Kayaker in Cambria, CA mistaken by great white for food.

See attached clip.

"Shark Attack?


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

Oceanside Harbor Dredging Dirty Water Today

The water looked nasty today and it sure was...Brown water is not my favorite color.  I guessed the direction of the current correctly, which was nice, but I had a hard, rough, kinda' gross swim today.
The water is too hot.  There is all sorts of small bits of nasty dirty stuff in the water and some of it smells.
Getting in was rough.  I got a workout getting through the surf-and it was a bit scary rough.
I don't have photos but it wasn't a beautiful scenic day at the beach.  There were about 1 to 2 dozen surfers on the south side, where the water was a bit less dirty.  I didn't really like the swim today.  It was just a rough slog through choppy, dirty, smelly, rough water.  When the city does its dredging of the harbor, they pump all that cruddy sand and water down south on the beach that causes the problem.  I was actually reminded today while swimming of my old Navy SCUBA diving school training in San Diego harbor in 1979.  We learned to dive in the nastiest water at the 32nd Street Navy Shipyard.  We actually dove in our own urine and feces in the harbor.  It seems crazy nowadays but it was quite normal and laughable to us back then.  One guy would say something like, "I'm going below decks to the head and I ate corn last night.  Look for it."  So then we would gather at the rail of the diving barge where the toilets flushed the crap above water level right out into the harbor where we dived.  If we saw corn we'd all go crazy cracking up laughing.  Things sure have changed, eh?


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

Against the Current

Lots of people down at the beach/pier area enjoying the day.  The water is warm enough for jumping in, and some folks were enjoying it.  Not too many surfers because the waves weren't very big. Let me check surfline.com now:  62-65 degrees. Wow.  That's summer temperature.
I tried to figure out the current and looked at fishing lines, the direction of the surfers' boards, any movement of swimmers in the water after being washed over by a wave, etc.  The outside water looked like it was moving southward but the inside water had a definite northward movement, even when I went in on the south side of the pier, the water was flowing northward.
So, I swim out, expecting to be going with the current, and the farther out I get, the stronger the current is moving from north to south.  I had a heck of a time swimming against the current to reach the pier and get around and past it.  The folks watching from above must have been wondering if the swimmer would ever get around the pier, because I was wondering it myself.
I checked my watch at the pier--28 minutes to get there--that's a long time.  I hit the beach at 46 minutes.  I had to pull hard with my skinny arms.  There was also a lumpy, one-foot chop to the water.
So, all in all, it was a good workout, ending just before sunset.


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

Winter's Over-The Water is Warm

I had a good swim after work today, Friday.  Warm, clean water. I swam south to north with a decent current and a mild chop to the water. The water was clean and refreshing.  I really let it hang out and stretched out my stroke.  I didn't need to breathe much on the swim; my air was very good.  39 minute swim.  I took the long way around the pier.  I felt very free and relaxed.  I have some pictures.  I take my pictures before my swim when I walk around and on the beach and pier.  Today as I was taking photos from the sidewalk some wise guy yells out the window of his buddy's pickup truck to me, "Yep, you're in California now."  So, I suppose he felt that I was a tourist and he had the superiority of being a "local."  I would like to have gotten my hands on him.  I just yelled back, "Yeah, it's great."
He's lucky that I'm such a mellow guy nowadays. 

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

Kicking with Churchill Fins Around the Pier

No camera today because I didn't intend to swim after work.  However, I drove by and the water was enticing.  It looked rough, with a current going northward.  I wore a rash guard t-shirt because I have my 2 swims with bathing suit only done for the week.  A little luxury for me.  My body wasn't up for swimming so I kicked around against the current with the fins.  The water was clean with waves 2-5 feet.  Good visibility for here.  The sky was partly to mostly cloudy with some blue sky.  The sun was occluded by clouds but it had that look where some little bit of the sun's rays shoot through the cloud openings in straight lines that look like a scene out of a religious painting.
The inside water was greenish blue but the water took on a deeper blue mid-pier and farther out.  Rippled water surface and gentle 1-2 foot swells with long intervals between swells.  It was nice to be able to relax and see it all.
There were 4 helicopters flying around the area; I don't know why.  The water was warm-probably 62 or so.  A big group of surfers lined the waves on the south side; they were stretched out in a line about 200 yards, taking advantage of big, beautiful waves-about 3 dozen surfers-and some with no wet suits.
A nice swim to work the legs and stomach with kicking it out with the fins. 


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