wow! seriously, wow.

sea lions greeting us

fred doing his version of hello-our first fred foto!

swim report thursday noon, loli, fred, cami, lftc: swam out with some trepidation for the red and juicy but had heard the a was decent so we head thataway, pretty clear mostly but not great, sea lions hanging very close by doing their thing, suntanning or whatever, waving hello. one was curious about us but they others stayed put. at the a we decided to cruise to the caves via #5 pin, we ran into a swimmer girl who said "go to the inside" all excited like so we did and what do you know? total clarity, all the way down! wow, what a good call because why? 3 black sea bass, that's why! surely juveniles but jumbo still, just lollygagging, checking the scene out just like us. it was awesome and we were very lucky. right after that we head further in and a big harbor seal, all black and white polka dotty, came to say hi. seriously? we couldn't leave now despite the cold spots. the water ranged from 62 to 65 and the caves were wild feeling, cold on one body part and warm at another, rippling. magical. on the swim back fred hugged the caves for his own experience and made the cave trip, we waited for him outside. too dark and cool in there. we did sprint drills, per cami, all the way back in. thanks to my swim partners for this amazing swim, wow.
lftc-out

No Pants Allowed!

Way to go Fred! Fast and few in 62! No pants, no fins, just swim it and grin. Thanks for the nice swim LFTC and Fred

sea you when I get back ~~~ >)))))*> ~~

hot day, cold seas, no quitters

tuesday swim report: fred, marta, lftc swam in flat, calm cold seas today, (i have to say that 61/62/63 is NOT cold but it was the buzz word today and i'm a sheople, just got right in line) no real viz but some clarity at the 1/4, the a looked scary with kelp so we did a dash to the 1/4, fred needed to read his emotional and physical temps before forging on due to the cccold. he was totally fine and blazed on, john wayne style, as we expected. john wayne in a pink swim cap. we love fred, he's one of us but he may be worried about the winter. tftc will have to have a talk with him, she tried to quit one winter so long ago and ended up swimming further, more often and in way rougher seas. such a mistake my beloved tftc! counsel fred.  we made the 1/2 our goal but we were pushed way outside by an invisible current so we were a scattered trio. very few swimmers, NO tourists! it was almost silent today, it was surreal after a summer of crowds but beautiful to behold. bumped into lonely leonard on our way in, he is requesting a group swim this coming sunday at 11 or so. you all have to be there! he needs us, he wants us! we have to swim for leonard and the mc's and ruth, we have to represent, people! get it together and swim. 
lftc-out
No man drowns if he perseveres in praying to God, and can swim.
~ Russian Proverb

good luck marta!

good luck to marta and all the osd swimmers in the labor day pier race!

fred is funny in the liquid gold

swim report sunday, fred, lftc-11:30: upon hearing that conditions were even remotely swimmable i scrambled for some swim love, only fred could handle the short notice request. (thank you thank you fred!) i ditched my other beach plans and raced down to find that indeed, conditions were decent. we collected a swimmer on our way out, a very nice guy named kevin, who wanted some company to the 1/4. the 1/4? just the 1/4? we went through some small tide waves,  some heavy muck and thick sea weed but made it out perfectly. at the 1/4 i tried to lure kevin further, he declined and said that he recently met some crazy swimmers who wanted to swim "like a mile and a half". this caused fred to crack up,  he tells kevin that 1 1/4 miles to this crew is a warm up, 'don't listen to her man, she'll have you all over in a minute, you'll be out all day long! fred was funny today! poor kevin was a little scared and took right off. baby.  we had some good clarity at the 1/4, pretty murky elsewhere, some swells rolling around but easy to handle and so fun, it was such a fix for me, like liquid gold. bumped into the king and queen of the cove on our way out, doug and janie stripping off their robes of glory to play in our playground, i didn't see any of the other regulars, many, many tourists though. NO parking to be had! so good for what ails, all the shark and surf drama fading away like a bad sunburn. i expect to see everyone and their mother's out this week, the end of this week looks killah! 
lftc-out

Getting Back To Normal

Rarely have I seen such commotion over Fluffy! Close the beach? What's a mermaid to do? Well I waited until 2pm Thursday...they said it would be open by then and LG John, said it was down graded to a a strong advisory (I think mostly due to the rising surf). Upon first glance, past the Channel 7 News wagon, no one was in the water, no kayaks, no SUPs, no paddle boards and no swimmers. Five lifeguards were hanging out at the shack and 2 more roving around up top answering questions about the shark sightings and the surf. When I came down, John greeted me with "okay, now were getting back to normal" (Boy do I have him fooled LOL). Eric and John gave me the low down re the conditions upon hearing my intent to swim to the Marine Room. Strong surf and current, with occasional 10ft faces, waves breaking at the buoys, watch the rips, stay away from any rocks...basically Winter conditions with Summer temps. I got about 69.8F at the 1/4 buoy. I figured with 5+ guards and me, the only swimmer, my odds were pretty good...took my fins just in case.

The looks on peoples face and the occasional comments were cracking me up as I prepped for going in. Just as I got down on the sand, a HUGE wave came in...I glanced back up at Eric and John, yikes!!..."just wait for the set to pass and go for it" There is such power and majesty, soaring emotion and absolute calm finality about the Ocean. You can fight him, but you won't win, he'll tear you apart...or you can peaceably caress and stroke him and have the most amazing experience of your life...yes, I'm still talking about the ocean :o)

I won't say it was the 'best swim EVAR' but it was what I needed. Made it over to the Marine Room from the 1/2 in record breaking speed and found, amazingly enough, there was good viz with all the usual critters (what??) Who knew? Coming back was a challenge, but loved playing in the waves at the 1/4 and at Take-Off. Bottom line...Loved it! When I got out I saw Harry going out for a body surfing session, Ken checking it out and Cy came down with his fins. Later, ran into Anne coming down for some fun in the surf...yes, we ARE getting back to normal again (never saw hide nor hair of Fluffy by the way).

PS: Laura, the red tide is long gone!

mommy help me, i'll be good, you'll see, eek, eek, shark!

people in the place: wednesday desperation swim with fred, marta, lftc, 11:30 swam to the 1/2 after launching in rough and tumble BIG high tide, zero zero viz but temps were 70, 72. bath tub water. at the 1/2 we decided to go to the a but holy cow was it dark red over there, big fat red and juicy. i had bad vibes over and to distract myself i kept thinking about cami and how she would have seriously been on one of our backs to get out of this stuff, maybe even crying. in the mean time i totally raced off course back into the cove. relief! what was that about? where? why?  after fred left us marta and i had some food, checked out our cutie guards, analyzed their workout habits (all of thses boys spend time in the gym) and watched tourists get knocked down, dragged around and generally get mugged by the surf. marta laughed and laughed-she likes this type of humor, you have been warned-don't fall down!
after i was home all relaxed and sated with my fix, marta calls me to let me know that the cove was closed! shark! so we were swimming with a shark, close by, in zero viz. we are brave and tough swimmers! so what if we didn't know until after our swim, it was there and we lived! i knew something was up when i was in the R&J, i felt more weird than usual. this news was so exciting to me, i passed it on to a few special people, ethan, who we bumped into (swimming with an ironman hottie, way to go, ethan) cami, doug who was in the water earlier, and diana d who was on the fence about heading out for a swim the moment i called her (pushed her back). i was so happy my swim was done and over, i needed it and even if i heard sharks were right in the cove i would have tried to swim somewhere, i was desperate.  eyes open, watch the surface!
thanks to my swim peeps for an awesome swim! another day, no prison. aahh!
lftc-out