waves + r & j + cold + bump + fog = glorious 2011 finale swim

the last swim of 2011 for the no pants crew: the mighty c boy without the mighty c girl, dianadarling, claudia, ralph, janie, jaycee, lftc met in okay weather, some sun but not really warm, the sea looked surfy but not surfy enough to send me crying to the shores, so we venture off, really lagging. our wetsuits messing around in surf. wait, what? that's right, surf. d a m m i t . what kind of surf? the kind that jimmy canali could body surf, that's what kind. sigh.. we did a little ducking despite the waiting out sets, the waves weren't that big, breaking right near take off so at least the guards could get ME quickly but we did it, we made it out into absolutely no viz. we swam to the a after 5 minutes of where, why, who and what, claudia worried about incoming fog (jimmy too warned us about fog, holy cow, it's like a grimms fairy tale) so we halt there and see the incoming plague and head 'in'. none of us could really figure out where 'in' was, some head in to the caves and cliffs, some head in to the marine room but we all end up in the same place: in the waves. biggies, all clean and mean looking, sharp angles, smooth and steep faces. there is no point in panic at this point because why? because i have diana and she knows she cannot move forward without me, that i will sit on her back if i have to and she doesn't really want that so she uses care and knows what's up. anyway, jimmy is still messing around and he says, 'here comes my wave', we turn around and there it is! swim out, swim fast and i swim up the face and over, diana actually swam up, straight up and popped her head through the lip before it broke. jimmy goes blazing by which makes us look like sissies but i totally own sissyhood. i am the new face of sissyhood.  sissies are the new black. then we see flatness so i ask jimmy, all sissy like, if we can go in now and he says yeah, go in. and that my friends, was the last swim of 2011 for our crew.  so guess what? on my way home from near death (i exaggerate all the time, dave thinks that every swim i go on is a near death experience) i hear on the news that this coming week holds a high surf advisory, waves up to 8' and some 10' sets will be rolling in. my thoughts? of course there will be. why wouldn't there be? i expect it. whatever.
i want to say thanks to all my swim peeps, thank you for being an amazing part of my life in my otherwise rocky 2011, no matter waves, cold, red and juicy, weather, no matter swimming with me once or every time, thank you all. i can't imagine my life without you and look forward to a life of swimming with the most amazing swimmers anywhere. 
peace out! lftc

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

I feel so bad about what I'm about to report for this impacts Cami in ways that are too depressing to think about: swim report for Friday (geez, are we STILL in 2011? I'm so over it)  1pm, Dianadarling, Claudia, LFTC met in cool fog, some churning water but certainly we have swam in way, WAY worse so we plod down the stairs and stand in glacier temps for several minutes, thinking? Pondering? Asking god why?
It is intersting that tourists watch us, ask us where, how far, how cold, some applaud us, (one time, literally) or call us crazy or brave. Wetsuits wonder 'how we do it' and why? To all the questions: I have no idea.  Anyway, we finally get in and it's cold, f**king A cold which is the classification for the iciest cold we have, it's a mad dash to get to the warm zone, the 59 degrees jacuzzi that we all know is out there but when we get out there, lo and behold, no viz, none, not even 5' but who cares, we are out so swim we must. Diana and I lure Claudia further out than she wanted to go, bullied her really (we do that, you know. You have been warned) into at least a mile but it was getting darker and darker, we head to the caves for the same dark water and over to the 1/2 and oh no, RED. RED and JUICY. My immediate thought was, 'Cami will be so bummed and will not swim in this'. My second thought was, 'I'll lie to her to get her in'. But karma you know. Karma is a tough mistress, I know. So we agree to run away from the R&J and mostly play all the way back, passing Janie and crew on their way out.   Now that the swim is over I still maintain my ever present post swim statement: I'm so happy! So happy I swam, even now I couldn't care less about the R&J and again, we have all swam in worse. At least I was WITH people I adore beyond measure, people that I cannot live without (I guess I can measure adoration) and who share this craze. Kinship!
So there you have it, the truth which is like the dressing rooms in Macy's: harsh flourescent lights, warped mirrors, stark walls that hide nothing and either sweating hot or icy cold.
On the other hand, you guys missed Ken's naked show in the athletic club. I swear to you, he did a show in the athletic club, just for Diana and me (lucky us!) in which he , he,  he...took his shirt and underoos t shirt off and did some sagging and flexing and I couldn't look anymore due to being blinded. That's all I'm saying. You don't wanna know... Oh, one last little thing, you guys missed the senior citizen guy in the sauna stripping out of his Speedo and donning his underoos tighty whities. For realsies. What is this? What in the name of God is going on? 
LFTC-out

Christmas Eve Swim Fun

Not a creature was stiring... well, except for the sea lions everywhere, quite a few swimmers (non of our peeps) and loads of fish and birds! We did see Richard, Anna Marie and a few others, though I think most were either busy getting ready for holiday stuff or headed to Coronado?

The MCs braved the 56 degree, FRIGID waters and LFTC was right -- well worth the dip!  The waters were smooth, a few swells in the cove and gorgeous sunshine on deck.  That was a treat -- and my hot water bottle, plus some of my warm, spicy chai helped to thaw Bill and I, post swim. Still, we felt good even making to the 1/2 and back. The water was not too clear, but not bad -- a beautious day with the sunshine beat down... the tide wasn't too low at 10:30 when we went out. By around noon when we walked past the cove all we could see were rocks every -- take-off rock looked like an island. Real knee-scraping swim time, so we were glad we'd gone out earlier.

Daisys still blooming on December 24, can you believe it? What a day!

Missed everyone this weekend and hope you all have a happy Christmas. Mine certainly is with our children all nestled all snug in their beds (what?) and home for the holidaze.  Happy times.  We look forward to our polar bear dip and NEW YEAR at the shores together--PARTAY!  Hope to see you in 2012!

