Saturday I went to swim but the body was sick once I got there.

I wanted to swim; I thought I was ready, but when I was taking my photos first I was hit by one of my many ailments.  Let's just say that I don't recommend getting 47 external radiation treatments in the lower abdomen when you are 45 years-old (ten years ago for me).  They mess you up!  Forever!

The beach area was crowded and looked to be lots of adults and KIDS having fun.  Water warm, clean, the roughness gone, and it looked very inviting.  I was disappointed.

I took a few pictures.  There was a childrens' taekwondo festival/contest happening.

Doesn't that water look beautiful?  I don't know if I'll get there today because I had a rough night.
However...

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

Around the Oceanside Pier Swim Done Today

Hot sand today.  Too hot to walk on for long.  The water still warm, about 67, clean, blue-green, still fairly rough with a current moving north to south (right to left).  More people enjoying the water and the atmosphere today.  I did a 38 minute swim around, which was a good mile swim in some choppy and rough water.  Better for me.  An improvement.  Not many surfers at all; maybe less than ten total both sides of the Pier.
A big police car presence down under the Pier today.  I like that. 


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

Not Really a Swim, Just Play Time

I didn't have much energy today to swim but I wanted to get in the water.  It was identical to yesterday: warm, rough, clean, blue-green, running southward.  Some beautiful people out there.  I was happy just jumping around over and under some surge from the four-foot waves.  It is time to get to the beach folks.

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

May 29, 2013 Rough Swim Oceanside Pier

I was feeling so crumby that I finally got myself into the water at the beach.  It has been a month! The back was not too bad today so I went for my pier swim.  I didn't get around the pier today.  The water was beautiful, aqua-green, warm, but quite rough for swimming.  The water current was running north to south fairly strong.  Some big, rough waves in the surf zone: up to 5 foot with lots of white water power surge and not much interval between waves. 
I swam out and encountered a swell of 3-4 feet mixed in with a chop of 1-2 feet.  The water was pushing in hard and it was tough to swim out.  At 18 minutes I decided not to swim around because I didn't have the strength today; I would have had to fight the water, the chop, the swell, and my own safety concerns today.
So the swim in was tough enough.  The rough water makes the breathing positioning difficult.  I got through the rough water and had had enough for the day.  Water temp a shocking 66-68 degrees F. Swim time 31 minutes.


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

May 16, 2013 I had high hopes for a long swim, but reality limited me to a thirty-minute rough swim.

Morning swim 1/2 mile or so south of the Pier.

This far south the parking is free.  I walked down the little, steep hill to the tiny parking lot after I parked on the street above.  My grandiose plan was to swim straight out from tower 7 to the bobbing float about 250 yards offshore.  Then I had wanted to swim north and past the pier, turn around, and return.

Well, first fate intervened.  My serenity was tested.  My grasp of my emotions was challenged.  I was strolling slowly with some other people across the one-lane entry into the pay lot and this driver pulls up behind me and almost touched me with his crummy car.  He was a 50'ish scuzzy, half-homeless looking surfer in a thirty-year-old car.  I stopped, looked at him, and asked, "Do we have a problem?"  That is that great line you hear tough guys say in the movies just before they beat someone half to death.  He tells me, "Hey, I coulda' beeped my horn to get you out of the way. I didn't."  I say, "So a misunderstanding, okay"  I begin to walk toward the water.  Then he couldn't help himself, he says, "You're just walking around in a daze; wake up."  Now I am very close to attack mode, and say to him, " So we DO have a problem?"  He mumbles about walking faster and with my GREAT self-control I just say, "OK, so you're a wise guy; that's your thing.  OK, so-long wise guy."  And that was that.  But, oh boy, I wanted to pound him a few times but refrained.  So, I swam, but my mind couldn't relax.  I kept thinking that I wanted to see him on his board in the water.  The water was rough swimming out; it took me 16 minutes to hit the buoy.  I did see about 3 big dolphins before I got in moving south slowly in the surf zone.  Visibility was better, about 8-10 feet.  Water temp felt about 65.  Let's check.  64-66.  The 1-2 foot chop took my energy away, and my heart wasn't in it anyway.  The self-growth was that I said a Psalm to myself to calm myself, and it gave me peace instead of a vicious need for revenge.  

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