Amazing Gifts

Next Swims: Mon - Fri 6:30 am and 5pm

Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Saturday noon
Water Temp: 45
Air Temp: Not sure but I know it was cold, and windy
Clarity:  ?
Waves: Big clean gentle swells, just lovely.

Kru:  Sandy, Brick, Itch, Tattoo Lady, Rosey, Other Dave, We'taco, Diablo

Also notable,  Luna Laguna swam solo at 8 this morning.

I'll bet you thought I was going to ramble on about how swimming is such an amazing gift, right?  

Well it is, but today, that's not the amazing gift I'm talking about.

This is:

That's right, it's Klode Beach, and the Klode Kru as an
incredible mixed-media work of art!

Behold, the most awesome, coolest, swimming-related gift ever!

Sandy made this, and gave it as a fantastic early-Xmas present to Brick .

It's a depiction of the Klode Kru swimmers, made with rocks and pebbles harvested from Klode beach!  And look at the swimmers that even have barbies!  The metal walls!  The rock piles with branches!  At some point I will end a sentence with a period not an exclamation point, but I'm not ready for that yet!!

Also, I feel certain that the tiny duplicate beach world extends far outside the edges of the photo....

I'm about to start cultivating Sandy as my new best friend in hopes that one day she will make me one of these incredible works of art.

Okay, yes, I believe some swimming also took place at noon today (I wasn't there), and I'm sure the swimming was great, or at least a brag-worthy accomplishment.  Kudos and huzzah to all who swam. 

Signs of Intelligent Life?

Next Swims: Mon - Fri 6:30 am and 5pm

Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Friday 6:30 a.m.
Water Temp: 45.8
Air Temp: low 40's 
Clarity:  nope
Waves: flat

Kru:  Mermaid Princess (aka Pool Noodle), Dragonfly, Ala

Shore support: Showgirl, Linda the Lamprey

Yes, it was so beautiful.  That's Dragonfly (skin!) in the
background, and Pool Noodle closer in.

I've decided the key to successful cold water swimming is to arrive at the beach already dressed to swim.  That's what Mermaid Princess and Ala did today.  

I considered doing that, but... didn't.  And thus I quite easily talked myself out of the chilly change into my wetsuit.

Dragonfly decided the key to successful cold water swimming is to forgo a wetsuit all together, and  that's what she did.

Anyway, Dragonfly wins the badass award today for spending quite a bit of time in the water without a wetsuit.  Definitely more than five minutes well outside the protection of the rockpile.

Ala (full neoprene) and Mermaid Princess (eclectic combo of neoprene pants + sleeves + hat) also bravely left the safety of the beach and paddled around outside the rockpiles.

Linda and I engaged in delightful and warm chit-chat from the comfort of the beach.

All this amazing swimming aside, there were also these cryptic waterfront communications from clearly intelligent life forms.  Perhaps you can decipher their secret message:

For Further Discussion: Swim times and the upcoming Daylight Savings Time.

    What we have here are the sunrise/sunset times for October and November.  Tattoo Lady suggested that we shift the morning swim times back when we Fall Back on November first.  I'm totally fine with that.  If you have any skin in the game (haha, that's not really anything I'd ever say) feel free to weigh in in the comments.

"Not much talking"

Next Swims: Mon - Fri 6:30 am and 5pm

Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Thursday 6:30 a.m.
Water Temp: 48
Air Temp: low 40's, cruel wind out of the north
Clarity:  nope
Waves: little chop out of the north

Kru:  Tattoo Lady, Mr. Anonymous, Showgirl

Honestly, if no one had shown up this morning, it's doubtful that I would have gotten in the water.

There was zero evidence of sunrise, and the beach was nearly dark.

But!  Tattoo Lady was already in the parking lot, and Mr. A showed up on the beach, so we achieved activation energy.

We were all in sync with our outfits:  full neoprene + barbies.

TL did a quick temperature check: 48.  It feels like the temp has stabilized in the upper 40's.  Leading me to ask, if it can stabilize there, why can't it stabilize in the upper 50's???  

Is that too much to ask?  

Yes.  Yes it is.

So we swam north in to the chop.  As always, there was the initial vow of, "sewer pipe."  Once there I reminded myself of the effort it took to get suited up, asked what was I really there for, etc, etc, and kept going to the north end of the rock wall.  New Mudslide was in sight, but the little voice reminded me that I'd still have to swim back, and that my hands were feeling the cold, etc, etc, convincing me to turn around.

We all took the short cut behind the Kraken rockpile, and began our separate methods of stripping down and getting in to dry clothes.

Mr. A made the profound observation, "not much talking going on."  Instead, we were using all our focus to race against the cruel wind and swap cold/wet for warm/dry.  Even our gear was making a break for it-- my hat had blown towards TL's stuff, and Mr. A's bag dove into the shrubbery.

Finally we recombobulated, and used the last of our powers to walk quietly up the ramp.

Post-swim bleak beach.

As warm as we could get.

