This summer has been an eye opening experience as the nearest pool is over an hour away. The public beach looks common enough with all the regular rocks and plenty of shells, not to mention the shiny amethyst littering the shore. How far will I swim today? Hard to say, considering the buoy's are about here to there, perhaps seventy-five yards or so, depending on my stride this day. Walking that is, as the sun-baked sand wiggles through my toes, with a slight breeze flowing through my hair, yes, I decide on 75 strides.
With mirrored goggles firmly in place, and as a proud owner of the newest fins available, I waddle to the water. The cool cresting waves crash over my ankles as I submerge deeper into the clear blue abyss. "It's now or never", I think as I slink into the crystal drink. My dry hair slips into the new environment, waving like the seaweed below.
Using my fins I dolphin through a school of rainbow trout as they allow me to join the lesson of the day. As I flow through some slippery seaweed, I pause momentarily, looking back at the beautiful rainbow reflecting off the sides of the fish. The sun streams through the bluish-green water in glorious beams, as my hair waves with the weeds, and a euphoric feeling overcomes me.
In the background I hear a high-pitched buzzing as a boat skims over the water, completely oblivious to my underwater bliss. Running short on breath I notice a sunken dock, and in my mind I can momentarily see the glory days of the past, floating high and dry.
Pushing off the slippery sunken dock I dolphin to my destination, and take a deep breath upon breaking the surface. The time for training begins, and I start like so many times before. The waves rule the surface as I attempt to negotiate through them, the water is alive and does not want to be calmly contained. We begin to have an understanding as I rock and roll through the unpredictable bouncing. Staying true to form but being open to flow at any given moment, that seems to be the trick to open water swimming.
I certainly wish I could share in that joy. I've grown up in a pool, and to me that is the only place where actual swimming can take place (outside of playing in a lake, surfing at the ocean, etc).
The past two summers I have done a 2 mile ocean swim in Newport Beach, CA. Both times I have placed high (top 50 out of 300), and actually improved my time. I like the challenge of it, but everything about swimming in the ocean really makes me mad.
I despise the choppy waves everytime I come up for a breath, the fact that I always move off-course and have to swim extra to get back in line, the abbrasive nature of the salt water on skin, and the murky water with who-knows-what swimming beneath. As I said before, I do sometimes wish I could enjoy it more. I view it as an obstacle - something I have to fight and get through to finsih a race.
I certainly wish I could share in that joy. I've grown up in a pool, and to me that is the only place where actual swimming can take place (outside of playing in a lake, surfing at the ocean, etc).
The past two summers I have done a 2 mile ocean swim in Newport Beach, CA. Both times I have placed high (top 50 out of 300), and actually improved my time. I like the challenge of it, but everything about swimming in the ocean really makes me mad.
I despise the choppy waves everytime I come up for a breath, the fact that I always move off-course and have to swim extra to get back in line, the abbrasive nature of the salt water on skin, and the murky water with who-knows-what swimming beneath. As I said before, I do sometimes wish I could enjoy it more. I view it as an obstacle - something I have to fight and get through to finsih a race.
