The Mighty C's and scones on the grass.

Color commentary for February 23rd swim and The Mighty C's 30th anniversary: First of all, this commentator didn't get the official Holy Roman Empire size group email inviting most everyone and their mother's for scones and booze in the jacuzzi and or hotel room the MC's booked for their special day which is okay, mostly because it turned out to be scones on the grass and warm water poured from buckets onto heads. It seems that the hotel was very busy so luxury would have to wait and I crashed the party anyway, as if they could ever evade me!  I don't think sooo.  So I managed to beg my way into a an anniversary scone which sent Bill into high alert, like Defcon 4 (above normal readiness) due to the limited number of scones, which were home made and delish in case you didn't get one. Just ask Richard, who totally scored on the scones before Defcon 4. Everyone who cruised up to the 'luxury' -aka- the buckets on the grass, wanted a scone, there were rumors on deck about the scones, people were asking for bits and pieces of scone, RUTH! was fainting on the grass for lack of a scone so Shayne broke his into parts and shared with her lest she pass out. He managed to do this while stripping and drying off his entire bod. That dude is talented. After I ate mine (thank god I did) I watched all this action for awhile while my mind was creating humorous and caustic commentary for later.  Cary wanted her hotel room NOW! She tried to get in 5 minutes early with no luck and now look, she was reduced to standing around in her wet Speedo on the damp grass and giving her scones away. Oh well, all mom's are accustomed to disappointment, we agreed that we have to tolerate quite a bit in life and in the name of love, for example: instead of swimming today, Sunday, I took Ali to the circus. Not even a very good circus. See? Suffering, thy name is Circus Vargas.  (I'm on the verge of committing a crime, if I go to prison, please bring me a scone!) We laughed and kidded around with Bill and the scones until the masses began arriving, literally closing in on the MC's and the scones. I had to take my leave since the booze was coming out and I was on my bike. As a party crasher, accepting the scone was more than enough.  All in all, the swim with a few of other non invitees, was stellar! Gorgeous seas, clear in most spots, 58 degrees, sun, flatness with a few tell tale rollers, beautiful faces of people I love, enough hugs and kisses to last at least 24 hours and as always, the most fun I can have with no pants. Outdoors.
I hope the Mighty C's used up their hotel room like rock stars and didn't check out until the clock was on the second and they have another anniversary ho down on the grass to which I will be invited and please for the love of Neptune, bring more scones!
Happy Anniversary to the Mightiest C's!
Everyone and their mother's love you!
lftc-out

once and for all, the straight dope

An open letter to my swim peeps, once and for all: I'm over the cove surf; little, big, no power, fluffy, easy, steep, low and so on. I'm also not a big believer in the 'lull', I have a wave attractant, like a surf beacon! You all have been witness to this anomaly. I have had offers from all of you to 'help me out', to hold my hand,  (thank you Stevie D., really cool offer but pass. I'll still hold your hand though) to give me a lesson, to wait with me and so on. I have told some or all of you about my ocean life but I want to make clear my history with surf: I was born in the water, I lived and grew up on the beach, I knew how to swim from a young age, I surfed as a teenager and when surf was too big, I jumped off the IB pier. I have swam and raced in tri's from IB to Santa Barbara, I was a PADI divemaster for awhile and I made money doing it. I have been slammed into the sea floor on more than one occasion and I was never afraid. I just had no fear. After Ali was born I found myself back in the water, this time Oceanside was my sea of choice, I belonged to a group called 'Dive Deep Swimmers'. We swam all around the area and pier swims were our thing. The name Dive Deep was coined due to relentless surf, we had to 'dive deep' every single swim, over and over.  I logged many miles with this group and there was/is ALWAYS surf. I still had no fear until-I stupidly did some sprints to the beach in front of a huge set, I couldn't beat the waves and I was being thrashed over and over due to the speed and size of the surf. I thought I was going to die and while being tossed mercilessly around I kept thinking about Ali, how she wouldn't have a mom to buy her shoes at Nordstrom, Dave would take her to the 7-11 for flip flops. When my body scraped the sand, I knew I'd live but I was deeply shaken. But! I still swam in the surf, I was more cautious but driven to swim in open water. Then the annual pier swim sealed my fate. In particularly large surf, reported as up to 10', I couldn't make my heat along with dozens of other swimmers, we all tried but just could not get out. Rather than quit, I tried for a fourth time and by chance I found a sliver of passage, literally a section between crossing waves and I swam out. I looked up and I saw the next wave face and I said, to no one, 'Oh shit' . I didn't know it but I was being followed by a guard on a board who yelled at me to SWIM! I did and I swear to you, I fell off the back of that wave and I was out. When I came around to the north side of the pier the surf had picked up and I didn't know how I was going to get in. For the first time in my life, I asked a guard to help and this kid, (I love him to this day and would have married him if he were over 18) guided me in. That was the beginning of the real end. I still have found myself in surf, I have been thrashed at the cove, right on the rocks, I have been pummeled at the shores, I have been scraped along the sand at the marine room and spit out of the ocean more than once since Oceanside.
So you see, it's not for lack of experience with surf, it's really about my reasons for avoiding it; peace and joy, harmony with the sea and a calming of my inner self. Not to mention the voices in my head, they really STFU in the cold. It's adventurous already! Let me say that again: already it's thrilling and slightly risky, physically all encompassing and a complete sensory experience. The surf, especially cove surf, takes all that pleasure and squashes it down, down, down. For me. However you all or anybody deals with it is not my business.
You all know I swim a lot, maybe 300 days a year or more, I'll swim in anything, rain, runoff, red tide, surge, fast currents, chop so high you can't see a thing, wind, sub zero viz, long distance, short distance, fast and slow, 54 degrees to 76, I swam in Kauai and Maui all alone in tiger shark territory, it's all good. I still swim in surf at the shores but I'm gonna say it once more: I'm over cove surf. You know if you need a partner in any of the above conditions, I'm your go to girl, I'll totally hook you up someway, somehow but if we are dealing with cove homisurf, I'm so out. I'll take you off the pier, I'll meet you in our boat, I'll summon dolphins, anything! Just don't hassle me over waves so that we may swim forever. It's all I want.