December 24, 2011...sublime 

~mercari

diana's fight club (thank you walter!)

swim report on diana's weekend fight club swim: fri, noon, diana, janie, kathy, lftc stared down at a rocky low tide wondering how we were gonna get in. my suggestion (and always will be regarding everything in life) was to just lay down. lay down and go with the flow which works beautifully if you don't take into consideration the BRUTAL cold, the cold that causes your teeth to ache, eyes to ice over and numb your senses. see? put aside that and it's cake. dammit.  we all flop in and set out, trailing along to the kelpy a, stopping to discuss ice cubes (according the mightiest c) and over to the half which is nearly at the marine room lately, then across to the pins or 1/4, we mostly bounced around the swim channel and oh, how to get out? how to exit in the even lower tide without looking akward? once again, lftc has the solution: lay down and slide in, then crawl gracefully out on our stomachs before kneeling, then squatting up like powerlifters. how can that not be grace and beauty? if you factor in the bleeding knees from the rocks, the wads of sea grass hanging off our caps, the white/blue extremeties and speedo wedgies, it's just plain hotness.  this is how the fight club operates, people: with grace and beauty.
to go on, walter refers to our weekend group as diana's fight club. i love this and have asked her to blog it but she has no computer, our poor little dianadarling. she says walter is hogging his mac so she's offline. i guess i'm blogging on her behalf. so there you go, a little tutorial on how to exit the water and a new nickname.
swim saturday at 10:30, december 24th, christmas eve. i'll bring pot brownies. again.

Rock Star Swimmers... and you know who you are!

Didn't swim Saturday and heard we definitely missed out on all kinds of wonders -- turtle sightings, dolphins leaping, seal lions chasing about, near-best-swim-evah, so beautious AND Leonard reported the FREEZING temps in the H2O... 56 ouch! degrees!

Well, it warmed up for us on Sunday (LOL) and the sun even came out to warm the chill just a tad... I just don't know how LFTC, Diana darling and Marta manage to swim in that frigid water sans pants, but they rock!  Rock Star Swimmers they are... Leonard, Bill and I swam about in our seal-like wet suits trying desparately to stay warm any way we could. Bill swims at least twice as fast in the winter and whoa, he's tough to catch when he gets going. We raced out to the 1/4, then raced to the 1/2, then absolutely chilled to the bone, raced back in, as the rest of the gang chatted and bobbed about catching up on the lastest what, ice cube news? I don't know, I wanted to talk too, but the cold water forces me on or I'd probably just freeze in place!  Still, what a gorgeous Sunday it was, the seal lion group raft ducked down under me just as we were heading out of the cove and they were such a fun team to watch circling around. Sure wish I could swim like that.  Of course I saw dolphins today too, long after our swim and we were headed to the car... still, saw them frolicking at the A having a great swim too.  

Happy Holidays from the Cary (and Bill), the MC's ... this was the cove today, another day paradise!

So, to all our dear mer-friends, we wish you and yours a very happy holiday season.  Our daughter, Emily arrives home this Wednesday for a month long break from Kyrgyzstan and fun family times are ahead!  

Have a great holiday and we hope to see you all at our New Year's Day Polar Bear swim celebration.
~mercari

cold and dry sissy or cold and wet manly man?

swim report, friday december 16th, noon: claudia, ralphio, lftc and not another soul in sight, even the guards were locked in their hut. why? winds, that's why, high winds, heavy winds, blow hard winds and cold! my bottle of sunblock sitting on the deck table couldn't stay still, ladies in fur coats and tall suede boots, guys in coats and gloves and us, standing around wearing speedo's and goosebumps! why am i doing this? why? big wind chop, 2-3 feet at least, we could see nothing but water and had to kick on our backs several times to navigate and recover from gulping salt water.  my watch read 59 right outside the cove, 57 solid for the duration. we swam to almost the marine room, the air was colder than the sea. man alive, it was hard to get in today. i felt like i was between a rock and a hard place: go and suffer or don't go and suffer, stand in the water to acclimate and suffer in the wind or jump in immediately and suffer from shock. claudia was not going to relent but i tried, we could have easily went for hot chocolate but these people, YOU people are tough! the overall swim? awesome, kick ass, fun and challenging. when we ran up the stairs, (okay, slogged) we ran into another tough group; hove, vic and chris gearing up to go out and be manly men.
that's the thing for me, i sometimes find it easy to NOT want to go, weather, rough conditions, no partner, my phone rings, whatever, but when i just act as if i'm going and get there, i have never one time been disappointed. the opposite in fact, every single time.  so thanks to claudia and ralph for being manly men today and throwing me out there, you all should go out too. join us in the awesome misery!  besides, i miss you!
lftc-out

Partay like a rock star!

