Sunday, July 29th, 2018

We had a complicated start to our swim today. Avila is rarely foggy but Sunday morning the soup was in and hanging along the beach. It would lift and then come back in giving no good sense when it might clear. Also, on Wednesday the Harbor Patrol had sighted an 8' white shark near the Cal Poly Pier so the caution signs were up. I find the advice on the sign amusing, the poorest swimmers in the ocean are supposed to manage to keep themselves away from some of the best swimmers in the ocean. It is good advice but I'm not sure how us meat puppets are supposed to accomplish it. 

Anyway, no sharks had been sighted for 72 hours so the warning was being lifted as we got in. With the fog we decided to swim up and back along the buoy line because the next buoy in the line would be visible and if we lost even that it is easy to turn and follow the swell in to the beach.

Swimming today were Niel, Tom, Jim, Stephanie, Karen, Maria and Sue. Tom did his own swim on the east side of the buoy line, Niel, Karen, Stephanie and Maria did a lap of the buoy line and Jim and Sue did the buoy line plus an extra lap of east side. The water temperature was 58.5 and with no sun was feeling quite a bit colder than last week's sunny 62. 

I managed to catch a lot of caps but few faces in this photo.

From the left that is Karen, Stephanie, a green cap, yellow cap, Sue and an orange cap.

niel

Sunday, July 22, 2018

We had great conditions today: it was warm and sunny on the beach, the water was 62 degrees, there was a light wind and small wind waves out of the SE. 
Swimming today were some people we had not seen in a while, Paula dropped in for a break from the pool and Brad was in town from the Bay Area and had not swum with us in 4+ years. The rest of the group was Niel, Duke, Eric, Tom, Leslie, Jonny, John, Karen and Stephanie.
Today's route was to go east down the east side of the buoy line and beyond towards Fossil Point until we were seaward of the point, then back to the easternmost buoy, over to the end of the Avila Pier and in along the pier. There was also a swim that stayed along the buoy line, a group that went to Fossil Point but went back along the buoy line, and a group that went from the point directly to the end of the Avila Pier.

The group getting fromed up at the first buoy.

Paula, Karen, Jonny, Eric, Stephanie and John

Off of Fossil Point

Karen, Duke, Stephanie, Leslie, somebody's foot and Eric

Tom wanted to taks some pictures of me swimming under him.

Niel

 

An art shot by Tom.

niel

Sunday, July 15, 2018

We had two courses today; one group would do our usual triangle route clockwise while the second would split off at the end of the Avila Pier and head over to the Cal Poly Pier, come back to the buoy line at the creek mouth and back to the start. The first route would be a mile and the second about 1.25. I did the longer route of the two and then did an additional two laps of the buoy line. I was looking for 3.5 miles and was coming up short so it took a last leg from the creek mouth to the end of the Avila Pier. I still wound up a bit short at 3.34 miles.

Our swimmers were Niel, Tom, Leslie, Heidi, Hillary, Jim, Karen, Sydney, Sam, John, Jonny, Maria and Anna Bay.

The water temperature was 56 to 59 and started out flat, calm and clear with a hint of wind. It built up into a nasty little chop, not quite breaking but just high to get in my mouth too often. 

Everyone heading out to the first buoy.

Jim (our only bareback today), Tom, Leslie and Anna Bay

at the end of the Avila Pier

Niel at the Cal Poly Pier

Leslie, Jim (hidden) and Anna Bay at the Cal Poly Pier

Hillary joining us. 

The Avila Pier is in the background, 616M away. 

Selfie by Tom. 

niel

Sunday, July 8, 2018

With temperatures hitting 100 degrees in San Luis Obispo, Avila Beach was the place to be this weekend. Temperatures at the beach were in the 80's, there was a funny little breeze and chop out of the SE and nice clear 61 degree water.

Swimming today were Duke, Niel, Tom, Leslie, Brandy, Heidi and Karen.

There was something funny in the water because I forgot to start my watch and Heidi forgot to turn hers off, so we have her plot of the swim and her drive home. It is a nice way to put up a killer distance at an impressive pace. 

Tom plotted today's route as our usual clockwise triangle but with detours that took us by 4 sailboats. Duke logged a distance of 1.16 miles.

The conditions are warm enough that I switched from my

Patagonia 3 mil surf suit to a tri suit. 

Karen, Leslie, Brandy, Duke and Heidi.

 At the end of the buoy line east of the Avila Pier, 

Tom giving directions for the next leg.

  

The same spot. Karen, Heidi, Duke, Leslie and Brandy

At the end of the Avila Pier. Everyone blowing a kiss to our 

friends who were married this weekend. 

 

Give Tom the camera and you will get something different.

We will be back next Sunday for more full summer conditions. 

niel

Sunday, July 1st, 2018

Tom's 4th of July Swim

Always ready with a theme, Tom suggested this route today as a 4th of July tribute.  Previously Tom has has us doing letters, names and symbols so swimming a route that would trace out a number four was just the thing.

I had a reading of 58.5 degrees in the surf on an incoming tide which sounded pretty nice. We had solid overcast, a light wind out of the south and a bit of chop on the water.

Getting in the water today were Niel, Heidi, Duke, Tom, Leslie, Sydney, Sam, Karen, Jonny, John, Stephanie and Brandy.

   

Stephanie, Heidi, Tom, Sam (behind), Leslie and Sydney getting in

 Karen, Heidi, Jonny and Stephanie at the first buoy

 Stephanie, Sam, Leslie, Tom, Duke and Sydney at the top of the 4

Karen, Sydney, Leslie, Stephanie and Tom at the end of the Avila Pier.

