A Christmas Gift...

Sunday we made it out, dispite the drizzle and gray... Claudia, Grady, Leonard, Steve and the Mighty C's were back at the shores happy to test our toughness in the 59 and dropping water...

And worth it, it was!  I shouldn't use our favorite phrase, BEST SWIM EVAR, because Laura wasn't there  (though few had much sympathy as our dear LFTC chases the great wild waves  in Maui).  Still, the swim was such gift. I'd have to say, a large gift, okay, THE BEST GIFT EVAR, wrapped in salt water and sea spray!

As I missed Saturday with the shores gang, and sadly missed our Ruth's return swim because I'm still a bit under the weather,  I was in much need of some cheer, and the sea responded.  Claudia swears the little gray whale KNEW I wasn't well and came to check on me... and I yes, Virginia, I BELIEVE!

As I'm swam north parallel the to the shore, I start veering over towards the surfline  (like a horse to the barn, trying to get back on land!) and I look up and right in front of me (I thought I was going to swim into it!) was a gorgeous little baby gray whale and as it dove back into water, it fluked it's happy tale to me as if saying Merry Christmas, Cary... then, as if that wasn't enough, a dolphin escort jumped out of the water, swimming alongside the whale... at this point, I've stopped, am screaming until my voice -- EVERYONE, LOOK, IT'S A WHALE!!!!!! Bill heard me scream (that was kinda' nice and reassuring...) and most everyone including the surfers, stopped and stared... the group swam south towards the Marine Room and spouted as a final shout-out to us, at least that's the way I saw it... I do have witnesses, so I'm quite delirious with happiness knowing this whale with dolphin escort was a very Merry Christmas wish!

Sadly, no photos of the whale and his friends, but I took two photos... the first one is gray as the day started and the second, was the sunny-magical-whale-moments our day morphed into!

I missed thosed that were not with us and hope you all have a holiday filled with family, friends and swimming!  We'll be back out there next weekend!
Hope to see you then...
~Cary

Gray Sunday Start

After the magic, everything brightened!  

TOR-TURE TORCHURE TORCH ER

Swim report for the absent, 12-16-12, 11:30-Leonard who is the man, Steph who is the man, Steve who is the man, Claudia who is the man, Laura who is the man met under grey skies and sudden wind whipping up instant wind chop because why not? 
I asked the universe about this and the universe laughed in my face. HA! it said. It then kicked sand in my face. 
I was already questioning my sanity when donning ski wear-TO GO SWIM: my big parka, knit hat, wool boots and warmwear underwear.  Then I had to take it all off, there I was, standing on the beach in a stupid Speedo trying to fight off wind chill by hugging myself with my arms. I looked to the right and saw several surfers and a swimmer in full wetsuits, I felt so much less than brave, what's the word..oh yeah, crazy. I have a problem, something is so so wrong with me and Dave was right when he said cold water swimming could be used as torture. Take a criminal, strip them down to undies, make them wade out and then swim far into cold, dark seas with unseen but ever present marine predators, no life preservers, possible rescue only when near death and maybe maybe not even then. I mentioned Dave's theory to Leonard, he said it was too harsh to be used as torture. But here we all go tip toeing into torture, willingly! I made brownies for after! Celebrating the torture! I told you I had a problem!
It was very tough today, Steph is not too familiar with this level of crazy so she suffered a little cold shock, cold shock is what makes the sane people turn back. Not us, we pressed on, making sure she passed the 2 or 3 minutes required to settle down. Poor human organisms, trying so hard to save itself, instincts tell us to go back, get out, stop breathing with your face so close to the water! Shiver, experience pain, warning, warning, warning! But no, we tell the human organism to go have a great big cup of STFU and march on. We get out to the pink buoy, we are shores side, and head North, the water is very clear here and my watch recorded 60 degrees. Steve had a full wetsuit and giant fins so see you later, Steve! Leonard was immersed in some kind of stroke work? Speed work? He mentioned a mile and a half. Whatever, dude, have fun with that, I'm down for 10 minutes, max. Claudia was much more positive, suggesting we have fun first then we can get out. Whatever, dude, I'm down for 10. We blazed along for much longer than 10 minutes, I do love the misery-then Steph and I turned back, the 'others' kept going. Whatever, dudes, I'm outta here. No brownies for you! We made it back, dumped hot water on our heads from my bottle that was sent directly down from heaven itself and ate brownies. The 'others' brownies too. 
So after all this info, after this report on the sheer freaking delight of this swim, where were you guys? Haven't we all felt good about being hard core, year round, bad ass swimmers? We all have to suffer because misery loves company, you are all accustomed to cold shock, there are no excuses. 
lftc-out