For those who couldn't attend the annual LJSC Christmas party, here is my report as perceived by the voices in my head:  A good time can only last so long.
Many of our regular crew were on scene: Toni, Steve, Marta, Phoenix, Diana, Claudia, Ralph, Janie, Dana, Leonard to name a few, lot's of serious Cove swimmers, many we see all the time, many who spend hour upon hour in the sea so are rarely seen on dry land. 
My feeling is that this type of party is much better appreciated under the influence but I had to behave as Ali was in tow and I wore a dress. The dress was such an odd garment to me, it was very distracting. The first hour was mostly spent wondering who all these fully clothed people were, who is that man in a shirt and why is that woman wearing a dress? Where am I? Why am I here?
The second hour was spent eating unidentifiable meats, pork or beef, I couldn't tell because the first taste had some kind of fat/gristle and that was it for me, the 'white' meat was either fish or chicken, again I couldn't tell as I was reeling from the fat/gristle trauma. The dinner was followed by yummy cake which I did eat, at last! a food I recognize!
The third hour was spent watching and doing a little Hula-my friend and bestest swim partner (she knows who she is) had signed all of us up and didn't show, Phoenix too was all hot to Hula, did show up but hid under the table when the Hula call rang out.  Thanks to brave Janie, Toni and LEONARD for being gamers, all the little girls too: my Ali, Jaycee and a few other cutie pie's. 
The fourth and fifth hours were spent watching a slide show, I saw a bunch of pics of us, most notably, New year's day 2011, we were the last group standing on the grass, all the other partyiers long gone. Says something about our group's bad assery, doesn't it?
The sixth and seventh hours were given to awards and notable swims, lot's of us were mentioned but I was tired of sitting in a chair in my dress, David kept sneaking outside to drink wine by the big gulp size, I wasn't winning any raffle prizes, I wanted more cake or cocktails and Ali was losing her mind with excitement, I had spent so much time reeling her in. We had to go! Please Carol, be done, but no..
All kidding aside, Doug did a very good job as usual, he's good with detail, Marta was delightfully buzzed with her wine and cute dolphin purse, it was good to see swimmers on dry land, some of us look really good dry and clothed. Even barely dry and clothed, the tiniest bit of lipgloss is a wow factor for the swim crowd. This is a bonus, not having to glam it up too hard, that would suck for this girl.
I could be much more bitter, way more cynical and judgemental, but this party was for swimmers, done by swimmers and I love the swimmers so I'll save my commentary for something else. I know you can barely wait!

Weekend warriors, go, fight, SWIM!

Weekend of the 11 pack swim, November 27...
such a smooth, awesome swim!

We MC's made it last Sunday for that really big 11-pack day (I can't even remember who all was there but it was at least a GIANORMUS BUNCH!) and it was a truly a glorius day--cool, smooth and clearish waters... all the hard core no pants swimmers and us wimps (that cringe at the mere thought of no wetsuit as the temps plunge below 60, heck, even 65) were there!  Hey, gimme Hawaii or the Caribbean -- even the Mediterranean and I'm such a NO PANTS SWIMMER!  This water, not so much...  Honestly, I have the utmost respect and admiration for youz hardcore merfolk.  You rock and SWIM!!!

The day of our 11-pack swim in the late afternoon.

The water this weekend was great too, though the water temps seem to be creeping down. Had a great swim with LFTC, CFTC, Claudi, Diana, Ralph and the MC's... out to the half then those that could take the cold went on to the A. Sunday it was just me, Bill and Leonard -- Diana and Phoenix went early, probably so they wouldn't miss a minute of the grovadellic La Jolla Christmas Parade...maybe not. Bill and I checked in on it after we ate something hot but had to head home for Sunday chores... the weekends just go by WAY TOO FAST !Here are a few  pics from this weekend.
~mercari

Saturday, December 3 we swam with
LTFC, CFTC,  Claudia,  Diana, and Ralph

Sunday, December 4th was a bit bumpier and cooler...
still a gorgeous day!

Sunday, December 4th, bumpier and cooler...  

brr.. sure is gettin chilly

LFTC, the Mighty C's, Diana Darlin, Claudia-badass-Rose, Paula, Ralph, Cftc and three lovely swim gals... am I forgetting someone? Im still a little chilly. Glorious conditions beyond the .25, crossed over a few mountains getting there.. not sure where these giants came from but we made it and had a great swim to the .50 through clear water, some views of the bottom and lots of waving kelp and the water has taken on a turquoise hue, only a few fish and us. At one point on the way in as I was doing a body scan to make sure that the most important body parts were still working (heart lungs... possibly brain) Claudia said, 'oh, its warm here.. feels warm and cozy'.... ? really? I've been chuckling ever since.. guess compared to frign Alaska its warm, kinda. Anyway, we rallied at the .50, Ralph, Bill, Paula took the "A" route, the rest of us headed back the way we came and all landed on shore in one cold piece. Nice loud meeting in the jacuzzi afterwards. 59 is taking me right to my edge, its beautiful to say the least!! Super grateful for my swim friends and cold water endorphins and apparently brown fat too, whatever that is!!

no surficide or homisurf-yet.

girls to the left, girls to the right, hard core, no pants all over the place.

swim report for some day in the recent past. (o how the mighty have fallen):
the four girlies above swam out in some surf, cami and i blazed out over a mini set and we were fine, swam all around in beautiful seas, some swells but nothing scary until (insert scary music here) our trip back to the beach. sets were cruising in from time to time, we all know 'just wait for the lull' is mostly crapola but still, we hung out for awhile until our beloved claudia, who, i might add, is highly seasoned, has a million miles of easy and hard seas under her belt, yelled out "swim now! haul ass!" claudia doesn't yell and has an easy, quiet tone all the time so of course i completely freaked out. um, WHAT? WAIT! WHY? HELLO? i couldn't swim now or haul ass, i was waiting for SURFICIDAL waves! but in came dianadarling to save the day. (not the 1st time she has guided me in, she just ignores the tears and whining, lets me hang on to her swim suit and waltzes us in all ho hum and smiles) she tells me we weren't going to haul ass anywhere, we were just gonna hang and see what was what. turns out there wasn't much of anything going on, claudia was just hauling ass because she can.  (she can by the way, she has some serious power under that speedo)
so no rescue for me, no surficide or homisurf.
 (pick one, doug likes surficide, me too)
kind of cold whatever day that was, like 60 but conditions were awesome and the company outstanding. of all the swimmers in the world, how did i ever get so lucky to hook up with all my swim peeps?
CAN ONE OF THE 11 SUNDAY SWIMMERS REPORT ON THAT BITCHIN SWIM? I HAVE TO GO MAKE DINNER!

lftc-out

WEdnesday, best ever

Oh man, sweet clarity you have returned. Claudia Rose, Lftc and Cftc swam in gloriously clear chilly (but not too chilly) waters, in the buff, no fins. Super low tide, clear to the bottom to the .25, towards the sticks, over by the caves, back out and back in.... so thats what the bottom looks like, I'd almost forgotten. Giant bat ray, lots and lots of California Barracuda and those snarky sea lions of course. Jamal dove into a rock on his way into the bliss and chunked up his nose, watch out for the rocks! Waves are up now, so glad we got this swim in when we did! Im thankful to all my lovely swim peepers who know what makes my bells chime!