Peace!
lftc-out

Dirty Diana and the crack of dawn thanks to OEX

pictures speak a thousand words so here you go:

close up of these bratty sea lions, look at him, mocking us!

just blocking the way, they do this often..

Cirque Du Soleil action!

We rock!

Look at that ocean behind us, so flat! I must tell you that our TFTC is so good, so pure and sweet that she actually donned her PFD (life jacket) before we launched! Isn't that so cute? It was bigger than her body, almost, we gave her a hard time about it.. what, are you gonna fall out of the kayak and not swim? She's so cutie!

Here is Diana posing like Magellan mapping the seas but really she's looking at a catamaran mast wondering why it was so big. And long. Big and long. Isn't it too big? Really you guys, look at how big and long it is! Sadly, we didn't get the pic of the actual mast.   

P.s. for Dirty Diana I'll just tell you that she kept seeing really long things, really big and long things, things that seemed sort of long and she kept wondering why things were so big. And long. It was like a theme. Crack of dawn is the cool name of the paddles.
If you have to rent a kayak for any reason, EVAR!, please see Mike, Chris, Nick and I think Brian at OEX Dive and Kayak, the best service, the coolest guys and seriously handsome. Why would you go anywhere else? In fact, even if you never plan to kayak in your life, go there to say hi and to gaze. 2243 Avenida La Playa.
They like the swimmers and we like them, trust me.

No swimming, just paddling around

Friday, Feb. 15

Look at that beautiful day behind us!

Toni and Steve making a statement: "Wa-hooo!"

LFTC, TFTC, Steve D and Diana Darling rented two double kayaks at OEX from a very handsome Chris (ooh la LA).  Kayaking was splendid on a placid ocean with sea lions playing about.  We went all the way out past the C buoy looking for large marine life in the form of whales or dolphin and found nada.  But the water in the swim area had great viz.

So F*#@ing Stoked! and I hate running.

Swim report for Tuesday, Feb.12, RUTH!, Steph, Claudia, LFTC all met at     WTF 10am. What? When? Why? Who says? 10am, 10am, for some lunch thing for RUTH! and RUTH! says. OMG, whatever, okay. I need RUTH! all year, sometimes we have to give to get. As an aside, I ran this morning, I wore a jacket, full gloves and a base layer for my entire run, I was still cold. Also, my nose ran for the entire run. (I sell the sexy-I know!) My point: it was cold this morning at WTF 10am, light wind, very small surf if any and that's that. We march in and take such a long time, step forward, step back, yelping at the little lapping waves as if they held barbed wire until finally we make it out. It was brutal, my watch read 53.6, 54.6, 56.4, my teeth hurt! Doesn't swimming sound awesome! The water was very clear, we swam to the marine room where it was an aquarium with some murk close to the wall, we did some sightseeing over there and fought the current to go back. The hotel wouldn't budge today, every time I checked our progress, there it was, sitting there. It was a fab swim all in all and while I complain, (it's just my way, people, part of my charm)I wouldn't miss it for anything. I think of it like this: When I plan a run, I like the thought of running, I'm happy that I went running but I hate the running part. I'm miserable, I hate all the people on the roads, all the dogs, I hate Dave, I throw rocks at him and if it's hilly, I hope to be mowed down just so I can stop. I have the cardio ability, it's the gravity. 
When I swim, I sort of dislike the idea, especially if it's cold, dark, grey, windy, icy, rainy, surgy, surfy. (totally routine for our crew)
but when I'm done; oh man, I'm so happy! Or as Steph so eloquently said, "I'm so f**king stoked!" There are no problems in my life that I can't handle, it's like a fix and until my next swim, I'm totally fixed. Running cannot compare and if I add my beloved, can't live without them swim peeps? Forget it, running bites. Power panties be damned!
This more of an attitude report than a swim report so here's this:

It's about as Pollyanna as I'll ever be.

lftc-out

Cold Swell Sunday Swim

Nice gentle swells -- a swell swim it was!

Cold water and threatening waves couldn't keep us away!  Great swim today as many on Facebook debated the water temp -- was it 56? Felt like 54 -- Steve said it was 54, didn't he?  Ruth said, no way, had to be warmer -- she's really getting her no-pants-swimmin' on these days!  Seriously,  though 14 of us crazies were having a blast in the water... out to the A, then quickly to the B, then the 14 split up into the straight back inners and the 1/4 and inners...

So nice to see Carol and Bob back in the water too... Carol's arm is better but still painful, so she gets an extra award for making the long swim today!

The sun came out just for us!

We all made it back and some of us went to the dark side for a few moments of hot water soaking... others chatted on deck... Leonard, Diana, Mark, Jo, Carly, the MCs, LFTC, Carol, Bob, Steve, Ruth, Claudia and Lyndee!!! Whoohoo, what crue.

Thanks to you all for making my Sunday perfect... what would we do without our swims and swim-buddies?  It was a sweet and swell, Sunday swim.
Happy daze!!!

~cary

Another day in paradise...

Thanks for the swim today

The water was cold at first when we got in but the jacuzi made it worth it.