Just Enough Terror

Surf has been up the past few days and I’ve taken a break from swimming but things are back down today and I am definitely feeling the urge to get in the water. May grey has given way to June gloom with full cloud cover in the sky but I see a couple small holes of blue sky and I’m hoping that is a sign that things will turn more sunny soon.

There is a little texture on the water with a light northwest wind. The water looks so dark with these cloudy skies. Surfline says the water temperature is 63. That is down more than a few degrees since I last swam. I’m not sure I believe it because the local buoys are reporting 64-67. Still I am trying to remind myself how warm and delicious 63 felt just a month ago.

Once I reach the beach, I see a 18 inch ledge of sand at the bottom of the concrete ramp that leads from the asphalt road to the shore. I’m guessing this has formed from the high surf sucking the sand just past the high tide line which is where this ledge is. The water feels pretty much the same on my feet as I remember it from my last swim on Sunday. I make my way into the water and there are several dips in the sandy bottom where I go from knee to chest deep water. Then I hit one and sink to my shoulders. Ok, it’s time to start swimming.

I swim through and under a few waves from a set that just started to roll through. This is mostly enjoyable and I am not even thinking about how cold or warm the water is. I’m just diving under white water and rising back up through the turbulence. It’s a great feeling and the water is brimming with life. Once I pass all of this and am west of the surf I notice that this water feels pretty darn good. Can’t be 63. It’s not 68 either but I am quite comfortable.

Throughout the entire swim I can feel my body tossed about by the jumbly surface. I am pushed and pulled and swished and sloshed. It’s not particularly rough and all very invigorating. Sometimes I wonder if you were to take the knowledge of this visceral feeling I am having here and implant that knowledge into the brains of everyone who lives within a couple miles of the beach, I might suddenly find a hoard of bodies making their way down the stairs and clawing past one another to get into the water. People stand on the bluff and stare into the water. It is beautiful, but to most the thought of actually being in the water is repulsive. They imagine a horrifying experience of cold and sharks.

Well I am not cold and I’d say there is a good chance that somewhere in the surrounding 10 miles of water, a great white shark is swimming about and entirely uninterested in me. All I can say is that being out here in the water with the shore a couple hundred feet away and coastline views that extend as far as the eye can see is like being in a completely different universe from the one I inhabit most of the day. Not that that universe is terrible but this one is filled with awe and wonder and delight and just enough terror to make it interesting. Yeah it’s a dreary cloudy day but these clouds are rich and full and fill my soul with goodness. By the way, I don’t know where those blue holes went that I saw earlier. I certainly do not see them now.

The swim eventually is over and as I am walking back up the stairs, someone passes me and asks me if I was the one swimming with the dolphins. I say “maybe.” I didn’t see any dolphins but that by no means that they were not swimming right by me. They are super stealthy. She says, “you were the one swimming out there right?” This is obvious given I am carrying my swim goggles and the aforementioned hoard never showed up. She says, “there were dolphins right next to you.” This is not the first time this has happened where someone tells me dolphins were right next to me while I am completely oblivious to their presence. I would have loved to have actually seen them but I am also totally delighted just knowing they were there.