Nice Sunday swim

Lftc, C rose, and DD went out today in fairly calm seas (some wind chop on our way back in). Swam to A, stick near 1/2 to cave side and back. Crazy bird convention, we were literally encircled by grebes,pellis,sea gulls..it was wild. They didn't move to let us part the seas. So up close and intimate!!

Hope to see you all Turkey weekend!

Saturday was nice...

Despite storm threats, Bill and I made it to the cove around noon... It wasn't raining, the water was clear and cool (59ish) and the sun was poking through in places -- we were in!  Sorry we missed our peeps, as we were getting into our wetsuits, Janie showed up and swam with us in the cold, clear waters.  We did a fast tour of the buoys on bumpy, waters and then back... not terribly eventful, but great to be in the water.
I was happy to see at Children's Pool, the harbor seals and people were coexisting... that was nice. Here are some pics as the light was leaving and we prepared for home.
~mercari

Looking like Saturday could go either way, it turned out to be a great swim!

Sea Lions actually together with humans... this is the second time I've seen this .
They're getting used to us! 

Pinks...love the pinks...

Nice way to end the day... looking this way!

Foggy Thursday

Thursday was socked in with fog...until around 11:00. My preference was a swim along the Shores; but thick fog and a lack of lifeguard eyes changed my mind to the Cove. Short swim, as 11:30 is really too late for me to even think about getting in the water. But there's nothing quite like the last swim before foul weather arrives to rationalize an 80 mph nail-biting drive back to east county necessary to arrive home before school kids walk in. The fog complied, and lifted just enough to allow my swim. Ahhhh.

59 deg. / good viz (great in spots) / flat water.

Another storm clearing swim...

Felt like we nearly missed the weekend.  Bill and I finally made it over to the cove at 2 on Sunday thinking it was just us... turned out there were lots of peeps to swim with -- happy day. We had Carol, Annamarie, and Shane go the whole way (B to 1/2 to A and in). We started with Chris, Don and Karen too, but they were too fast and zoomed ahead, losing us in their wake -- as we mozied and gazed at the fishes, kelp crab and more.  The water was around 60, and smooth and clear out to the B. Shane was wearing his underwater video camera and filmed a seal swimming under us, circling around and checking us out. I haven't seen any of Shane's videos yet, but once he gets editing, I'm hoping he'll post some soon.

Photo of Bill sans head/feet -- LOL

And Bill, I call him TRON, got a spankin' new wetsuit (this is the third or forth though I may have lost count).  Wish I'd snapped a photo of him -- wow, he looks, well, WOW!  His new 2XU has the cool blue stripes in a TRON-like style (remember the movie and then the next one--sorry...not the best memory?). Of course he looks way better than Tron and there's no crazy helmet. Be sure to notice it next time you see him. I think he's keeping this one, so hopefully,  it's a wrap!  Sorry, the photo is missing Bill's head and feet, but you get the idea!

I can't believe what a gorgeous day it was... we are sure missing Laura, Cami, Diana, Toni, Steve, Amber, Tayla, and all our regular swim peeps... hope the storms stay away for a while and we all get out together again soon!  Maybe next weekend?

~mercari

Thursday swim

Beautiful calm sea today. 15 to 20 feet viz. Cold water at 59-61 (arguable). Sea lions are so thick we had to elbow our way through them in some areas. They've given up keeping a safe distance from us humans and are now curious and quite cheeky. I haven't been 'checked out' by so many eyes since my college clubbing days!

One solitary sea lion was hanging out inside the cave. Floating just below the surface; silhouetted in the water against the light at the back of the cave. He completely blocked the cave, so Steve D. and I backtracked out of the cave rather than disturbing 'Mr. Solitare'.

We swam to the Q, the stick, then toured the caves today. Great swim before the storm.

Weekend swims with Ruth or What a Difference a Day Makes!

Saturday view from above the cove... near the Goldfish Point. 

Ruth was out for a short, but sweet visit. So glad we managed to get in a swim on both Saturaday and Sunday, despite the weather.  But what a contrast!!!

Saturday was GORGEOUS!  Best swim, ok, in a while, or, since LFTC swam with us... We had quite a group meeting at 2 (Ruth, Carol, Bob, Shane, Vic, Don, Chris, and the Mighty C's). The sun was brilliant as it sparkled and danced on the gentle rollers.  Quite a smooth swim out to the B -- straight out, did not pass A and get all tangled up in blue, no, that would be kelp... then from the B (the viz was clear) we had some fun swells rollin' in... carried us to the 1/2 then to the caves.  Shane and Carol went through the cave, even with the crazy swells. They timed it JUST right! Scared me... I'm a chicken when it comes to getting dashed to bits in the cave...

Rainy daze... fun swim times!

Sunday's swim seemed a bit sketchy... we were hoping the rain would stay away until afternoon -- or at least later than noon.... but NOOOO.  We managed to down some of my homemade chai (celebrating the November birthdays and sorry we missed our Cami and LFTC).  We charged off into the rain--couldn't get any wetter. And it  was fun--the water was calm and smooth and raindrops kept falling on our heads. We had Leonard, Ruth (guest of honor), Carol, Bob, Marta and the MC's. Still a nice pod for such less-than-wonderful-weather!  We headed to the 1/4, then the 1/2, where Bill, Bob and I opted to head back. The amazing Ruth, Marta, Carol and Leonard said let's do the B!  So off they went and the rest of us (Bill, Bob and I) all came back in the dripping rain as the life guard cheered us in (no one else was out today, can't imagine why!).  Slugged down some more liquid heat (chai), Leonard brought his great coffee and we were off to get into our cars and get dry... such a great weekend, only half wet and all wild.  We missed our swim peeps that couldn't be there, but think the chaff and the wheat thing might be important to note.  


