It is a beautiful day out today. I had planned on carving out Wednesday and Friday as my swim days this week, but the conditions highly favor today (Tuesday) over tomorrow. The wind is supposed to be light all day today but tomorrow there are Santa Ana winds coming and blowing over 10 knots most of the morning and afternoon and perhaps into the night. It’s an offshore wind which is not nearly as bad as a more westerly wind, but surfline is forecasting bumpy seas and a temperature drop.

It’s hard sometimes to know how to read these forecasts especially in the water temperature department. I have noticed that Surfline often dramatizes the potential temperature drops as if they just can’t wait to pull out the booties. I guess we’ll just have to see how things settle come Thursday morning. That all said, I want to enjoy the 62 degree water for as long as I can which may just be today if Surfline is correct.

I leave my house at 10:45 and when I get to the parking lot at about 11:00, the water looks silky smooth. The sky is blue with a small layer of white haze all around the horizon and above the southern and northern points. The sun feels good.

I chat with another swimmer at the shower just after I leave my car. He is asking about my camera and how it is that I keep it on my person during the swims. I give him the run down. One of these days I should probably post a YouTube video explaining my whole camera process. I have had several people ask me about this.

I walk down the stairs and lose myself in the sound of the surf, birds and hum of civilization. The water looks so delicious. There are waves breaking up and down the beach that are not particularly large but very nicely shaped. Things definitely look different here than they did Sunday. It’s funny how when I see a picture of some beach I have never been to before, I create this immutable landscape in my mind and imagine (and believe) that is how that beach must always look. In reality, I am seeing a single slice of a multi variate landscape that constantly changes. I might be looking at a picture that paints this sort of tropical fantasy but you better believe there are days that same beach looks darkly ominous and wind blown.

I love to look back on my own pictures and posts here and look at how different the beach looks from day to day and season to season. Even a sunny day can look vastly different from another sunny day.

There is a surfer sitting on his board waiting for waves. He seems really far out for where the waves are breaking now. Was there a larger cleanup set a while back that he is pining for now? Maybe he is just enjoying the peace and quiet and doesn’t want to be bothered by the rest of the crowd. Who knows?

The water feels cold. Colder than Sunday. I pause and wonder do I really want to do this? Well I’m not turning back now. I walk into the water and despite the cold, everything looks so pretty - in every direction. I’m eventually about chest deep and I push/jump off the floor and into a swim. I feel an immediate surge of electric energy flush through my body from head to toes. Once I realize it is my friend, it is not bad at all. It does not take long for what feels like cold water to feel very tolerable.

I’ve been in indecision as to which direction to swim all morning. I’m partial to heading south because that usually is quicker and I plan to go vote on my way home so I don’t have a ton of time. However, I don’t like to swim north on colder days which I know could be coming soon and once they come, they likely will be here to stay until at least April (but then you never know). I settle on south but as soon as I start swimming I change my mind and head north.

It is just so great out here today. Yeah the water is kind of cold but I can feel a thin, warm layer just at the top. I can hardly believe how good the water feels. I’m looking out on the horizon and it is just blue and more blue. The sky is bright. Every time I lift my head to observe the point in front of me, the color from the cliffs just seems to glow and everything looks so crisp.

I pause in front of the lifeguard tower and look out onto a small crowd of surfers waiting for the next set of waves. I look at my camera’s view screen and the scenery looks as if I have already applied my post-processing edits. My camera recently applied a firmware upgrade but did it get this much better? Or is the light out just serendipitously perfect right now?

I continue north. I keep going…keep going…keep going. I try to lose my critiquing mind and just observe this moment. I take in the sights of the landscape, the feel of the water and even the smells. It is odd but even under water there are smells. The vast majority of a swim the odors are unnoticeable because it is pretty constant but there are spaces here and there that are distinct. Sometimes it smells like seafood - sort of like fish and chips. Sometimes it smells like camp fire. And there are other smells that are harder to describe.

I only swim as far as just past the Salt Creek northern bathrooms. There are two round patches of sand just below the golf course. I wonder if these are sand traps but they look too close to the beach. I take in the sights briefly and then head on back to where I came from.

The swim back is more of this wonderfulness, but now I focus on the beach instead of the horizon. There really is not much at all to notice below the surface. Visibility has been close to nothing the last several days. I can hardly see my hands and arms let alone fish or kelp.

I pause again in front of the lifeguard tower and look at the surfers. Behind me is this swan like bird I have seen a couple times recently at the harbor. I don’t know what it is called. A little further south there are about three gulls hanging out on the water.

I keep heading south and keep a direct course for the asphalt road. I am getting closer and closer to the surf. Eventually I need to veer west to avoid the break. I can feel myself rise and fall over these peaks that are so close to being ready to break but not ready yet. Just before it is time to swim in, I watch a wave approach. It is hard to tell if it is going to break behind or in front of me. It is so perfect. The water is so smooth that it looks like pure blue molten glass rising silently from a flat surface. Ahead of me I watch it curl and feather and break like countless crystal shards. The wave just folds over me. I pass under it and watch it roll from my position just below the surface. I don’t have my camera in hand and I know there is no way I can get to it soon enough to capture this, so I just enjoy what I see all for myself.

I get my camera and hope for another. One more comes but it is not at all as perfect or big. Will I ever see another wave like that again? Of course I will.