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.