~Wheat out

dolphin encounter

Lake La Jolla was beckoning. Today I swam at the Shores, from the Tower to the pier, then to the Marine Room and back. Many huge schools of sardines were out. Glorious, clear flat water at 61 degrees. I was swimming parallel to the shore when a small school of sardines came racing toward me, head on; swam under me. Made me think, "hmmm, why are they in such a hurry?..." In the next instant, a DOLPHIN came barreling toward me, swam directly underneath me, chasing those sardines! I stopped and popped up to see the rest of the pod, also on the chase. They split, swimming 10 feet either side of me, only to catch up with their pod-mate, now 20 feet behind me, to commence jumping and (presumably) snatching up some sardines for lunch. I wanted to whoop and go join in the celebration, but kept my distance. I listened to their squeaks and clicks and, in a matter of seconds, they were gone. And I was left with that tingly feeling of having been witness to something special.

I Spy With My Little Eye...

Something Beginning with "B"

Is it a Buoy?

Is it Bait?

Is it a Boogyboard on the Beach, the lifeguards hate?

Is it a Bird?
oh I don't know, gotta Be...

It's a Bikini

Nope, not any of these.

Have you had your fill?

It's the one, It's the only, It's our own Merman Bill

Beautiful, but chilly, glad for the jacuzzi kinda day...

Someone Died Out At The A Buoy



It's Lobster Season...Be Safe




Pretty Kelp




The Great Pumpkin Riseth




A Plethora Of Perch (I think that's what they are)



Sunset At The Shores



A Shrimpy Stand-Off

spent a week writing on blogs, swim federation logs, cards, work comp position papers and other stuff.  Normally would not send you off to another site, but Tuesdays swim was freakishly fantastic...had a face off with a shrimp! 

To read about it, click here:

SharkBait Chronicles

Have missed you all tons and totally jealous of your fab swims...hope to sea you soon

Marta (sharkbait)

I ALMOST FORGOT! giant white sea bass!

SATURDAY! how could i not post this? swim report for saturday, dd, the mc's, ralph who is so the man, alexis, lftc swam in calm and pretty clear seas, cold at 62 but it felt so good after a week off. the wetsuited and finned sped off to the marine room, bill sped off to the ..maybe the pier? this time diana checked her course and came back to us, last time she follwed him and added a 1/2 mile to her swim.  near the marine room we turned back and so lucky were we! a giant white sea bass, maybe about 4' long, swimming shallowly and slowly, we were able to swim with him for several minutes until he dove for kelp, he was awesome and his little dark flippers were so adorable, i wanted to pet him.  poor claudia had to sit out and watch due to her nose surgery (totally cosmetic) but we were able to have a lovely lunch in old town (my new digs, very soon).  all in all an awesome swim with the best crew on the planet! powerful kismet has brought us together, the giant white sea bass is evidence that we are all meant to swim together! this is random but i maintain that this time we have at the cove is ours, we put our mark here and leave it for all of time, we are indelible. like sharpie ink..
lftc-out

sik! or is it sick?

swim report monday noon, lftc, loli and paul (paul sometimes swims with us, no wetsuit, no goggles guy) swam out in a lonely sea, not one other swimmer out and TOO BAD! why? i'll tell you, little curious ones: grey skies, some drizzle, cool weather and the too bad? total viz, that's why, awesome viz, viz to the nth degree, viz up the butt, sik viz! ( i told bill that i had to work on my street cred lingo, just ignore me when i do this) flatness and utter calm, smooth as silk seas, a little cold at 61 degrees but we rocked the swim to the 1/2, which has bobbed to who knows where, it's so off course these days.  we saw every living thing under the sea today, you could count the rocks, see the kelp swaying, gaze at the little fishies out in force. when we came in we had some bratty sea lions surrounding us and still not a swimmer in sight. TOO BAD! unlike some of my beloved swim pals, i won't say it was the best swim EVAR but it was pretty darn SIK! going to do it again tuesday, i'll be sure to post some bragging, um, i mean reports for your enjoyment.
lftc-out

Smooth, clear and calm... and a little grey

This weekend brought really calm, smooth-as-silk, water that was amazingly clear.  The water would have looked clearer had there been a little more light -- as in, where did all this fog and greyness come from?  Saturday was a great swim with LFTC, Diana, Ralph, Alexis and the MCs blitzing to the Marine Room.  We lost a few as we swam around looking for leopard sharks...LFTC, Diana and Ralph headed back. They spotted a giant white sea bass on their way to the cove.  We saw a couple of leopard sharks  at the Marine Room and lots of yellow tail (a personal fav) and then blazed back to the cove.

Sunday, Leonard was the only other brave sole that was willing to walk 3 miles to park in La Jolla on the CAF day. We did see Doug when we got back to the cove, but most regulars were staying away from the busy cove.  Still, we had a great swim, even clearer than Saturday, and glassy as pool  with no one in it... and there weren't many swimmers out either. Swam to the Marine Room again and saw lots of leopards and yellow fin (BIG ones!).  Great fun! The water temp both days was from 62 to 65ish... nice!

Hope to see more of you next weekend!
~mer-cari

Thank you Talya!

