Mission Accomplished

I leave for the beach a little after 10:20. It is actually sunny out and already 65 degrees. Summer must be on its way. I want to get to the water before the onshore wind ramps up. I’m not sure if I am too late or not. The web cams look pretty calm but it is due to start any time now and is supposed to climb quickly. Ehh. Not that big of a deal.

There is sun and blue sky in every direction but the horizon is quite hazy. I’m trying to figure out if I am just looking at haze or a fog bank. I’m pretty sure it is the former. Even the hills over Laguna Niguel look just a tad misty.

I get to the parking lot and climb out of my car. Backpack stays here. The air is warm but I can feel the breeze. I listen to the surf all the way down the stairs. I get to the beach at a mid tide. There is some surf - nothing particularly large - it looks about the same as a couple days ago.

I must say it is nice not to have my pack and simply walk right into the water. And the water…the water is nice. I start swimming and I feel good. There is no cold shock what so ever. After I am past the surf and heading south, I swim through several large patches of what feels like warm water. I wasn’t completely sure what to expect. Surfline changed the temperature reading from 61 to 60 but this sure does feel like 64 to me. However, the buoys all reported 62. I don’t know if I’m just still acclimated to the colder water or if we are in some kind of a warm pocket here. I do like warm pockets.

I swim in and out of these warm spots but even outside their warm boundaries, it’s not exactly cold. The water is also fairly clear. Everything is a light blue and I feel surrounded by stalks of kelp…because I am.

It is obvious that there is a breeze blowing over the water now. Especially on the north bound leg of the swim, I am getting a lot of water in the face. Well one of the main reasons why I am here is to get water on my face so mission accomplished.

All of this chop landing on my head makes me think of the waves that crash into my life experience. Some look frightening and never quite break and then dissipate into paltry shore break. While some curl with a heavy lip that threatens to crush any surfboard it might intersect with. All I can do is swim through all of it. I hold my breath when I need to and feel relief when I can take in air again.

I know there is something deep inside of me that propels me through all of this. It is expansive and courageous and confident and it knows exactly what path to take. It is a force that at once feels external to who I am and yet is embedded in every cell of my being. It is that part of me that is outside of time where waves crash and break into stillness.