Surfs up!!

Nahi, The Patriarch and I arrived at the Klode parking lot this morning under sunny skies and very light winds.....ah, a peaceful morning for swim....or at least so it seemed. Upon reaching the beach though it was obvious the lake had a different plan for today. The surf was up....big waves crashed on shore and washed up nearly to the base of the bluff.

As intimidating as these waves may have appeared on shore as they thundered into the piles of rocks along the beach it was evident as you looked out from the beach and noticed that there were no white caps to be seen that these waves were more like gentle and playful giants than they were angry sea serpents. Puzzling in a way....as there was not a strong easterly wind this morning to drive these waves to shore where could these waves be coming from? ...ah, I feel another theory coming. :)

We dashed out into the water anxious to play and were greeted by exceptionally warm water.... and a slap in face as the water crested along the sand bars. Invigorating! Determined to get our swim in it was obvious that swimming along the sand bar was virtually impossible as the waves continued to crest and then crash shortly after the sand bar. So we swam out beyond the Sand bars approximately 50-100 meters from shore and found the rolling waves to be a lot more hospitable for swimming...although certainly a challenge.

As we progressed towards the 200 meter checkpoint also known as the 'garage' the continual ascent and descent with the waves presented a great opportunity to concentrate on your stroke and rhythm...well, perhaps that's if you were Nahi and were buoyed by your wetsuit. For the Patriarch and I though, it was a different story. Without wetsuits, I would liken our experience to more of a duel with the waves as we sliced our way through some waves and then climbed over others. Oh what fun! It didn't take long to lose count of the waves we dropped but rest assured, we won each and every battle! :)

As we were swimming quite a bit offshore this morning and uncertain how long our arms would last as we frolicked in the water we decided to do laps between Klode and the garage rather than forge ahead to the rockpile and back. In total we probably swam the equivalent in distance but in terms of effort we certainly got our monies worth this morning!

SWIMMING PLANS:
This afternoon: TBD
Saturday: Klode - 12pm
Sunday: 10am?