All Is Well

So I’m wondering, do I really need to begin all of the blogs with the time that I left and the condition of the sky? When I proofread my posts (not a rigorous edit) and I read the first couple paragraphs, it just feels so dry. I wonder who cares about these details? Well I guess I do? I like to look back sometimes and it helps me to re-imagine the swim if I know, oh yeah, that was the one where I got a late start or that was the one where it was actually sunny in the morning. Or maybe I will look at several and remember that July in 2025 sure had a lot of cloudy mornings compared to other years. Anyways I’m glad I cleared that up. I left at 10:00 today and the skies were mostly sunny but still had lingering haze over the water.

The surf is definitely on the upswing today. The surf report says 4-5 which is a little larger than average. However, the last few mornings, I have been noticing that the initial morning report seems to have an overly elevated forecast so I’m skeptical if the surf will actually be that big. I’d say that it was and there was one set in particular just in front of the point at Salt Creek that was particularly large. More on that later.

The tide is on the high side once I reach the shore. As I mentioned, I could see some larger waves rolling in as I walked down th stairs but nothing huge. As I begin to walk out into the water, given the conditions of surf and tide, I can tell that today I will need to start swimming sooner than later. And that’s exactly what I do.

The water feels almost the same as the last couple days - maybe just a little cooler. There are a couple cold patches that are quite noticeably colder but all in all everything is very nice and comfortable here. On the inside, I’ve been all stirred up due to various personal dilemmas. I wish I could say there was just one (or, even better, none) but I’m feeling surrounded by them now. It’s ok. I know that in the end, all will be well. At least that is how I feel right now. I probably would have provided a more dismal perspective last night. Right now, I know that above all else I need this water. I need to have the water all over my body. I need to put my face beneath the surface and just look at the shadows and shades of color as the light and water intermingle. I need to understand that this is my present reality. These are the things I can be certain of right now. For the next hour, I will stare at the horizon and the cliffs at the edge of the beach and I can know that on every single breath, they will be there to watch again and again and again.

I swim north today all the way to the Monarch Bay Beach Club. I seem to be further offshore than normal. Maybe this is because of the larger surf. I know that I tend to hug the shore when the surf is small and drift west when it is bigger without any kind of conscious effort to do so.

I turn around and I can see the sets of waves breaking from where I came from near the point just between Strands and Salt Creek. I swimming back in that direction and getting closer to the main break. I’m fairly close to the surfers but definitely further out than they are. As I approach, I can see a pelican resting on the water as if it is just one of the local surfers. I have to look closely to make sure it is in fact a pelican and not a surfer. Yep, it’s a pelican. They are very large birds.

A set of waves comes rolling in and the first one looks like it is going to break in front of me. This seems strange because I am super far out. It doesn’t but then the next one is even bigger and it does break just a little further south but outside of where I am. Wow. I don’t think I have seen them breaking so far out before which may or may not actually be true. Either way, these are big and even the pelican thinks so because it up and moves over the wave and then repositions itself back on the water about 30 feet further out from where it was before.

I’m wondering just what the swim to shore is going to be like but try not to stress out about it because no matter what the conditions are, it is not something I can avoid. I just try to remind myself that what I just saw was a large wave but not anything close to North Shore scale. I’ll be fine. All will be well.

Soon enough it’s “go time” and I am swimming to shore. Well I’m writing to tell you about it so obviously it was fine. In fact, it was nearly wave-less which is kind of anti-climactic, but validation that all really is well.