Kicking With Fins On My Back Thursday 4:20PM

My back and neck are out of control-lots of misery, but Thursday after a painful back day at work I thought that kicking it out on my back might help strengthen and work the area.  The water was beautiful--about six-foot visibility, 1-3 foot waves, and flat with small ripples in the water past the surf zone. 
I wore my shorts and a swim cap, and tried out a new, thin wet suit top with sleeves.  It was still very cold in the water--a rash guard would have helped under the wet suit top if the aim was to keep toasty warm.  Not my goal at this time. 
I took it easy.  I kicked out relaxed until just a bit past the pier, and instead of going around, I just did an about-face and kicked in.  13 1/2 minutes out and I hit the sand at 24 1/2 minutes. 
No camera today; I had not planned to swim with all my pain issues.
It was nice just lying on my back looking at the sky.  The seagulls are busy going about their business.  It seems that the pelicans--which are all over the place this year--stir up the tiny fish when the pelicans make their dives into the water to grab a fish.  Then the seagulls must look for scraps or stunned fish. 
I entertained myself by counting the seconds between the gentle swell outside that would be building into breaking waves closer in.  Twelve seconds seemed to be the time interval between the gentle waves Thursday.  The sun is setting later now, so on my way in I got to watch its descending progress and the color changes in the sky and horizon as it settled lower toward the horizon.  It was kinda' neat because a large (40-60 feet, I'm guessing) fishing boat was stopped just under the sun.  There was a bunch of seagulls (maybe Jonathan Livingston Seagull was among them) just behind the boat feeding, I suppose. 
My hands froze, but I felt guilty about wearing the jacket.  It was a nice swim (or kick) overall.  Water temp--let me check surfline.com--57 to 59 degrees.

"The first time you quit is the last time you try."

Back in the Water

 The perfect Job?

I had a day off for a doctor's appointment, so at about 1 PM I decided it was time to try out my old, creaky body in the water again.  Jan 2nd was my last dip, so that's a 7 day gap without ocean.  The beach at the Oceanside Pier was freakin' fantastic.  About 15 surfers, beautiful sky, mid-sixties air temp, big waves gone, 2-3 foot inviting waves, and a pretty flat outside ocean.
Let's check the water temp at surfline.com.  57-59 degrees.  Hmmm...On the low end of that-or a bit lower.  I checked my watch and at 6 1/2 minutes I was still COLD.  I hit the end of the pier at 14 1/2 minutes and had just gotten used to the water.  But no face-hurt pain, so maybe the 57-59 was accurate.
I wore my fins because there has still been talk of rip currents and rough water leftover from last week, and I like to play it safe.
There was a guy way out there stand-up paddling that I thought I'd cross paths with, but he was nowhere in sight when I was off the end of the pier.  I guess he was paddling pretty fast!
I can't really breath to my right well, except in flat water.  There was a small (up to 1 foot) chop, and breathing to the right hurt today.
My hand touched the sandy bottom at 29 minutes.  I was good with the water temp and my temp at the time.  I found a few shells worth bringing home for the collection, and that was that.  Let me just say it again, "Are we lucky or what..."

"The first time you quit is the last time you try."

I missed out on the big waves this past week.

Check out this video link of the big waves at the Oceanside Pier.


http://camppendleton.patch.com/articles/oceanside-pier-surf-micah-lee-marshall-carlos-jordan#video-8852280

I've been unable to enjoy the big waves because my neck and back are giving me lots of grief.  It's a bummer, because I would have loved to put the fins on and gotten out past these waves.  The view from the backside of the wave is something that I crave.  Right in the break watching the surfers is great, too.  Maybe I need a waterproof camera to get some pictures and share the beauty and power of the surf better.

"The first time you quit is the last time you try."

Rougher Swim Today Than Yesterday at Oceanside Pier

OK. I was significantly colder today than yesterday.  I checked my watch a few times to see how long I had been in the water and was still freezing.  Instead of 4 minutes to get used to it, I was at about 12 minutes when my skin got sorta' used to the cold.
At about 15 minutes I was off the end of the pier-same as yesterday-but just getting comfortable with the cold.  I got in at 30 minutes.  The water was rough with a one-foot chop.  The chop was a pain for breathing to either side.  I'm swimming along thinking that the people on the pier must be thinking 'That guy swims like crap' out there.  So, I decided to really PULL with my arms for a while-and to my mild surprise in the rough water-it helped my speed significantly.
So, I had an epiphany of sorts this afternoon: swimming is HARD.  No, really-I mean it.  I'm used to hard or difficult swims but the difficulty of sustaining a hard arm pull stroke after stroke after stroke is something that maybe never sunk into my thick skull until today.
Surfline.com has the temp at 57-59 again, but today I'm with the 57.  I feel like I got my money's worth of cold misery in today's swim.  Oh, by the way, Oceanside doubled the parking meter price from one dollar per hour to two dollars per hour.  Bummer.  Still a good deal for 2 bucks, though.
So I need to PULL HARDER when I swim.  My time today was a full minute faster today-even in rough water-than yesterday in flat water.
The fog has been rolling in late afternoons lately, and as I was leaving the fog was developing.
Visibility and water color was good today.  I saw a bunch of tiny fish just off the beach when I went in.  And that's my report for the pier swim for Monday, the second of January, 2012. 

"The first time you quit is the last time you try."

Penguin Plunge - Related Story - Cold Water Swim

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/del-mar/del-mar-ocean-plunge-offers-wet-start-for-new-year/article_6553849d-7087-5aac-8719-ba6ac904e4f7.html



"The first time you quit is the last time you try."