brrrr

Dang that was cold.  Im still cold. Gray water, gray skies. 60 degrees everywhere. Friday was gray, but a good gray... the gray that says its all going to be ok, not hazardous gray.... LFTC, our fearless leader, sent out a cryptic message that spoke in no uncertain terms that  she has no mojo... uh oh, whatever that means I got my fanny in gear, took off my plans for hot yoga which sounded glorious on a cold winter day and booked it down into the gray. Sunshine, the girl not the weather, was there all slap silly from 90 min of spinning, then Claudia who almost swam naked (she is so committed to our swims really!)...  in we went, real slowly.... its warmer that way??  THE SWIM: Not much to speak of, went to the .25, big remarkably unremarkable swells that seemed to come then go and do nothing more.... then in towards the caves, milky water (this gal doesn't do milky water too much), gentle arching swoop over towards the A, over kelp, through kelp, crawling kelp... slightly better visibility, chilly but somehow tolerably chilly.... on back in to the shore where we all washed up on one final last wave from the Neptune to his lover Laura, alone. .... its not the swim that chills, its the dam cold afterwards!  Great swim in marginal conditions with good gals... c'mon winter, the deal is chilly but CLEAR... this is deal I made over summer, so let me know when it gets clear. Maybe Tuesday? All I can say is how grateful I am for my sweet friends, ugg boots, Lauras hot water Detergent bottle and women braver than me who know how to put the crimpers on. Im weak.

BOUNCY! FUN! ADVENTUROUS! PLAY!

proof positive that swimmers are crazy. 

also, this is evidence that conditions were scary today. 

Cary tried to use some kind of psychological trickery that she uses for difficult museum goers, she uses soft, positive words like; bouncy, fun, adventurous, play.  

(pssst; allow me to translate in street language; rough, dangerous, crazy, downright hard f*cking work)   

but i have learned a lesson or two in my swim life and surprise! i was there! that's right, i heard the mighty c's were going to 'check it out, practice surf entries and exits' so i packed up and flew over with my camera. before i arrived on the the scene of the crime, i received the text with all the soft words. fun! play! bouncy! sunshine is coming too! yeah! 

when i scanned the seas i couldn't see them or anyone except for surfers at the marine room. surfers at the boat launch. surfers at the tower. i watched the horizon for awhile until i saw little dark spots working hard to get to shore and these are the pictures. note the huge surf at boomers. after we parted ways, dave and ali and i walked to the pier with claudia. let me tell you guys, surfers were getting OUT of the water. do you hear me? OUT. we watched surfers unable to get past the waves, we saw surfers laying on the sand after getting beat down in the shore break. we saw the news crew filming 15' waves. it was amazing to behold. 

i invite you all to behold our bouncy, fun, adventurous and playful friends:

cary making her escape..

first one out cause she's smart!

look behind him/her...boomers is breaking so far out it wasn't even boomers. just open water.

i just imagine cary thinking ....

what was i thinking? 

the mighty c himself, sauntering out like aquaman..

right to left; boomers, sunshine, bill 

c

so cute and do you all notice how many fin our sunshine is carrying? there's a reason she has only 1 and you know why. 

new ink, beautiful!

there you go! fun for the day! congrats to the brave swimmers in these pictures who did some recon for us. thanks for representing the ascared people!
lftc-out