epic jumping november 3rd, 2012

something is going on here..sunshine is laughing at whatever it is.

ok people, this is how it's done..

just jump like this! cami in back-so fun!!! hands flapping! 

epic launch about 

to go down!

wait, what?

what is everyone looking at?

found at sea: this is cary scolding bill. lucky guy!

no pants pier romp, november 3rd.

these photos will prove to our children, relatives and friends that we have spirit, a sense of adventure, a love of liquid peace and deep kinship. AND this group abides by the No Pants way!

in fact, some of us have less than no pants. 

once again, the best swim EVAR!

thanks to my beloved dave for the adventure, for telling us to get a move on, get down and get off the ladder, the water is fine, there are no sharks, get in, now. 

al, kai and sunshine (the girl, not the weather), claudia, ralph, cami in her superhero suit, lftc, ali and diana darling..

always dark and cold and very wobbly down there..

by the way, this girl in front was thinking that we were really going to jump off the pier, off the top and still she showed up. amazing! (crazy)

what is cami looking at? and pointing at?

all spread out..

all coming together...

all spread out...

and back together, we do this all the time and i love it all the time..

al jumpin!

cami girl has thos arms up, always with the arms up!

the jump from above..

what is cami looking at? she sees things we don't. truly.

beautiful peoples.

thanks to all my beloved friends for being hard core, cold water lovers and joining me so willingly, it would mean nothing without you. to my beloved friends who couldn't make it today, you were missed but we have 99 years ahead of us!

Guess what we saw...

Whales in the cove!  LFTC, with her sonar vision (is that possible?) spotted a disturbance in the water out there.  She swore it was dolphins, but TFTC batted her down, there's nothing out there.  But it was Cami who first spotted the spout and the back rolling up over the water surface.  "Whales!" she announced.  And all eyes were on the water.  Sure enough, we spotted them, spouting over and over again, in the same area, between the A and B.  They would appear and disappear two separate occasions before everyone was ready to head down to the water.  LFTC, TFTC, Cami, Ralph, Claudia and someone I'm forgetting.  We decided to swim out to the B, to what, I don't know.  Rendezvous, get eaten, or just swim in the same water as whales.

We got out there and saw nothing.  We waited, climbed onto the buoy, looked and looked.  Nothing.  Nothin but disappointment.

So we finish our swim, and Mike, the lifeguard, tells us that the whale BREACHED the surface when we were halfway to the B.  WTF???!!!  I thought for sure he was shitting me.  But Bill corroborated the report. Damn!!  We missed the real show while we were heads down, swimming for the B.

Water report:  64-ish.  Clear from the A to the B. Cloudy inside the Q.  Lots of waves on shore.

Stevie D. took these late Saturday afternoon..

when i asked him

to please post these on the blog

he said, "you do it". 

so here you go!

Later, Leopards and Leonard kind of Sunday...

Laura commands... I obey. POST.  Post? BLOG?  I'm not a real blogger or a poster... but if LFTC says do it, then we do...

Plus, I have to mention (subtle, right?) about yet another, BEST SWIM EVAR!  And so it goes..

Calm, glassy, wish-it-could-last-forever kind of day...

See Ya' Later, Steve, the MCs, Lyndee, Lynn, and Leonard (we've got some serious opportunities for alliteration here) were on deck at noonish on Sunday... more gorgeous (if that's possible) than Saturday -- you know, or EVAR.

Our mighty 6-pack darted out to the 1/4 to see the pumpkin (I missed it yesterday) and needed to get into the Halloween pumpkin mood since my uncarved pumpkin still sits blankly on the porch... not only was there the big orange floatee, but also, and YIKES!, a sawed off body part -- a hand, looking like a shark had chomped the remainder of the body and all that was left was a grisly hand and forearm... someone REALLY has a sense of humor at the cove!  Leonard kept reminding us to look for the rest of the body parts scattered along the route -- cheery thought!

Did anyone see that ghoulish appendage yesterday or last week?  Because if you did, you're holding back... wow... a great addition to the pumpkin buoy.

So, I digress... past the pumpkin buoy we headed to the big white boat and stopped at the 1/2 on the way, swam around that gazillionaire's yachet (you can see in the lovely photo below) and then headed to find those darn MIA leopards that Claudia kept seeing Saturday but only alluded the rest of us, especially LFTC and Cami,  too spooked by the murk... So, as luck and Leonard would have it (also the other L's, MC's and Steve) we found those illusive sharks -- there were bunches at the white house by the Marine room -- I was happy at last!

See white boat? 

Of course, MCb had to get back out there, anywhere, everywhere, fast, where it was even clearer than EVAR and we headed out west to the A... everyone voted the B down (both B's) because we all knew it was so beautiful and clear at the A (Leonard saw a school of 1000 fish!) and calm, glassy, and warm sunniness that it just couldn't get any better... so we mozied back in towards the cove where it was aquarium-like all the way in... yes, oh, yes, the very best, EVAR!

Except that you who weren't there were not there and were missed -- just sayin'.

Next weekend?

