Crystal Cove State Park: Pelican Point

After the failure of my first swim race at Huntington Beach, I decided to add more practices with wave conditions more active than my usual practice location.  I decided to try swimming at Crystal Cove State Park Beach since that's where the Pacific Coast Triathlon is held, so I went out on a sunny afternoon to check out the site.

First thing I should say is the this beach is VERY VERY long with more than one entrance to separate area parking lots (each with separate lots) that lead to at least two very very different swimming conditions.  I went to the wrong one for open water fitness swimming.

Before leaving for the beach, I checked out the map at the Crystal Cove State Park website and saw that most of the beach area was marked good for swimming and body boarding, including Treasure Cove and Pelican Point (the north end of the beach, accessible from the Newport Coast Drive at PCH entrance).  Of course the area of Moro Beach looked like it had more icons for swimming on the map, but I could not find the parking entrance for that part of the beach.  I originally tried the second entrance off Pacific Coast Highway, but that turned out to be just a drop-off location with no parking unless you were staying there overnight.  So I drove back to the first entrance and asked the park ranger who took my parking money ($15) which part of the beach I should go to for swimming, and he said "any part" but recommended I take parking area 2 since there's a board walk to get to the beach.

I park my car at parking area 2 and walk all the way down the boardwalk and trail (10 minutes?) and get to the beach.  I put my goggles and the rest of my wetsuit on and a nice lifeguard came and asked me where I planned on swimming I told him I was going out maybe 150 yards, swimming down right past the lifeguard tower (and giant rock formation) and then back in.  He told me about the water current and then went back to his tower.  I have to mention, I've swam at several southern California beaches and this was the first time any lifeguard has asked me about my swimming plan.  Makes both our jobs easier.  Kudos to the lifeguards, but I hoped I would not need them for the swim.

The waves were indeed moderate, kind of a low split between no waves and Huntington Beach waves, so I waded out and checked out the terrain underwater and found a good, sandy part of the beach where it was safe to duck dive (always check underwater before diving!  No good for anyone to crack their head on underwater stuff!)

I head out for a swim out around the giant rock, but when I tried to come back in I encountered what seemed like an endless array of underwater rocks covered in plants.  I had expected the way back to be similar to the way out, so the rocks were a surprise.  I didn't want to swim in face down and get smacked by a wave face first into a rock, so I tried to step my way in, but found the rocks very very slippery (also I'm not sure the plants/creatures crushed by my foot would appreciate more of this.) and I DID NOT want to get my foot stuck between two rocks, so I eventually went back out further in the ocean and  swam a bit north along the beach more to finally find a sandy part that's ideal for coming in.

A second lifeguard saw I was struggling to get in so he stood by watching at the beach, orange flotation device at the ready,  in line of my position in the water.  I was not actually drowning and I'm assuming I did not look bad enough to be considered in trouble, but still struggling a bit so he wanted to keep a closer eye on me instead of waiting at the tower (Again, KUDOS for lifeguards) We talked about what happened and he said I looked like I was struggling a bit, I told him I had no idea there would be so many rocks under the water surface and he warned me that every time I see one big rock out of the water, many smaller ones could be under.  He then explained I should try swimming at the SOUTH part of the beach, at El Moro (where the Pacific Coast Triathlon swim happens), which is in an entirely different parking lot on the other side of PCH relative to the water, or hike up to the middle of Treasure cove (I didn't see any more lifeguard towers that way).  I decided to just go straight out and straight in for the day, and finished the day off with some runs down the beach to test out my healing foot (Foot's answer: "Too early to run!")

I drove my car to parking lot 4 and saw that I was still nowhere near the beach that's good for swimming, so I headed home for a shower and decided to leave the rest of the beach's exploration for another day (and another 15 dollars in parking!)  Also it turns out, I cut my foot in several places (shallow cuts, but it could have been bad) trying to get back in. ;_;  They're healing up nicely now, but still kind of annoying I made this stupid error in recon XD

Next time, I will swim at the El Moro part of the beach!

Since then I've swam a couple more times at Corona Del Mar, and I finally had my first decent swim 1.15 miles since the disaster at Huntington Beach Pier Swim.  It was ego deflating to need rescuing, but the worst part was the doubt that I could actually swim.  It's stupid, but out 200 yards from the beach is nowhere to start having even the tiniest bit of doubt if you're going to need rescuing again.  It took a surprising amount of time to recover from the doubts and I still kind of think about it sometimes. 

I finally got a road bike so that will cut into the swim time in the afternoon a bit as I practice long distance cycling... of course, this means I will have to start swimming in the mornings, in a pool. -_- I am not looking forward to this. 

First Swim Race! (Fail)

My first swim race shirt :3

I toed the line for the 62nd Huntington Beach Pier Swim this morning at 8:45.  I was pretty nervous looking at the much more sizable (okay, really just, "in existence") waves at the north and south side of Huntington Beach Pier. 

