Open Water Swimming

Tomorrow , I swim with a crowd,..the La Jolla Swim Clubs Valentines Swim. The water is around 57,..it ought to be a great swim to the half-mile bouy ( and back!). Life is short,..eat dessert first.

When you have two experienced swimmers in open water it would not be a rescue like it would be if you were a lifeguard. You would not be rescueing a struggling victim. You would be assisting someone who has experience in the water or you have picked the wrong buddy to swim with.

You have raised a good point : how many of us can "save" a swim partner. I think there are many ways to make a a swim safer such as checking the weather forecast, eating right, having a bright bathing cap, .. etc.. the list is long and grows with experience. Having a swim partner is also good but i would rank it lower on my list and probably see it less as someone who can perform life saving duties and more as someone who can offer good judgement (i.e. i think its time to get out because those clouds are getting darker; i think you should wear two bathing caps today). I actually do have a steady swim partner but he swims at a completely different pace and so most of the time we just see each other on the beach.

What a fun swim that was. It took me 34 minutes to swim a mile,..the surf was spectacular. I just joined the La Jolla Swim Club and this was my first swim with this group. I received this e-mail from the Club about Saturday`s swim. They swim "Double Scammons" miles "Double Scammons" miles refers to members who are participating in the Scammons Lagoon Relay. It’s an event that begins on January 1, and continues thru Cinco de Mayo on May 5th. The teams accumulate their ocean miles during this period, and the first team that swims 361 miles—the distance between La Jolla and Scammons Lagoon on the Baja—wins the contest. The idea is to race the migrating whales to the Baja, and to encourage people to swim throughout the winter. We give team members double miles if they swim on official event days. If you’re interested in joining a team, you can let one of the officers know at the event on Saturday. I have some pictures but do not know how to post them. Maybe some one here would lead me by the hand thru the process?? Thanks Ron %%%%%%%><>

In 1964 I swam a 44k race in Alexandria Egypt. They had a grand parade of swimmers in horse drawn wagons along the road shown in this video clip. www.youtube.com/watch