Oh beautiful, lovely photo... here:

murk, pity and dick.

swim report- saturday, october 27th, 11:30 featuring cami, toni, the mighty c's, beth and her new tattoo, ralph, claudia, al, kevin, me.  we swam out in glorious seas, flat, calm, inviting with the sun shining down upon us with plans to swim to the marine room to hunt for leopards but some of us didn't make it and some of us didn't even care about the ones that were ascared of the milky yet somehow brown murk that surely concealed ocean predators. so cami and i watched you all actually cavort at the marine room, romp, even! we bobbed in deadly murk wondering if you all noticed we weren't romping with you. and we are the best rompers! we got over this immediately and swam toward clearer sea and there you all come, streaming through the kayak flotilla, little colorful heads bebopping over to us only to torture me with plans for the a buoy. god, i was so tired today, weak! beth and bill try to trick me by saying the a buoy 'is on the way in'. i know better but i agree because..well, i don't know why i agreed, i just did. at the a they try to get me on board for the b buoy but i wasn't going to fall for their trickster ways and head in with cary and cami who claimed they were done anyway but i suspect a pity call on their parts. excuse me? pity swim? pity partners? okay! hey, pity has a place in life for a reason. on the trek from the a to the cove we found the 20 feet of absolute clear to the bottom clarity, i didn't care though and swam right through it because i was so done. and! i rode my bike over, i had to ride back and i parked especially far for the cardio burn like a dumb-ass and i needed to get on it. sigh. guess what? i forgot where i parked and rode to rush spin studio, where i usually meet sunshine to bike to the cove. i climbed some wicked hills to go the wrong way. good thing i already have a helmet.
all and all a very good swim with the best partners on the planet, even the pity is kind and doled out with love.
a couple of things: cary and cami are suggesting i blog for free crap, like reviewing swim gear or swimwear in exchange for swim stuff, a fine idea except cary says i have to clean it up, cami wasn't sure about his aspect. (you guys DO NOT EVEN KNOW what our sweet cami is capable of, language wise-be afraid is all i can say ) my thoughts on this was that if i can't say dick in my blog, i'm not gonna do it. i know i can use it creatively in a review for say, fins, right?
the other thing is regarding new neoprene swim caps from a company called www.pbearcaps.com, the owner is married to a hardcore, crazy, cold water swimmer and makes neoprene caps for swimmers, custom, colors, different sizes,  with an excellent guarantee. she makes them herself and knows what the open water swim people are like. i have two of her caps, one with a chin strap, one without, for anyone to try out. these are super soft and super bright, really beautiful. it would be cool to bring some color to our winter swims and we can paint them! i see 'no pants'! i am not involved in any marketing plan nor do i receive any money or discounts for these caps, i just like them and i particularly like the strapless version. i know i heard one of my girls say they prefer the strap on but i didn't catch who it was. good thing, huh.. if we order in bulk we'd get a ship fee break. check it out, if you like them i'd be happy to put a group order through or just get one on your own if you like them.
winter is coming and you all are going to swim right through it, do whatever it is you have to do, caps, wetsuits, club access, hot water, medication, whatever. don't be a dick, swim with me!
lftc-out

it's all about the weather, people..

swim report for thursday, october 18th, 11am, stevie d., toni, me.
we left grey skies, mist and cool weather on the east of the 5 to find warm sun shining down on the cove, flat seas in that there was no swell but say hello to wind. serious surface texture but i'll take anything compared to homisurf. my watch read 64 degrees the entire way, the temp is headed down. come on now, take it like a man and swim.   so, we head to the tower because steve likes it over there, toni is game for anything and i was wearing fins so i knew i had it. we dealt with a strong current all the way over, toni and i mostly stuck together, steve is a fast wanderer, big time. veer to the left, veer to the right, it's best to stay either in front (i cannot) or in the back and just let him go. we land at the shores and take a look back at the cove, it was so far away! how did it get so far? wind was up and man, it looked so far away! toni suggested we walk to the marine room and we all jumped on it. we had a photo op on the way over and look at that weather! we make our way back and even though we should have been with the current, we weren't, it was pulling hard to the north so say good bye to stevie d. and keep on going. at the 1/4 we decided to blaze in and there goes steve, right to take off, directly to take off, toni and i swim in correctly but steve beat us in anyway. here's my point with my title: i had already been to the gym, i worked very hard on my core (god, the horror) and i was kind of tired. i drank some carrot/celery/apple juice (god, the horror) to hydrate or whatever hoping for the best and i did okay, i held my own despite shoulder and lat exhaustion but did i complain? of course but mostly i swam. it was hard to get a beat going for the water slapping me around. this was a damn good swim, athletic and fast and to the point. awesomeness all over the place and when i texted steve to thank him for the bitchin' swim, his reply was 'i liked the weather'. what? what? the weather? i was speechless until now. i wasn't even aware of the weather for trying to get the swim down, was there even weather? of course there was weather but the weather? well, he liked the weather. some people are into it.  i really like stevie d., he's cool, funny and fast and a welcome addition to our badass crew. you all know i kid because i care. (in case steve is reading my stuff, no one is safe from my posts, not even me).
thanks to tftc and stevie d. for hanging with me today, for making my swim so much more than just a swim!
there you have it, my friends: my rant.
if you want to hear about the actual weather, give steve a call.

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lftc-out