Left the house at about 9:15 this morning. It was mostly overcast even though it was fairly clear at dawn. When I got to the Strand parking lot, it felt like the sun was making a good faith effort to push through. Walking down the stairs, I could fee the sun’s warmth on my back. It felt really good. By the time I got to the sand, the sun had mostly breached East of the shoreline. I’m betting this trend will continue Westward.

The surf has undoubtedly come up a couple notches since Monday morning. Hurricane Frank is still here and starting to ease and there are a couple other swells filling in. It’s not huge but larger than average. What is remarkable is the volume of waves in this set that began just as I got into the water. As I wait in hip high water, wave after wave is breaking outside and rolling in a significant white-water break. This keeps happening and finally I just decide to brute force swim. The waves are not getting smaller and I am doing more rolling and tumbling and struggling for oxygen than I am making any forward headway. On one wave as I emerge from the dive, I am sucked back under from the wave behind me for an extra spin cycle. I decide to stop and just let this set roll through if that ever actually happens. I notice that I am now several houses North from where I initially got in the water. Eventually, the set clears and I book it to get past the surf line.

I make it without a problem - cresting a few waves just before they break. I think that has got to be the longest set of waves I have ever waited through here in the 2 years I have been consistently swimming here. Today, I’m swimming a bit further outside than normal.

After a while I look and I am kind of a ridiculous distance from shore. But then, who gets to define “ridiculous?” Also, the water is colder today. It has been about 70 and today Surfline says it is 67. However, I am going between warm spots that feel about 70 and cold spots that feels about 60.

When I get to the South end of the swim, there is quite a bit of foam on the water. I am way way outside and it’s not likely that waves have broken here recently. I’ve seen it happen but chances are this is just white water that has drifted from the waves that break on the rocks even further outside.

I’m basically at my turning point and decide to turn around here. I’ve been thinking a lot over the past 2 days about the virtues of relaxing and have also been thinking about how we add meaning to our thoughts and observations. Sometimes this meaning is helpful and often it is very much not. As I reach for each stroke, I aim to relax and not add meaning to thought. This is actually a great practice right now because my mind really wants to obsess about the swim through the waves to shore. The ultimate reality here is that that swim is going to happen. It can’t NOT happen (unless I want to take up permanent residence here in the water). Also, it’s going to be fine. It always has been fine. I’ve swum in larger surf than this. Let’s just swim like business as usual and concentrate on relaxing.

The colder patches of water do not help but all the more grist for the mill I suppose. I can feel tension - sometimes in my legs, sometimes my shoulders or arms. As I do, I focus on relaxing and letting the tension go with each exhale.

Time comes to head to shore and guess what? No tears. It’s a pretty gentle ride actually.

The sun is out in full force now and it is a pleasant walk up the stairs. My whole body feels a bit more spent than usual.

I’m not the only one that’s tired. The funicular is still sitting about half way up and refusing to move any further. It’s been like this for a few weeks now. I’m thinking there must be a screw hewn from a rock that can only be found in the Ivory Coast and we are waiting for that to ship.

Wave after Wave

Stupid Computers!

Fake News