end of Avila pier, and the rest of us swimming the buoy line to the pier. Some of the new people headed in, but Brandon and I headed under the pier and swam just short of the creek before returning back and in. Our swim was about a mile and a ¼, and Duke’s swim was about the same distance. Upon our return the wind had arrived and with it some strong rolling waves.  A half hour later, though, the air and sea were strangely calm again, and some light clouds and humidity enveloped us. Thus, we had three different climate experiences over 90 minutes!
It was great to have new people join our group.  Till next Sunday.
--John Hampsey

A Single Martinis and Other Swims

John Hampsey, Amy Hewes, Dave Van Mouwerik and Leslie Lorish swam a single Martini Swim today covering 2.48 miles around Avila Beach. Dave and Leslie finished in about 1:30, I'm not sure. John and Amy finished in 1:53. Duke swam a 'half' Martini, turning in when he was in line with the Avila Pier, covering 2 miles in 1:04.   Brandon, Dale, Margie, Sylvia, Pete, and Gerry Gross also swam about a mile.
The water temperature was 62 with 1 - 2' surf. There was some light chop out of the east.

Duke

Dave and Leslie

John and Amy

   

Sunday, July 26, 2015

There were six swimmers today; Sylvia, Margie, Brandon, Leslie, Tom and Dave Van Mouwerik. The water was 63 degrees with 2' waves and small wind waves. The group swam left down the buoy line to the last buoy, to the end of the Avila Pier, back the opposite way to Fossil Point and parallel along the beach to their starting point, a distance of 1.35 miles. Dave and Tom continued on under the pier and along the right side of the buoy line to the creek mouth and back, to make their swim 1.7 miles.

Margie is interested in swimming Wednesday evenings. She will put a post up on the Google Central Coast Open Water Group site.

Note the corrected time of Dave's presentation -
Dave Van Mouwerik is going to be making a presentation about his marathon swim in Lake Siljan, Sweden, at the Steynberg Gallery, this Saturday, 8/1, at 7:30 PM.  

Sunday, July 19, 2015

San Luis Obispo had a night and morning of thunderstorms with lightning and rain thanks to Tropical Cyclone Deloris.  No beach for me today.

niel

Sunday, July 12, 2015

We had quite a crowd today. Duke, Niel, Amy Hewes, Rick, Dave VanMouwerik, Dale and Tom were joined by 6 triathletes from Fresno who were looking for some ocean experience and Marcus, who is a multi-sports athlete who is new to San Luis Obispo.  Also seen swimming today were Pete Kelley and Gerry Gross.

It was sunny The water was about 62 and there was a breeze building up.  WE got in and went left to the last buoy. At this point I bailed out and swam in. I'm having pain in my right elbow. It looks tendonitis so I will not be swimming for a while. :-(  Dale gave me some pointers which I hope will speed my recovery. 

Everyone else continued on and did the triangle.  

We had a nice big crowd with a lot of new faces.

niel 

Wednesday Evening, July 8, 2015

Mark, Kurtis and I swam Wednesday evening. I think that this was the first Wednesday evening swim of the summer. Mark and I have been too busy to get out but we found a window this week. 

The water felt warm, it was 62+ over at the port.  There was a 12 to 19 mph wind from the WSW that was making white caps all the way to shore. None of us had been out in water that was this choppy in some time so this was going to be a special swim. Nether Mark or Kurtis had been swimming in the ocean much so we decided to do half of a triangle, figuring that a route with three different exposures to the chop and wind would be enough.

Kurtis and Mark at the first buoy

The first leg was a slog into the current and chop. It was hard work and I had to breath only on my right, the downwind side. 

When we grouped up at the last buoy at the creek Mark decided that he had already swallowed enough water so he returned back along the buoy line while Kurtis and I headed to the end of the pier.   

This leg was across the chop. My body was getting twisted and torqued around and occasionally swamped by the biggest of the wind waves. The plot doesn't show it but I made three major course corrections to counter how far to the left I had been pushed.   

Kurtis at the end of the Avila Pier. 

Coming in along the pier was special in its own way. The pier pilings were knocking down the chop some but it was still rough and now coming in over my left shoulder.
It felt great to finish after doing all of that work and it was good to swim and to have to work the conditions.

Another swim on next Wednesday evening is a real possibility. Watch the open water swim group posts to see who is coming out next week.

niel

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Our swim today was a clockwise turn of the triangle. I fat fingered a button on my GPS and got the route correct but the time and distance are wrong.

This swim is about 1.1 miles and should have taken about 25 to 30 minutes. 

Sylvia, John Hampsey, Amy Hewes and Niel swam. The water was 63 degrees. With the pier closed I got my water temperature number by standing in the foam. The lifeguards are taking the temperature by paddling out in a kayak to the buoy line. They also got a 63. It was a sunny and very clear day. The wind came up out of the SW and pushed up enough chop to make things interesting.  

John

Amy

John and Amy are going to do a Single Martini Swim on Sunday, August 2nd. This is a 2.2 mile swim and requires that each swimmer have their own support paddler.  The second leg is .94 miles and parallels the beach a 1/2 mile offshore. This is not a course for someone who is new to open water swimming or not comfortable in the open ocean.  This route is also susceptible to rapidly changing conditions due to wind.  More paddlers and swimmers are welcome.
Respond the this blog or directly to Amy or John if you are interested in participating.

niel