A Frivolous Endeavor

I leave my apartment a little after 9:00 this morning. The marine cloud layer dominates the sky, but I suspect it will burn off in the early afternoon today. Still, it is pleasant out and I know the water is going to be great.

I’m still under the spell of the newness of my route to the beach from my new home in northern Dana Point. The drive down Selva through the Dana Dips really brings back memories from my childhood since this is how we got to the beach from our house in San Juan back in the 70s and 80s.

I park and walk by the pull up bars which are currently in use. I’m happy to see this. My immediate impression when I saw these being built was that it was a kind of frivolous endeavor. However I have changed my mind. I have seen them used more than unused. The other day the fire department looked like they were on a break and engaged in some friendly pullup competition here. I was talking to my friend John who lives practically right here and he was saying how it promotes health and overall good vibes. Ok, I’m sold.

As I walk down the stairs, it feels weird that my dad is no longer alive to hear about this swim I am about to take. It gives me this odd sense of being untethered. It is because of him that I am here. Not because he provided the DNA, but because he brought me here on a regular basis practically from day 1 of my life. I will never not think of him when I visit this place, which is often. Then a funny thing happens in my head as I am thinking this. I realize that this same feeling of loss is my new tether to my dad, and it is not exactly “loss.” In the very memory of him, I feel his presence in my life. It’s like the scene in Star Wars where Luke Skywalker sees the apparition of ObeOne Kanobe and his dad watching over him. This makes me feel good.

The water looks smooth and glassy and the surf is particularly small today. I’m thinking of swimming out past the southern point (Dana Point) since I won’t have to contend with waves and the water is comfortable.

I get in the water and it does feel good - just as I expected. I head south and I keep fairly inshore all the way to the end of the beach. The water is so calm today and it is truly relaxing.

I start to head towards the western edge of the point. I get all the way to the very end and it is super cool. I’m not sure if it is so cool just because I rarely see this particular angle of the headlands or if it is cool because it is really cool or both. I suspect both. I see familiar rock formations up close that I usually see from at least a hundred feet away. There is this one rock shaped like a cube that always looks like it is balancing on its corner. It still looks that way from here. There is another rock that sticks out of the water here that looks like a dog or seal to me and from here it just looks like a conglomeration of medium sized rocks all glued together.

There are a few small caves or indentations in the underside of the bottom of the cliffs that look really cool that you just can’t see from the shore or even the edge of the surf. Also the entire backside of the point looks so foreign and very much like a sort of uncharted territory. I love looking at this. It’s like there is this whole other world back here hidden in plain sight.

I decide not to actually swim around the point. That would be really cool and I will do it someday but today the tide is too low and the water just isn’t very clear and I feel kind of blind here. Also, it would be nice to do when the sun is shining.

There is a small army of jr. guards hiking just along the edge of the water at the base of the cliff as well as a couple other hikers in those caves. It’s a totally fun little hike if you start at the ocean institute during low tide and make your way all the way around the base of the headlands. I have done it several times with my dad but not in many years. Yup, there’s my dad again. I don’t feel completely alone here.

I decide to swim back toward shore and eventually begin to veer north heading for the northern end of The Strand. It’s an extremely peaceful swim as I make my way along the beach. I see lots of kelp but I am still not seeing any fish. I did see a Garibaldi back at the end of the point but no Bass or Corbina in the kelp yet.

When I get to the jr. guard buoys of Big Bob and Big Bertha, I notice that there are a couple “instructors” on surfboards who I assume are waiting for the hoard of grade schoolers that I can hear hollering from a couple hundred yards away. They look like they are waiting for “the big one” sitting on their boards and staring out to the horizon. I say hi to one and he asks me if I have seen any fish and I pretty much tell him exactly what I noted above.

I head back south to finish the swim and soon intersect with the hoard. This looks like the younger group and they are all on boogie boards. They are so cute and look like they are having a blast. They all say hi to me and I wave. I take a picture but my camera decides to be weird and I hope I can use software to fix it. We’ll see.

I keep swimming south and make landfall just in front of the concrete ramp. What a great swim this was.