easy bake oven survival tactics

swim report sunday, feb. 26: the mighty c's, leonard, steve and lftc met at noon in grey skies, cool weather, busy sea, some tide swells breaking near take off but despite my complaints i'm sure i can handle it. as of late, i have been in much worse and i don't know why. i always race home to tell dave that 'I AM NEVER GOING TO SWIM IN SURF, EVER AGAIN'. it's like a declaration and a few days later, there i am, in the surf. i'm dumb. anyway, we head out in zero viz to the a, the b and the 'virtual boat' that the mc's and leonard have discovered (?), the 1/4 and in. it's near the cove that the up and coming surf shows itself for what it will be: big whompers, steep and mean and unpredictable. i'm feeling a little scared but i do see the mythical 'lulls' which really are giant flat spots pressed down by mighty whompers. ok, who is going to go in with me? cary is busy scoping out her exit, bill is laughing with glee, yes, with GLEE and leonard is too far away. steve was already on the stairs. on our careful swim in and back out we bump into a group of novice snorkelers too afraid to go in, they decide to go in with us and all 10 of us (it felt like 10, it was more like 5 or 6) end up standing on six inches of rock kind of checking things out and there comes the big wave, really big but i'm stuck in the middle of this gang, they are literally standing on my feet, elbows touching, noise, fins, snorkels abound but i power through (all that core stuff does occasionally pay off-if only to prevent my undignified death on the rocks) and go up, up, through the top of this wave and fall down the back. i'm so glad i made it, it would have been a nasty wash. i see scott lingering outside, waiting for things to settle down and he waves at me, i was so happy to see him, i knew then that i would make it home to bake cookies with ali in her easy bake oven. there is nothing like a gooey cookie cooked by a lite bulb. it sounded like heaven to me. oh, one little thing, on our way back to the cove we crossed this couple waiting to swim in, they had been hanging for a long time, no pants and i knew they were worried about the sets that had really popped up from nowhere. i asked them if they were okay, the guy said yes, the girl said no. i assumed they would follow us in as they were moving out towards us but they still hung back too long for us to wait. after the mayhem on the rocks i was in no position to worry about them, i was thinking only of the easy bake. we all did make it, spent some time in the jacuzzi and i made it home to make gooey cookies with ali. 
all in all a fun and adventurous swim, overall fast and athletic, everyone had their motors running today, cary was on fire, steve was gone, leonard was working hard to catch anyone he could, bill was working hard too and i had magic fins which means that my hard swim was cake. happiness prevails.
thank you my friends!  i love you all so much and i will save you lite bulb cookies.
lftc-out 

Saturday Sea Lion Feeding Frenzy

Beautiful day at the cove on Saturday, with smooth low rollers and a little chop outside, making for some textured seas on our swim with Leonard.  The MCs thought we'd be alone, but no -- Leonard, came out for the team and we had an exciting swim, once again.  The A, B, to a random dive boat, then to the 1/4  as we bumped along in the cool, 57 degree water.

Not much visibility, but we met the sea lion out in kelpy water near the 1/4 mile buoy and were truly entertained.  I saw his head pop up nearby, then he ducked down and back up with a mouthful of octopus!  None of us had ever seen this before -- octo-lunch!  This was way too big an octopus for one gulp, but the silly young sea lion was determined to eat.  He struggled and fought to stuff it in (reminded me of a little floating, furry piggy) while a hungry gull came swooping down to grab a bite -- or swipe the entire thing, if he could.  What a show! This went on for quite some time, the gull flying up and then swooping down, the sea lion trying desparately to gulp this way-too-big-for-one-bite octopus... finally the sea lion went under (the gull couldn't follow) and managed to either down or drop the poor hapless tenacled tidbit.  Finally, we decided we were beginning to feel the chill in the water, so headed into the cove... another beautiful day in paradise!

~mercari

A varied ocean for all

At little bit of everything in the cove today. Waves breaking inside; fog, sun; strong south current; regulars, visitors. It was all there. Leonard and I waited patiently for the big sets to burn themselves out before we dove in. We rode the south current to the 'virtual' half; then paid our dues plowing northward to the A, where Marta greeted us on her way out.

Back at the cove, we swam into Loli and Claudia, who had chosen not to trust the fog and stayed inside to play in the waves. By all accounts, everyone made the right decision today, because today the ocean chose to serve up a wide variety.

surprise, surprise!

