Is the Ocean Safe For Swimming?
I leave a little after 11:00. I am fairly obsessed with water temperature today as I have also been the last couple days. Well, ok maybe I have always been obsessed with it but I have a reason this week. We lost 5 degrees over the weekend. A west wind beat down hit Saturday afternoon and did not let up until Sunday night. I knew this was coming and figured we’d lose a couple degrees. However when I looked at the buoys on Sunday morning, we had already lost a couple degrees and Monday some were down to 54 which is the record low since last year.
I had kind of emotionally and spiritually bid farewell to this year’s cold water season and had just put my emotional and spiritual booties into storage. I was totally cool with it being a little colder come Monday but fifty fucking four!? Based on the buoy data, things have recovered a degree or two since Monday depending on the time of day that you look at the data. Anyways, it’s a beautiful day, the surf and wind are calm and conditions are pretty ideal and I actually have time to get to the beach today. I can’t just wait for the water to reach 60 again. I mean, yeah I could but this is all apart of the experience. Also, it’s not like I haven’t done this before. I have swam in colder, albeit not much colder, water before. I just really thought we were gonna get a pass this year. It has been such an amazingly great Fall/Winter/Spring. There were really just a few weeks in January that were particularly cold. The rest has just been…well…just cold.
As I drive to the beach and then head down the stairs, I’m watching myself psyche myself out. I’m falling into these thinking patterns that lead to a mild panic. Oh my god. Oh my god. It is going to be so cold…etc, etc. Really? I’m going to panic in my warm car? I’m going to panic as I walk down this beautiful path with this lovely coastline view in front of me? I catch myself doing this and decide to just try and relax and fall into my breath. This is going to happen and if it is too much, I’ll just end the swim early. No big deal.
It’s funny because I was just thinking last week that this is the first cold water season where I have not had to cut a swim short due to the cold. The last few years, I have averaged about 2-3 short swims. Still not bad considering there are about 75-80 total swims during this period. Now I’m thinking maybe today will be the day for the short swim. Well, if it is, it is.
As I pass the bathrooms at the bottom of the stairs, a boy who looks like he is about 11 asks me, “excuse me sir, is the ocean safe to swim in?” Oh man. This is not the day to ask me this question. I want to say, “just how much time do I have to answer that question? Let’s clear our schedules.” Instead I just tell him that it is a little on the cold side today but I do this pretty often. He tells me he is going in anyways and I tell him that I am too.
Once I am down to the shore and I get a good look at the beach, the first thing I notice is that the rocks at the base of the cliff have shifted. The large boulders are butting up right against the big Jupiter rock which is certainly new and can’t be from “natural” sand and water activity. I’m sure this is from the work that the county has been doing the last few days. There is a second, but smaller, tractor here today moving some rocks around up and down the beach.
The water does feel colder on my feet but it’s not like ice water or anything terrible. I stow my pack and I hope the tractor doesn’t manipulate the rocks in this immediate area. Especially if today ends up being the one day this season I actually need to use my towel immediately after the swim. As I walk out into the water, again, it is noticeably colder, but I still feel like I am holding my own out here. An outside set breaks in front of me and this is the moment of truth. I dive under the wave and start to swim out. No doubt about it, this is the coldest it has been since January. Still, I am not dying.
The cold dominates my thought over the entire course of the swim - surprise, surprise. Fortunately, one of the significant themes is, “hey, I can do this and I feel pretty darn good.” And I do! Up and down the coast, I meditate on this feeling in my body of being surrounded by the energy of cold water. However I’m not anxious. Rather I’m just resting on top of this sensation and watching with curiosity where it is taking me. I am not dying, I am thriving!
There are indeed vast patches of water that don’t feel that cold at all. Others that are absolutely colder. Half way through the swim, my hands and fingers still seem to be retaining 90% sensitivity. I realize that I am totally going to make the full length of the swim today. Yay. I also realize that the thought of coming back and doing this again this week does not fill me with some kind of dread. I pretty much knew this was going to happen - that I’d get all worked up about an experience I imagine I would have in my head only to find that the actual experience was completely different - thankfully for the better.
Sure enough I get to the northern bathrooms at the end of the beach and then make it to shore in relative comfort. Emphasis on “relative.” I’m pretty elated. It was a great swim and no one had to suffer. Well, I didn’t anyway. I can’t speak for the rest of the ocean.