Talya and Lenya(?) baptized me in the bioluminescence tonight. It was the blue light special in the cove at dark. We started for the half at 6:00 under heavy marine layer. Red tide was thick to the Q, then cleared to the half. Water temp was a cheeky 61 degrees (below my official wetsuit threashold temp). But I was unprepared and swam in a rash guard instead. Which made for a quicky swim. Too quick to experience the full impact of the glowing red tide, according to Talya. So we retreated to the hot tub for 10 minutes, then went back out! By that time it was much darker, and the blue glow was brilliant. Wow. Thanks, Talya, for insisting that we make the best of this evening!

we want to swim with yous and we wanted to swim with thems guys (texting while driving)

swim report for our beloved and deeply missed cami and everyone else, (also deeply missed)sunday, noon: lftc, dd (the yous) the mc's and leonard (the thems guys) head out in mostly cloudy weather but not too cold and mostly cloudy seas but not too red and juicy. we were all so happy to be in regular zero viz murk and not the deep red v-8 juice of late. oh how the mighty have fallen! gone are the days of wishing for viz, sun, warm water and flatness. we have been reduced to being thrilled to swim in non infectious seas, period. we had a cool rythym, like floating on a pool floatie with lots of people playing and doing canon balls, up and down rolling and side to side rolling. it was awesome fun although we split up immediately with bill headed off into somewhere and dd following suit. leonard and i stuck together and cary was blazing to the marine room as planned. cary is so good! she's just good. we hung out with some leopards for a few minutes then head straight back where once again we split off. more rock and roll, 65 degrees, lots of kayaks, very few swimmers but some of us are way more hardcore than others. (not me, i just went because diana said we were going and she's a rarity, like the turtle) our hottie lifeguards teased us about their anti red tide dance which was going to be spectacular, they were busy guarding us so no dance, darn. we hung out in the jacuzzi, made alcohol related plans and said good bye, until we swim again! oh, for those of you who want to swim weekdays with bill at ohmygod 6am, give him a call. be sure to let me know how that goes.
miss all of yous that couldn't make it today, you are running out of excuses so you better get on it and get in.

Smooth, calm and not so clear...

We had a great swim, though, as Bill said, the viz was, well, NOT horrible... so there you have it.  Not horrible, not clear, but we did swim!  The red tide has been way too fond of the cove... The life guard posting on the board was perfect:  Swim: smooth, calm, warmer and brown...

We headed off to the quarter with our new swim friend, Daun who's training for a triathlon and Hove from the Cove, Hovik -- a real treat.  Daun headed back at the quarter, we sliced through the brownish haze to the half, then Hove headed back to the cove... 

It was patchy, but not as dense after we left the half and headed to the Marine Room. It was actually clear there, so we swam along the shores for a while, greeting a couple of leopard sharks. Finally we headed towards the caves and back. Toni was right, it was much clearer all the way from the shores along the caves than out at the quarter and half buoys.  We got buzzed by a life guard jet ski that nearly ran us down over towards the caves...  had some excitement... the grey clouds melted away and it turned out to be a lovely day.

Hope to sea ya' Sunday at noon!!!
~mer-cari

Red, Red Go Away, Come Again...well not today

Friday murk report.  Still much red tide everywhere.  Spotty close to the caves and white house.  I swam with Jenny and Kara through it all.  Very thankful to have met them at the water's edge.  I wasn't looking forward to going it solo.  We swam a fast round trip to the Shores.  So weird swimming up to the beach and never even seeing the sandy bottom.  We swam blind until we were in calf-deep water.  Seriously?!  Then we just stood up.  The fog was rolling in so we decided not to hug the caves and got back into the swim lane instead.  I don't know why that was a good idea.  We should have hugged the caves.  The water was a little clearer over there. (See photo taken from the trail.) It was all good though.  Warm water, at 65-66.  Calm, like Lake La Jolla.

big fat swim report

big fat swim report, wednesday, noon, claudia & lftc raced to the cove due to claudia's pressing thingy, something about a job, meeting, i don't know, some kind of thingy that she had to attend ON TIME! so i race down the 5 in my mini, music blaring to get my groove on, windows open for the bracing breeze (candy wrappers flying all over, dust drying out my nose and lips, bad plan, the windows open) and i make it! to no claudia and a deeply dirty cove, foam all over, the smell was overwhelming and the red tide was pretty thick. awww! claudia arrived and we raced, again, to the shores, looked around for gita who was looking for me, couldn't find her and finally got wet. oh the relief! pretty clean water, not much red but not really clear either, swam to the marine room and encountered murk so we headed to the pier. the swim was generally excellent, it felt so good to swim hard after a few days off. claudia is amazing and powerful, she really is part fish! the sun was hot and shining, the shores were crowded today, parking was tough. so there you have it, swim peeps! not a whole lot but you have read the skinny on the big fat swim for today. speaking of big and fat, while i was not swimming, i was trail running, allow me say the 3 words that sum up my entire running experience: industrial strength panties. it says so much, doesn't it? i know, i sell the sexy..
lftc-out

You all missed out Tuesday night...

Talya and her friends Charlie and Lena and I went out for another night time red tide swim.  Only this time, as we were making our way to the quater mile buoy, we had the sun setting on one side and the full moon coming up over the hill on the other side.  All at the same time.  And of course the water glowed blue again once it was dark.   We might go out for one more red tide swim at night next week.  No camera to take pics this time.

nice...leopard Sunday

Toni was tough!  Leonard, Tayla, and the C's were all in wetsuits, but not our Toni... you could see Toni was happy to be out in some water that wasn't ewwww, red! Great swim off the quarter again just to see if things were clearing any more (not much) then over to search for the BIG leopards with Leonard.  They did NOT disappoint... many, many of those cute spotted sharks were out again to greet us. We even petted them and they let us... I'm guessing they're finally getting used to those human things swimming around in their water!  Great day like Saturday only not as clear... Saturday was the clearest I've seen the shores in MANY moons... fun times, thanks for the great swim!

Post swim walking, south of Children's pool... gorgeous day!

~mercari

Turn right at the quarter mile buoy...

