Just the Right Amount of Cold

It’s a late swim today. I leave for the beach a little before 1:00. It is still overcast. There is largely blue sky at home but the webcams reveal grey and gloomy skies. Doheny looks mostly sunny as I drive by but I can see large, thick, billowy white plumes of vapor up ahead around Strands and Salt Creek. I can’t make out the tops of the hills just east of PCH before Crown Valley…or the middles.

As I park, it feels sunny but things change quickly once you start to head down the stairs. I’m looking for signs of hope - any tinge of blue, but I see nothing. Looking east up over the bluff, you would think it is cloudy over the remainder of California. Both north and south are as grey and dense as can be.

This all doesn’t seem to stop a good crowd of people from enjoying themselves here - lots of people in the parking lot and on the beach. Also it is very comfortably warm.

The water feels a little cooler on my feet but it is hard to tell how reliable that feeling is. The lifeguard hut reports 67 but I’m pretty sure they are just copying Surfline, which is by no means updated in real time. Supposedly we had a bit of a dip this week but I think it was just a couple degrees. We’ll see very soon.

There is surf today. It’s not huge but it’s not small for once. I walk out into the water and soon dive under a breaking wave. Then I swim on out and make it past the surf quickly and without disruption.

I’m not so sure about this “dip.” The water feels nice. Yeah it is probably a degree cooler but it feels great to me. A couple degrees below 71 is 69 (for the mathematically inclined) and 69 is pretty darn great.

I move south. I’m continuing to search for blue sky without much luck. There is nothing I can see over that bluff. I know it is as blue as can be probably just a couple feet beyond what I can see but that might as well not even exist. Then about two thirds down the beach I see this empty blue gap as I lift my head for breath and spy my aft view. It is like a reverse or inverted cloud. A waft of blueness passing over this grey sky.

As I proceed, some more of these gaps open up just to my west.

I get to the end of the beach and take in the northern coastline. There are some decent sized waves breaking just between me and the headlands and smashing into the cliffs. I turn around and head north.

The sun is starting to break through. It is still predominately cloudy but I can see a golden white orb of light just above me. I can feel the light shine down on me as I raise my arm and body over the water’s surface. It feels good. I’m thinking this is all going to burn off real soon but things sort of hit a wall and then lose ground.

This is ok. It is still delightful. The water feels absolutely great. Whatever amount of “more cold” it might feel today is just the right amount of cold. It is perfect.

So where the heck is that lifeguard tower? Why does that cliff look like it is standing still? Those jr. lifeguard tents look so small and far away. It seems like I have been swimming a while. I know I am making some progress. I have passed the OCJG buoy and maybe that cliff does look closer than when I started. I have watched a couple of kelp vines move beneath me as I swim by. I’ll get there eventually but this is taking a little longer than usual.

Slow progress aside and grey clouds as they may be, this is such an enjoyable swim. Other than the fact that I am going to need to eat (which I have not done yet today), I feel like I could stay here forever. Certainly this water will retain it’s warmth through the winter. I just can’t imagine it ever getting cold again. I have everything I need for the foreseeable future. I can foresee about an hour ahead.

It seems I am drifting out a little further than normal and then I see some sort of object between me and the shore. Oh, it’s a boat. I decide to swim shoreward until I am at least east of the boat and then continue north to my final destination. Ok I am definitely making some progress here.

I eventually reach my northern turnaround point. I can hear music coming from the shore. I can’t tell from exactly where. Is it the jr. guard camp? Up at the Ritz? or somewhere else? Who knows and I’m really not all that interested.

I head to the finish and this segment goes pretty quickly. As I near my end point and get closer and closer to shore, I can see the waves breaking to my left and up ahead of me. Just as I get lined up with my finish, I am just barely past the surf and a good sized set of waves arrives. I maintain a holding pattern right where I am and feel the energy of these waves pass. There are a lot of waves in this set. I think it has passed and start to head to shore and then more waves come and break just outside of me. I enjoy their violent force twirling me around as I dive beneath the white water.

I walk to shore and then head back up to the parking lot. There is a big group in front of me. Although I enjoy walking in this warmth I hustle to get ahead of the crowd so I don’t have to compete for the shower. There are lots of kids hanging out on the lawn above. Oh. I see. This is jr. lifeguard pickup time. There is a “supervisor” (so reads her shirt) in her late teens escorting the smaller kids to “their adult.” Wow things have changed. When I was a jr. lifeguard, I just got on the public bus all on my own.