Bro!

I left my house a little before 8:30. June gloom. Again. Just clouds and clouds and clouds. It’s all good.

I get to the parking lot and as I approach the stairs to the beach, someone is running to the top which is nothing unusual. Then I notice this official looking person, he has a badge on his sleeve, standing at the top and cheering on the runner and informing him to run back down and begin his next swim. As I walk down the stairs there are quite a number of these runners. They are all wet and have fins in their hands. They all look between 18 and 22ish. I’m pretty sure this is some kind of lifeguard training session. As I walk down the asphalt leading to the beach, one of these kids says to the the other, “bro, I totally forgot we had another swim!”

As they reach the water from their run down the stairs, they waste no time to get to swimming into and past the surf. They make me look so lazy. There is some kind of make shift buoy just out past the surf that looks to be their destination.

Lots of seaweed still collecting on the beach. However, there is far less on the surface of the water today. The water feels so clean without this debris scattered all about. It also feels colder today. When I woke up this morning to check the local buoy temps, the southern buoys had dropped considerably. One of the Camp Pendleton buoys was at 60 and Oceanside was 61. San Pedro to the north however, had climbed up to 64. Odd, because despite the fact we had some onshore wind yesterday afternoon, it was not particularly strong.

Anyways, it’s colder but not so bad. I’m still relatively comfortable. All in all it is extremely pleasant to be here and in the water. My mind gets lost in the shades of blue, green, and black and settles into dreams filled with the characters in my life. I sense there is a silence and stillness resting beneath these dreams. I’m trying to connect to that stillness but I seem to be surrounded by voices vying for my attention.

I just keep swimming and the motion feels good. My back, my shoulders , my legs all feel fully engaged. I feel my hands catch a palmful of water and pull me forward as I glide over the surface. I lift my face above the water and there is just an empty grey screen of sky and ocean in front of me. It is empty but rich and full. There are so many tones and textures in this one color. As my eyes open and peer to my aft view, they spy a large flock of pelicans flying right above me. I quickly grab my camera. I try to find the lense and figure out what direction it is facing. Of course I want it facing the pelicans. Then I take the shot and I can only hope that I got them without drops obscuring the image.

At the north end of the beach, I can see what looks like an army of wetsuit clad soldiers. They are all lined up and organized. I’m pretty sure this is the same group that was running up and down the stairs and into the water. What are they doing just standing there? I have no idea. I watch the shore from out here in the water and it is like watching a movie with the sound on mute. There is definitely activity underway but all is silent. I like it this way.