Then head to the Marine Room where the clearest, cleanest water surprised Laura enough to call it Bahama-mama swimming!  The temps weren't quite that (62ish), but after the redness of last Sunday, we were  just glad to see something besides rust-brown water!  Great swim with LFTC, CFTC, Wendy, Diana, and the MC's -- ready to hit the water and see the sea to see if it was clearing up... sweet swim with leopard sharks (so clear and so many sharks) a plenty at the Bahama-mama shoreline... happy to try again on Sunday.  LFTC nearly crashed into a very large sea lion (truly a near-miss!) -- BIG surprise! You just never know what you'll nearly run into or who... we met Augusto from Chile at the quarter mile and gave him our swim friend list... always fun to add new swim peeps.

No promises on tomorrow's water -- we all saw the red tide looming out past the A and B buoys... could roll in like it did last weekend... just sayin'...

Beautiful day for a swim!  Here's hoping tomorrow is good too...

Malta, Sicily, and Ischia Swims

Taormina, Sicily

Ischia, thermal island delight!

Ischia Island views off Naples

Saint Angelo Beach, Taormina, Sicily

Malta -- attack of the killer fish spa.  Fun times!

Malta,  view from our hotel room on high...

Malta -- Rocky beaches, beautiful swimming!

Taormina, Sicily views

All,

Here are some photos of our Malta and Italy trip. Lot's of nice water - 80 degrees and great visibility, but no fish bigger than a few inches. Can't have everything.

One incident we didn't mention. Cary was attacked by a swarm of hungry fish in Malta. See attached picture for details.

Bill

Big RED!



Red Tide, La Jolla, California....

Check out these whales poking holes in the Red Tide. Aerial photos over La Jolla:

http://deepseanews.com/2011/10/blue-whales-in-a-red-tide/



THE RED TIDE AND YOU..YOU'RE SOAKING IN IT.

La Jolla Shores Ewww.

red and juicy lame-o swim report: the group met on deck today and what a group! cami, marta, dianadarling, wendy, phoenix, lftc, and the mighty c's. too bad conditions SUCKED! the deep red and brown v-8 juice just sat there, all defiant and recalcitrant, mocking us all with it's sub zero viz and heady smell. long discussions ensue, wtf? why? when? holy sh*t, gross, how? and so on. only the mighty c's declared bravery thus maintaining their might. they tried to convince us lesser swimmers to join them using their star power then resorted to food references to make their point. something about wheat and chaff, i had to ask which one i happened to be. chaff it turns out, the riff raff, the cast offs, the wayward, the flotsam! okay, whatever, i'm the chaff and the chaff was flotsam-ing away to the other side with the rest of the riff raff. what a huge disappointment! red! worser red! way badderer red! foam. no smell though so we pulled our claudia out of the red (who knew?) and then proceeded to drag her right back in because we had to go in. i was so warm from all the talking and the being compared to bread crumbs that i needed to cool off. the water felt pretty good and if you kept your eyes closed, it was pretty normal. claudia and i got out after about 10 minutes, dd and marta stayed with it for awhile. they're in the emergency room now. oh wait, no, they're okay. they both texted me, whew! anyway, so sorry about our red tide situation and so sorry we missed our group swim. it was so good to see everyone though, i have missed you all so much! and in regards to the wheat and the chaff: i love the wheat, i need the wheat and without the wheat there is no chaff! see? i can think positive if i put my mind to it. it's generally not my thing though so get it now..
let's try again next weekend!
lftc/chaff-out:)

Red, white and blues...

Or, you should have seen it yesterday!

So much for posting conditions...  Obviously, conditions don't really matter until you're there, in the thick of it, swimming through whatever you're faced with.... so, that's what we did today.  The mighty C's were out with no one... our A team went to the shores looking for better waters and there was none to be found.   I mumbled something to Laura about separating the wheat from the chaff... she called me wheat all day!  Ha...

As Bill and I mucked our way back from the Marine Room through the mire, we spotted Toni, braving the RED!  It wasn't an easy swim through the dark. Way to go -- all those braving the red sea!   We met new swim peeps today too. Daun and her daughter, Amber were there yesterday to see the gorgeous clearness that I wasn't misrepresenting AND she was back, braving the red tides... so we gave Daun our swim scoop and our blog address. Maybe we'll be seeing them in the days ahead.

Here's a pic of the red tide south of the cove... really red there too.  Bet there's some wild bioluminescence there tonight!

Seeing RED everywhere: red, white and blue day...

~mer-cari

Red is dead --- Nice to see in the sea again!

Red tide alert -- the little dinof's swam away -- hurray!

Gorgeous Saturday swim in pretty amazing water, considering Wednesday Bill said it was soup-like and we heard even Friday wasn't great.  We swam with Leonard and Amber to the Marine Room spotting a lone leopard shark, some bat rays, sting rays and lots of fun fisheys... Amber and I had the cutest harbor seal swim right under us, checking us out -- and we could actually SEE him... clearly and we could see the bottom!  Seriously, no red tide -- it was all washing out to see... Yippee!!!  Soweet!

Beautful sunshiney day and a perfect day for a swim.  Water temps are dropping (61) so let's get out NOW.

Such a gorgeous day for a swim!

Bill and I will be on deck at 11:30 on Sunday and hope to see some of our swim peeps!
~mer-cari

No REd Tide

Took my dogs to OB today. Not a hint of red tide out there. Maybe we need to swim elswhere?

New look!

I gave the blog a new look -- and here are some new fins too. These are for LFTC and all those merfolk that feel they could use a little spike in their magic fins.

~cary

Thursday cove check

Had to swing by the LJAC today and checked out the cove.  Doug B was finishing his swim and reported improving vizibility, esp around the .25.  There was much texture in the water (and a 'sleeping' pelican floating inside) even occasional breakers on the beach (at high tide).  Lifeguards expect a hurricane Hilary swell tomorrow.  I chose to pass on a swim today.  Feeling lazy.

Author! Author!

Tuesday evening, Warwick's Book Store in La Jolla was honored to host a book signing and discussion by Lynn Cox, author of Swimming To Antarctica, Grayson, and her newest endeavor, South With The Sun.

