Guy on a Rock

I’m leaving just before 10:00 and the skies are overcast. I’m happy to be heading to the beach, but man I’d love some sun. Not gonna happen. At least not today before my swim ends.

As I pass Doheny, the surf looks pretty active. I see some waves breaking both inside and pretty far out where the standup paddlers are.

I get to the parking lot at the Strand and the ocean surface looks relatively smooth. Signs are posted for the junior guards. It has begun. Summer is here. Now someone just has to tell that to the sun. I get out of my car and the parking lot smells like burning rubber but I don’t see any signs of construction around.

It’s a sort of dreary walk down the stairs. I’m hoping I’ll be warmer in the water than I am right here. I’m not freezing or anything but it’s certainly not warm. I can see the waves rolling in and breaking in shore. Nothing spectacular. Some are small and some a little bigger.

The tide is on the low end and on its way back up. Oh and look! There are the jr. lifeguard tents up the beach.

I walk into the water and a set of waves rolls in and I wait for it to pass. I dive beneath the final wave and then swim out a good ways and eventually turn left for the south end of the beach. The water still feels pretty good. It might be just a touch cooler than my last swim on Sunday but it’s hard to say.

I switch my brain into swim mode and meld with the water all around me. I cast off my sense of time and space. There is nowhere and no time other than right here and now. I’m trying to hold on to this freedom even as I feel the concerns on the shore tugging at my attention.

Out of the corner of my eye I see the head and neck of a bird. It’s a cormorant floating on the water. I stop to look at it and it almost immediately flies off in signature cormorant style - puttering off and dragging itself along the water until it finally gains lift off.

Once I’m at the south end of the beach, I see something on top of the large inner rock. I squint my eyes to try and make it out. Oh. It is a human. It looks like it is probably one of the jr. lifeguard instructors. He’s probably showing off. Well I’m impressed.

I head back north and as I pass the southernmost buoy I consider swimming out to it but lack motivation. Why are these buoys so far out? I figure I have all summer to muster up the gumption to get myself out there.

The rest of the swim is pretty uneventful. Not a lot of bird or sea life out and about. The most noteworthy thing I can think of is the off and on presence of red tide along the entire beach. It looms below me like the shadow of a cloud. With every stroke it looks as though I’m right at its edge but then it’s still there several strokes further until eventually it’s gone.

I get myself back on the beach without intersecting with any significant surf. I head back up the stairs to the parking lot where some guy asks me if I can smell the burning rubber. I say that I can and that I noticed it when I got here and he complains that he did not come to the beach to smell that. Well who does? Then again, if he was on the beach, he wouldn’t smell it.