“Warm” is Just Not as Cold as Before

I got to the beach about 11:30 this morning. I had to run an errand in Laguna Beach before hand so I approach the parking lot from the north today. I love this drive. It’s cloudier today than yesterday but it also feels warmer. It’s hard to say if that is because it actually is warmer or if it’s just me.

The water looks smooth as I head toward my parking space. I can see waves breaking as I come down the stairs and there is more foot traffic here than the last couple of days. It is Saturday. I’m really not thinking much about water temperature on the way down, which is kind of unusual for me in February. It’s been relatively mild for what one would expect in February and I’m just not freaked out by it today. Also, I am feeling warmer and that always helps.

Tide looks about the same as yesterday, but there is about a foot more of sand on the beach. I can tell because the rock where I set my pack while I exchange my shirt for my goggles is almost at my knees and it was at my waist yesterday. These are the kind of things I notice now at the beach.

I’ve been thinking lately about how I am now hyper aware about things like sand, surf size and where the surf breaks whereas when I first started doing this, I hardly paid them any mind. When I first started the surf could be small or big and it was interesting but not any kind of an obsession like it is now. I didn’t even come to find Surfline, the online surf forecasting and web cam platform that is downloaded by every single surfer on the planet, until several months after my first swim. However after a couple experiences where I am held down by large waves longer than I would have liked, all of a sudden the daily surf reports are like some kind of prophetic oracle that I would never consider neglecting before a trip to the beach.

Same story with the sand. I started in mid Spring and sand is not an issue until at least late Fall or later. My first season, we didn’t really lose the sand until March and even then there was some sand and it was back to near normal in a couple weeks. However after last year’s major sand exodus, I’m fascinated with every inch of movement. I’ve also come to notice the patterns in the abundance of kelp, when certain kinds of birds show up, and when I’m more likely to see dolphins.

Of course water temperature has been a huge point of fascination since my first Winter. After the first year I assumed I had the pattern nailed as far as when it gets cold and when it warms up again. The second year was not much different. However, I have come to realize there is not much rhyme or reason to the temperature of the water. It can dip into the 50’s any day of the year given the right winds in the Summer and early January might just be 62. Even today in late February I swam through some patches that seemed down right warm. However, I also feel like I have no idea what warm even is anymore. Warm is just not as cold as it was just before.

Anyhoo, I manage to get into the water and I start swimming almost immediately. The cold just isn’t a big deal. I swim through a small set of waves. After a couple minutes of swimming I can stand again and I stay where I am as another set passes over me.

I head south and am enjoying the water. Just as it looked from up top, it is nice and smooth and remains so for the entire swim. The water seems yet another notch clearer than yesterday, but still not at all what I would call “clear.” In fact about half way up the beach on my back back north, I bumped into a small piece of lumber and noticed bits of small debris all around me. Then about 10 minutes later this happened again.

I don’t know why but the swim north today just seemed like it dragged on and on. I look up and I’m surprised that I have still not passed the wooden section of boardwalk. I hunker down and continue for what seems like a good while and I still have not passed the ramp. What is going on here? I don’t feel like there is any kind of influential current in the water today. Just now I looked at the timestamps on my pictures and determine that this swim was an hour and 26 minutes. That is almost 50% longer than normal. Weird. I will say that my body feels tired. Today is my third day of swimming in a row and with the storms the last couple of months, I’ve had a couple weeks with only one or two swims so maybe I’ve lost some stamina. I don’t know.

Like yesterday, the water temperature seemed unseasonably nice all the way to my northern turn around point and then all of the sudden it was not. I mean I didn’t feel like I was being tortured but “nice” is not how I would even begin to describe how I felt. At the showers my feet looked blue.

The sun sort of waxed and waned throughout the swim but mostly waned. These clouds are quite lovely though. They are very soft and here and there are little port holes of faint blue.

As I am nearing the point where I head for shore to finish, I am caught by surprise by a breaking wave that sucked me into its churning vortex. It’s only 3-4 feet today so not a big deal but I temporarily lost my camera and managed to find and snag it just before the next wave broke on me.

I’m able to stand here and walk to shore for a bit until I come across a trough of rocks that I decide to swim over and then I am practically home.