Wow... can you believe this? Incredible! Gorgeous! Amazing! These are some of the words spoken by few today, Loli and LFTC swam at 12:30 and barely even.  Neither of us had planned to swim as it was cold, grey and so windy! We both went on long runs this morning in lieu of swimming but Loli mentioned good conditions which precede whompers coming into town Wednesday so maybe.... Still, we both waffled until 12:20 when it was decided that swim we must, especially given the huge bright green spots in the cove, ultra flat water and we were right there. Marched down, talked to the guards who advised us to stay inside due to high winds and pretty strong surface texture and went out into GLORY! Freaking incredible glory, like can't swim because of the gazing in wonder, the ooh's and aah's and the disbelief that not one other soul was in sight. Anywhere! We had the aquarium to ourselves. I have seen clear conditions many times, sometimes all the way down to the sea floor but today was about the clearest I have seen everywhere we swam, all 
                                                                           the
                                                                                 way 
                                                                                        down. 
All the sea floor was visible, the striations, the boulders, the chips of shells, the base of sea kelp, the little fishies, it was as though we were walking around down there. Cold was ignored as was real swimming, this was all play and touring.   I'm out of descriptive words, it was just too good to put into words anyway, what's the word for that? Ineffable! Exactly that. A nearly skipped experience that leaves me with few words. Me! And I always have words..
lftc-out

Wetsuit Poll

My friend, Steve, is looking for a swimming wetsuit. What brand and model do you use? Would you recommend it or not? Where did you buy it and for how much?

Mine is an Aqua Sphere Swim skin. And I think I've made it pretty clear that, although I love it, I'm on the fence about recommending it because of some quality issues they're having--namely, ripping seams. Bought it on eBay for $140, but had problems with getting the 1-yr warranty honored. They finally sent me a new suit; but who knows how long it'll last before the seams tear.

2fer for you

two swim reports, back to back: saturday, claudia, diana and lftc met to swim with claudia on her first training swim for the bering straight. (oh my god) we had the best paddler, don, along side and conditions were superb, flat, smooth as silk, clear and 60 degrees. we swam to the 'round house' when diana and i decided to go back as we are not training for the bering straight. claudia kept going and we quickly lost sight of her. when we were at the end of the pier but way, way out we feel this deep current below and there they are, dolphins! there were so many we just stopped pointing them out, we were completely surrounded. a sea lion was racing behind them and we just stayed put in awe. it was fantastic but a little eerie too, we were way out in open water and nature was right in our faces. we love nature but just not too close, dolphins too but not so close, man, your getting blow hole spit on me. we decided to go in, way in, like right behind the surfers so the guards could see us but on our way were stopped again by some kind of wild sea lion frenzy, jumping and leaping while birds circled overhead. something unfortunate was happening to snack fish i think. we motored on under some big swells, the dropping kind and finally hit the tower and kind of wandered back in. we waited for a few minutes to see claudia just returning and bolted home to hot showers. we swam about 3 miles in 1 hour and 35 minutes, diana's feet were numb and i was frozen. we hobbled out. but, the swim was fantastic and claudia is a rock star swimmer.
second report for sunday: the mc's, dianadarling, lftc, janiegirl and leonard pulled it together after some where is and who is and when is to swim in beautiful seas, not even a ripple to mess with. swam to the 1/4 and while i felt good and could stay in place behind the wetsuits and fins, i was feeling worn out. every time the swift group paused for even a second i was all happy and raced up to join them and they'd dart off again like they were being chased. i rerouted diana to the marine room so we could talk about how mean the wetsuits and fins are for being so fast (not really, we just swam in a relaxed manner, kind of sidestroking really, that's how relaxed)) after a minute we had a visitor, a lone harbor seal. he swam all around us and at one point he was popping up between dd's ankles. it was a fabulous show and he swam with us all the way back to shore. kind of cold today, my watch read 59 most of the swim but there were some cold spots to be had. awesome swim, great partners, fun in the sun! thanks to everyone for swimming, i am a better swimmer for swimming with you all!

kinda cool

LFTC lowering the standards bar

Swim report from the weak: Friday February 3rd, 10:30am. Claudia, Ralph and yours truly, the Weak, met at the shores just because the shores is a sure thing. The cove can be iffy, sometimes yes, sometimes no, like a high maintenance woman, sometimes she will put out and sometimes she won't. When she does, amen, life is good and when she won't, we miss her and wait like love sick puppies for the pleasure of her company. Anyway, we love sick puppies swam the easy shores and had a blast, clear, flat as can be, calm and lovely. We swam to the marine room and on the way back I lost my will to live, I had been to the gym already without genuine recovery time but I only did core, no cardio, no heavy weights, just balance and squeezing body parts. (I'm so seriously sick of squeezing, sick of working my 'core'. My 'core' had better kick some ass soon or that's it, it's full time cookies) So I was surprised when I lost my will to go on, like what is this? Am I in some vortex, a time warp sucking me backwards and down? No, just fatigue and how dare my body behave this way! I stuck with it and slogged along stopping to ...dog paddle. Really, LFTC did some dog paddling today. Admitting it is the first sign of ..what? There is a saying from the Anons about it (you guys know). Anyway, I bailed at the tower to flop down in the sand where I promptly passed out when I closed my eyes. The sun felt so good and I was so happy to just lay there and get crusty with sand while beach flies buzzed around me. Really, happy! My standards of a good time are sinking. When Dave asks me to go out for dinner with him I reject him immediately but offer a chance to dog paddle in icy seas and get bitten by sand flies, I'm all over it. Really! Go ahead, ask me!
lftc-out