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.