Lynn is best known for swimming more than a mile in the waters off Antarctica. She was in the water for 25 minutes. Her book about that experience, Swimming to Antarctica, was published in 2004.

Her second book, Grayson, details her encounter with a lost baby gray whale she named Grayson, during an early morning workout near LA. It was published in 2006.

In this newest book, her story is a heroic tale of discovery.  Roald Amundson is Norway's native son and explorer of the North and South Poles during the early 1900's.  Her research led her to Norway. After some impressive translation from old Norwegian, she was able to tell his story, giving him the historical credit he never got.

Look them up...all of them!

~Marta

leonard & lftc swim in the darkness

Swim report sunday, race day! only i wasn't racing anywhere with anyone-i snuck out of the house to meet some non racers: claudia, dianadarling, ralph, leonard at the shores since the cove was filled with ambitious relay racers winning stuff! some bitterness here but i'll get over it during dinner at the crabcatcher. anyway, dd bailed, claudia and ralph couldn't bear the thought of the swimming in the deep brown/red tide which was dismal. the whitewater was no longer white and i could see big swaths of red. a little competition between claudia and leonard about toxin levels, c rose said the red tide, leonard said mission. pick your poison, people! leonard and i chose the red tide, simply because it's mostly biological, our bodies are somewhat accustomed to it and we were there.  so we venture out and let me tell you, i have swam in red tides many times, even the wicked milky stuff but this was a whole new level of ewww. so sorry i had hi def goggles on, i could see the algae procreating right beneath me, undulating and getting jiggly in their den of iniquity! i was horrified and more than concerned about what might be lurking beneath. we could see nothing but red. leonard was very calm and quite happy which made me both worried about his sanity and relieved that the swim would very likely end well. i did not let him get more than two feet away from me, poor leonard, i tried to be tough! but i'm not. surprisingly the caves were very clear, not crystal but no red. i wanted to stay there, maybe a boat will come by! but no, we had to go back and leonard was bound and determined to get his full swim and we were there so i agreed. we swam about 1.5 miles and i was so happy to be done!
congrats to my swim peeps for absolutely kicking ass in the relay, winning stuff, braving the red tide and being team players. generally, i'm not really a team player, tis my nature to be quite solitary but i love you all and NEED you in the water with me. i want you, baby!
lftc-out

Ten mile relay

Lots of swim to be had during Sunday's Ten Mile Relay!  More red tide to test the mettle of the mighty teams (more than 100) out in the cove.  Off to a grey start and then the day turned out for a beautiful finish.

Teams we knew:  Just Add Water: Steve, Bill, Cary, Talya, and Amber; Must Have Swim (I don't think I got that name right) with Toni, Cami, Joe, Kathy and Phoenix -- other's out there included Hove-from-the-cove's team from Pfizer and a host of others... and PRIZES, did I say PRIZES?  Cami won the GRAND prize an iPad (that's a small net-book-like device that is actually a giant iPhone, for LFTC's benefit). LOL...  Phoenix said they also won dinner at the Crabcatcher in La Jolla. Even I won prizes!  I won a MONTH membership at the La Jolla Athletic Club -- yippee! And $20 gift certificates to Harry's Cafe... so, geez, it almost pays you to enter this race... next year, let's get some more teams on... it was lots of fun!

Good job all you racers, swimmers and winners.


Race start taken by Phoenix



2011 Inaugural Tiki Swim

This was a first for the Oceanside Harbor.

Navy Ships, Coast Guard boats, even replica Spanish Galleons have come in to the Oceanside harbor, but on the morning of September 25th, the Oceanside Harbor was welcomming Tiki swimmers at the 1st inaugural Tiki Swim.

Two  courses were set up with a point to point route finishing in the parking lot just above the boat launch ramp in the Oceanside Harbor. They supplied double decker shuttle buses to shuttle athletes, family and guests.

2.4 miles of FUN!!

The 2.4 mile swim was a mass beach start at 7:30 from the south side of the Oceanside Pier (same as the Oceanside Pier Swim on Labor Day). Athletes swam out and around the pier before heading north, parallel to shore, for the Harbor mouth. Once in the shelter of the harbor, swimmers made a few right hand turns and sprinted (hah) up the boat ramp. The cutoff time for the swim was 2 hours and 20 minutes.  Everyone in this race was more than able to complete this.

There was also a 1.2 mile event. In retrospect, I should have entered that...I would have won not only my age group but overall non-wetsuit also LOL

 

Instead my fellow swim chums and I chose the 2.4mi event (my 1st time racing this distance). The "Oakstreakers" were present minus Patsee,Tanya and Annie. David came down from LA, but Gary opted out after getting nailed by the waves at the Labor Dat O'side Pier Swim. DB joined us en lieu of the Relay event in La Jolla, a former patient of mine, Tom, was straining his eyes early that morning at check in, as was Gracie (husband Neil was kayaking) and Fred!...Fred did the 2.4!!  Even Jaycee (12yo) from Arizona came out and declared her intention to swim it under and hour!

The water was amazingly flat, (NO REAL WAVES) with a nice current pushing North at times and approx 63F, with zero, zip, nada, bupkis viz.  The red tide has taken over ALL of San Diego County!

This was an extremely fast group of swimmesr and Tri-geeks (err athletes).  Few braved the elements sans wetsuit; the wetsuit division made up primarily of the Tri-guys.  There were contingents of the German National Team and the US Team, and sponsored swimmers including our very own Gracie.  The winning time was 48min!!!

They had Tiki surf hats for everyone and t-shirts, pancake breakfast and professional photos by Heidi (of La Jolla).  The over all winners received Tiki paintings on canvas and the age group winners received Tiki totems (very cute).

I came in 4th in my AG (no totem) but I'm well pleased with my time of 01:31:01.  This was a great event with great people...definitely on my list for the future.

 

It was announced that it will continue, due to a great turn out, every year on the day of the Oceanside Harbor Days Festival.