Sailors Take Warning

Next Swims: Mon - Fri 6:30 am and 5pm

Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Wednesday 6:30 a.m.
Water Temp: 47.5
Air Temp: mid 40's
Clarity:  only along the shore
Waves: flat 

Kru:  Showgirl, Barbie 

Shore support: the two SUPers

That's the moon in the top/center.

It was a solitary swim to the rock wall this morning-- full neoprene.  The SUPers headed south.

The sun blazed up over the horizon about halfway through.  You're not supposed to look directly at the sun, yet we stare at the sunrise?  Perhaps that's a joy too undeniable.

The sun lit up and magnified the shoreline, and it was all on fire with fall color.  It was a slice of pure magic. Moments later, the sun entered the clouds.  The sky turned gray, and the shoreline was drab in comparison. Little ruffles appeared on the water's surface.  

I returned to shore, did a quick change, and left.

So. Much. Beauty.

 Next Swims: Mon - Fri 6:30 am and 5pm

Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Tuesday at 6:30 a.m.
Water Temp: high 40s (toe-mometers)
Air Temp: 48-50
Clarity: not
Waves: flat like quicksilver

Kru:  Mr. A  

Late shift:  Dragonfly

Shore support (both shifts): Showgirl

The mighty Northwestern Mutual shone platinum on my late drive over the Hoan, reflecting a pearly predawn.

I arrived at 7.  Mr. A had already completed an 8-ish minute swim between the rocks, lava pants only.  

Showgirl had captured the moon and Mr. A's swim:

My swim was much shorter but crammed in so much beauty, between the sunrise, the bright varied colors of the leaves to the north, and a dramatic dark blue clouded sky to the west:

Again, one of those posts where less more!

The Social Network

 Next Swims: Mon - Fri 6:30 am and 5pm

Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Sunday at noon
Water Temp: 48
Air Temp: Mid-50s
Clarity: Brown and debris-filled inshore, then tan, then an alluring turquoise then dark blue toward the horizon
Waves: 4-5 foot surf roaring in diagonally, S to N.  Impressive breakers beyond the rocks.

Current:  Not sure which way, but the swimmers said it was strong

Kru:  Itch/Neptune, We'taco, Brick, Other Dave, Blake

Shore support:  Showgirl, Sandy, Diablo, Dragonfly

Shut the Face Book.  Head down to Klode for some real action and interaction.  A testament to the wildness of the day, that there was almost a 1:1 ratio of swimmers to shore support.  Also in testament:  the many faces of Brick:

He noted it was "Burger King King Day."
It took at least 20 minutes for the swimming Kru to assess conditions, suit up and plan their attack.  Several headed to the North so they could plunge into the waves head on.

The gang of Five headed out and caucused beyond the rocks.  A consensus was reached to head North.

Once again, the photos don't do justice to the size and sound of the waves.  While the swimmers were out, Showgirl indulged in a little wading. 

Two of the returnees resorted to crawling out to escape the undertow, then sat down to recover from the exertion.

Others exited via the forbidden North Beach, to avoid the Rock Roulette.

They were full of comments:

Itch:  "Brick said we should stick together - then BOOM he's gone, j--a---."

We'taco (who was backstroking):  "If you got into that strip of turquoise, it was beautiful.  But I had waves going straight up my nose."  

Other Dave or Blake (prior to my study of your respective swimming gear so I could tell who is who--but I think Other Dave):  "I only gagged twice."  (Now I know:  Other Dave has blue short sleeves.  Blake is full wet suit.  Next time I will know!)

Brick:  "I got to Mudslide and said, I'll go five more minutes.  Then a big wave slammed me and spun me around.  So, I said, time to get out!"

I believe the toast was "To Dumba--ses!"

But several of us agreed, what would we do without this social outlet?  Some post-event mingling:

See you next time!

One More Time

Next Swims: Mon - Fri 6:30 am and 5pm
Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Friday at 5
Water Temp: 52/53 
Air Temp: 75
Clarity: dirty by shore, little better further off but not clear
Waves: strong current visible coming out of the south.  Intermittent sets of 2-3 footers

For once, I was glad the Atwater buoy was wrong.  At 3:30, it told me Water 48.9, Waves 3.3 ft per 5 s.  Expected it would be that cold or colder when I approached the water with the mitch-o-meter, and was pleasantly surprised to see the reading level out at 53.4.  Itch's reading was 52 on the other side of the barier.

From shore, it didn't look like there were 3 foot waves, so I thought, aha!  the buoy is wrong again.  But once I actually started swimming, there were these waves that would come on you in sets, and then slack off a little, then another set.  All the while swimming against a current.  I was determined to make it to Love Rock and did...seemed like forever.  Heading back, I felt like one of those Water Strider bugs, zipping along on the surface, propelled by that same current and waves.  I heard second hand that Diablo did a northbound swim and "that was not much fun".  

Consensus at Killepitsch time - not as nice as last night, but always good. Those warm breezes were especially nice.