Also of concern, the temperature.  It was 62 degrees that morning, but thankfully the water temps was actually higher than the air temp and not an issue at all.

The biggest problem for me, though, was navigating through the waves.  The half mile distance is not so bad since I was swimming upwards to 1 mile in practice, but for the last two months, this has mainly been in very very cooperative waters of Corona Del Mar State Beach and a very not surfy Santa Cruz Main Beach.  I stood there for about half an hour staring at the waves, trying to find an "in" to navigation, but was mostly numbed by the terror of the surfs themselves.

Uh oh... wtf are those? (What, WAVES?!)

The start was basically the extent of the race for me.  I got in the water, waded for a bit, dove under probably eight or nine medium sized (looked like 15 feet to me, but probably mostly 3-4 footers and one or two 5 foot waves) when I finally told the lifeguard (who lucky for me decided to hang out with me) that I was calling it quits.  I made barely any forward progress whilst swimming and could not face the certainty that I would have to navigate at least one more breaker going out and a whole bunch of crashing surf on the way back.  I got maybe 1/5 of the way through the race. ;_;

The rescue itself was kind of amusing now that I'm thinking back to it.  The lifeguard handed me the orange rescue flotation device, and I got knocked off of it through a crash (but I hung onto the rope for life!) and he scolded me for letting go, then apparently I was holding onto it the wrong way... all while I was trying not to get strangled by the rope connecting him to the flotation device, and finally two more life guards on a jet ski came around and I got on board for the short and ungracious ride back to the beach before they went back to to do their job.

Crossing the fantasy of getting rescued by hot lifeguards off my list.  One because I did not actually notice if any of them were hot since I was busy being saved, and two, the romance is out when you get dropped off with no good night kiss (just kidding!)  Lucky for me they were there, and I was thankful I did not have to flail/swim back instead.

Discouraging, indeed.  Two people consoled me back on the beach but I still felt quite deflated.

I will have to change my training strategy if I am to succeed at the Tiki Swim (also has a beach rough water start).  One is to swim faster, and two, to actually swim at Huntington Beach to navigate the waves.  I was not actually SINKING before I asked for the rescue, but it was evident to everyone that I was not actually moving forwards and the waves (as small as they were) terrified me.  I would have to get a lot more comfortable rough waters....

Going Channel Legal!

Until fairly recently, I was not familiar with all the details swimming the English Channel entailed, besides that it's a really long and probably cold swim.  It is a swim rich in tradition, including what a challenger could wear while trying to complete the swim.  One of the rules is that you cannot wear a wetsuit.  You cannot wear anything that helps with buoyancy or reduces drag by anything but negligible amounts (textile materials, not over shoulder or below the knees.) 

I have the Huntington Beach Pier Swim coming up this Saturday, and it is not wetsuit legal.  Up until last Thursday I did not have experience swimming in the ocean with no wetsuit on.  Frolic around the waves, sure, but legit swim, no.  Since last Thursday the weather was so nice (76 degrees Fahrenheit, yeah!)  and I know it was going to be a group swim, I decided to try it out.

Right away I noticed it was a little bit harder staying afloat, either while waiting at a buoy or trying to fix your goggles with both hands.  I also seem to be going a lot slower, and every cold patch of water was harder on the body, but not unbearable.  When I checked the data on my watch, sure enough, I was swimming pretty poorly compared by my previous training sessions.  I chalked this to being out of shape from lack of swim practice for about a week.  Today I tried again to swim "channel legal", and I was having difficulties with my goggles (I found out later that the strap was slightly ripped and I positioned it poorly) and I had to abandon the second half of my swim since I was going very slow due to the goggles and it was nearly impossible for me to tread water hard enough with just my legs to properly fix them.  This was enormously discouraging.  I got out of the water and just shivered all the way until I got to the sporting goods store. 

I don't seem to be getting any better as of late in the swim, and I really can't seem to figure out what I'm doing wrong.  Maybe my technique is all wrong, I'm just not going hard enough, or I'm still out of shape?  I thought I would at least see some weekly progress considering how slow I'm going right now O_O It was a lot easier to see what was the matter when I run.  I can check myself in the mirror, it's obvious to me when I'm going a good pace for my distance, and I know if I'm under trained.  With swimming, it's all still a mystery.

Having recently spent all of my sporting budget on a new roadbike for the triathlon, I'm all out of money to hire a trainer for swimming.  I'll stick it out for at least another month and then see if I need to hire a professional coach to analyze what is the matter with my swim.

Hoping I will do okay at the Huntington Beach Pier Swim this weekend!  Surely I'll be the last one to finish my race, but it should be fun anyway!  It's been awhile since I've taken on my foe, the Huntington Beach Pier! X3