So I went to the beach to swim Saturday afternoon about 4:30 PM. Too early for me. I usually wait for the crowds to be gone but I figured that I'd park far away and walk down. I take pictures first before I swim; sometimes I drive the pier area first and sometimes I walk the area taking pictures. I drove back and forth through the stop-and-go Pacific Street traffic, which was a mistake. I took some photos and ended up back some blocks away from the water parking for free.
The amphitheater had a Samoan Day festival going on, and the music was nice.
I had wanted to do a training swim for the Labor Day swim, which for me means no fins and no webbed gloves. However, the water was rough, and I'm a "safety first" guy. I observed the water on both sides of the pier before I went in. I was trying to assess the direction of the current. It is difficult at times here to guess the current far out. Inside the surf zone there was a rip current moving north on both sides of the pier. Far out it appeared that the current might be moving north, but the surface movement was equivocal.
In retrospect, I could have swum without fins starting on the south side and swimming north. There WAS a significant current out past the pier moving south to north. I could have had a decent training swim by swimming south to north. The surf zone was pretty rough but that could happen on race day, so the more experience in a rough surf zone, the better.
Instead, I swam north to south with the fins and gloves. I stopped off the end of the pier and the current swept me north; I watched the pier pilings as I was pulled so I could see the effect of the current. The past few days the current ran north so that's probably what I should have done-swum north. Sunday, I'll probably try the swim northward without gear if it's not too rough.
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