Just Another Beautiful Summer Day

Ok it is not the summer time joy party out there today, but it was definitely an interesting (in a good way) swim. There was rain, there was sizable surf, there were lots of Pelicans and the water was warm.

I wasn’t certain I was going to swim today. The surf is approaching a size that I’m not totally comfortable with. Surfline says 3-5 which is totally fine, but I think there are some sets out there, although infrequent, that exceed that by a few feet. However I’m looking at the web cams and I see long periods of nothing. This is not going to kill me and it could get bigger over the next couple days so I might as well get out there while it is sane today.

I leave at about 8:30 and it has been drizzly+ all morning and does not look like it is going to be letting up anytime soon. When I pass Doheny, it definitely looks like the surf is up there and the water looks a bit jumbly.

The parking lot at the Strand is looking pretty wet and the clouds over the water are thick and misty but visibility is fine.

It feels strange to be stripping down to my trunks in the drizzly weather but the air is pleasantly warm. I walk down the stairs and a group of surfers are coming up and conversing with a body boarder who is on his way down. The surfers comment about how warm the water is. Then when they continue back up the stairs they are commenting about how much (or little) wetsuit they could have/should have worn in the water (they all have full suits). One says, “it’s better to be in the water and warm than to just be in the water.” Oh is it really? Bah! Logic!

Looking out on to the water I see surfers sitting far outside and I wonder what kind of sets are breaking out there. When I get to the beach it is medium tide and grey grey grey! It looks like there is about a foot of sand carved off the beach from the looks of exposed Jupiter rock and a ledge of sand lining the end of the beach.

I see a set of waves come through and yeah, it probably is bigger than I have seen in quite a while but nothing looks frightening. And the water…oh my God the water feels warm. Warmer than yesterday.

I’m ready to swim out and I let a medium sized set of waves pass before I charge to the surfline. It must be good timing because I don’t need to dive under a single wave.

Well now I am out and of course I am obsessing over the trip back to shore when I am done. I sense that I am making a much bigger deal of this than is warranted. This would not be uncharacteristic of me. Well I am out here now and I am going to do my best to relax and enjoy this swim. The water temperature certainly helps. The last couple times I have been out in large surf, the water was cold and that just adds stress to stress.

I’m swimming south. Soon I see what looks like a group of surfers waiting for waves parallel to where I am swimming. Why are they sitting way out here? Certainly I am well past the surf. Then I see that it is not surfers but a flock of Pelicans hanging out on the water. I don’t often see Pelicans lounging on the water. I see them all the time in the air but for some reason they don’t often land. It is more normal to see Seagulls or Pigeons on the water. This is cool. Pelicans are pretty large and their faces have personality. I wonder if they will fly off when I reach them. I aim myself to pass about 20 feet outside of where they are sitting and they stay there.

I keep swimming south and I’m wary of waves that might break out in this area near the cliffs but there is nothing. The waves do pass and lift me high on their way to the pack of surfers further inshore. I turn around and head back north. I’m now swimming with the current. There really isn’t any northern or northwest energy in the water today. It’s all coming from the south.

The water is dark. It looks like there still may be some red tide at play. The water below be just looks black. The surface conditions have a little bump but nothing intense. The scene here just looks oh so ominous. It’s pretty cool actually. Usually if it is this drizzly, it’s in the Winter or early Spring and I would probably not be swimming because I wouldn’t want my pack to get wet. However on this early September day, I don’t need a pack with warm clothes and there is not enough precipitation to cause concern for a bunch of runoff.

I can’t really see Monarch point at all. It looks as though everything ends at the point bordering Salt Creek. I am looking up fairly often today to regulate my trajectory. I want to be a little further out than normal (though that is probably to appease my paranoia and not of necessity) but I don’t want to drift too far out.

I admit that the thoughts and anxiety of the swim to shore never completely diminishes, but I try to mitigate those thoughts with a steady calm breath. I am where I am and I will eventually swim to shore. That is just what is going to happen. I have done this many times in larger surf and everything will be fine.

When I finally do get to the point before Salt Creek, I look inshore and am reminded that the jr. guard storage container is gone. I just noticed that yesterday. Another sign that the end of Summer is nigh. Well look around here and it seems there are plenty of signs to that effect. Based purely on visual input, it looks like January. The big difference is that it is warm both in the water and out of the water.

Well it is finally time for the final leg back to where I started. I’m relieved to start to get this behind me. I see that I am way way farther out than I need to be so I chart a diagonal line toward my landing spot so that I won’t have to swim a great distance eastward when I get there. Once I see the waves breaking about 20 or 30 feet inside of me, I take a course more parallel to the beach.

Now it is time. I don’t see any waves in the imminent vicinity. Since really I only have the height of my head to take in the oncoming phenomenon, it is hard to feel super confident that I am in the clear. I just aim for shore and keep swimming. It seems like very soon the shore looks super close and any worry now flies off with the Pelicans. Sorry Pelicans. I’m close enough that if anything huge hit, it wouldn’t matter all that much. So I linger here for just a bit to see if anything big does come. A decent set rolls in but nothing crazy.

Boy the tide has really come up fast in the last hour. The white water comes nearly to the end of the beach. No one lounging on beach towels today. I see a couple with a young child heading back up the ramp with beach chairs and a baby shelter. I imagine they might be wondering what on earth is going on here? Maybe they are visiting and were looking forward to a bright and sunny Labor Day weekend Saturday. I look at them and say “Just another beautiful Summer day!” They get the irony and we all have a good guffaw.