Post swim John and Jonny.  

We are finally getting some sun!

Sydney, Sam, Niel, Heidi and probably Tom's hand.

Most everyone has early commitments on the 4th so we will not swim on the holiday. We'll be in the water as usual on Sunday, 7/8.

niel

Sunday, June 24, 2018

Tom's Figure Eight Swim

Tom came up with a good one today. I do not think that in all of the years that I have been swimming here that I have done this exact route before.  He wanted to swim a figure 8. It was a few strokes less than 1.5 miles and offered a lot of places for people to drop off.

The route was out to the first buoy, east to the last buoy, to the end of the Avila Pier, in along the pier to the first buoy,under the pier and west along the buoy line to the last buoy at the creek mouth, then back to the end of the pier and in along the pier to our starting point. 

Swimming today were Niel, Ivana, Hillary, Rob Dumouchel!, visiting from Eureka, Heidi, Tom, Duke, Karen, Maria. Rob's friend Keili and Maria's brother Paul (here from New Zealand for a month) watched out stuff. Ivana had to swim short to make an appointment and Rob had not been in the water in some while so they stayed along the buoy line.

I got a water temperature reading of 56 degrees, out first above 55 this season. There were some spots that were definitly 56 and some others that were more like 54. It was solid overcast, we never had any sun, and calm with flat clear water and small surf. There was a push starting to build out of the SW that hadn't gotten too strong while we were swimming. 

Hillary and Karen at the first buoy

Maria and Heidi at the same spot

 

Tom at the last buoy to the east

Heidi, Maria and I, scouting the route to the end of the pier

Tom like to try underwater photos

 so this time he had me swim under him.

Hillary, Heidi and Karen behind her before heading to the Avila Pier.

Duke and Tom

Hillary, Heidi and Maria

We met up with Rob and that is Duke, back at the first buoy after we 

had come in along the pier for the first time. 

Photo documentation of Duke rounding the last buoy at the creek. 

There was some discussion between Duke and Tom about 

who may have short cut the course.

With no sun we did not stay on the beach as long as usual.

Sunday, June 17th, 2018

June Gloom and Weird, But Fun, Water

Te Central Coast is known for June Gloom, the typical morning low clouds or fog that can burn off before 9 if you are  inland or hang around all day if you are near a west facing beach. Avila Beach was in full gloomy mode this Sunday morning; gray skies and cool temperatures with no wind and mostly knee high surf with an occasional 2+ footer.  I measured 56 degrees in the shallows off of the pier. With an incoming tide everything inside the break was mostly creek water so I was expecting around 54 degrees once we got outside the surf. Swimming today were Niel, Heidi, Tom, Jim, Jonny, John, Stephanie and Eric. Stephanie swam with us for the first time last week and and Eric's first time with us. Eric is an experienced ocean swimmer who is getting back into it after a long break.

The swim today started out by going directly out to the end of the pier, followed by a clockwise lap of the triangle route with a final return leg in along the pier. I had 1.39 miles on my watch when I stood up at the end. 

Eric, Tom and Jim at the end of the Avila Pier

We had strange water conditions, there was a strong current out of the SW (like last Thursday) and a surface that looked and swam like a one foot wind chop, except that there was no wind. I do not know what combination of things could be responsible for this, it seems beyond anything that a combined group of waves could form......maybe volcanoes in Hawaii, the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, a water spout nearby, Godzilla...? 

Heidi and Stephanie

We all had a really nice swim with different conditions on each leg with a nice easy finish coming in in the lee of the pier. 

niel

Thursday, June 14th, 2018

Duke's was looking for someone to pal up with for extra swims at Avila while his usual pool was closed.I was interested in a little hookey so we met at the beach on Thursday morning and got in a long mile. It seemed to be flat, grey and windless but the sun came out and we had a strong chop and current out of the SW to give the route some personality.  We had a nice swim that was an excellent way to break up a work day. 

niel

Sunday, June 10th, 2018

Duke's Swim

Duke is looking for some extra distance and wanted to do this route which is about a mile and a half.  It was sunny with an offshore breeze that had some legs to it. The water was very clear, showing a tropical  pale green in places. I read 53 degrees in the shallows off of the pier. Swimming today were Duke, Heidi, John, Jonny, Maria, Niel, Heidi, Amy, Tom, Jim and Stephanie joined us from the South Bay LA area via Morro Bay. The plan was to swim down the buoys to the creek mouth and over to our usual spot at the Cal Poly Pier. From here the long swim would go to the end of the Cal Poly Pier, back to the end of the Avila Pier and in to the beach. The shorter version would go directly to the end of the Avila Pier and in to the beach. Jim, Tom, Duke Heidi and Niel did the longer route. I had 1.64 miles on my watch when I stood up in shallows.  I think that Garmin's estimated calorie count is low because wind and chop were coming right off of the beach so the leg from the end of the Cal Poly Pier to the Avila Pier was a push diagonally into the chop and current. We all had a lot of course corrections on this leg.

Heidi, Maria behind her, John, Amy, Jim Jonny and Duke at the first buoy.

Tom, Duke and Jim at the first stop at the Cal Poly Pier

Niel with Heidi coming up.

We reirley have water that is thei transparent

Jim and Tom at the end of the Cal Poly Pier. 

The same spot. Heidi and Duke. We are 920 M offshore.

It was nice and warm on the beach and the hot sand quickly warmed up several pairs of well chilled feet. 

niel