Zero Control
Another grey morning and after sleeping in until 7:00, I’m out of the house by 9:30. I have to swing by my apartment near Pines Park, which I have until the end of the month and am using as a laundromat given that the house washer and dryer are now with my ex-wife. My son has a 11 week old Bernese Mountain Dog that is not 100% potty trained and laundry is becoming a frequent event. Fortunately, the puppy is super duper cute and adorable.
There are lots of cars in the parking lot on this Saturday morning but I find a good spot. The water looks smooth. When I reach the beach, surf is definitely up from the last few swims. It will be rising through the day and peaking tomorrow. I almost decided not to swim on account of this, but the size is not big enough to worry about. It’s just always hard to tell for sure from the surf report. Sometimes the report says it is 3-4 feet and there is 6-8 feet waves to be found and sometimes the report says 4-6 and it’s more like 2-3. It’s just impossible to know what it is going to be exactly at any single place and time. Recently Surfline introduced a new feature where the web cams can measure the waves in real time. Who knows how accurate that really is.
So I walk out into the water and surf is bigger but not prohibitive and it is breaking pretty close to shore and so it is really nothing to be alarmed about. I dive under a larger wave just after it breaks and it’s no big deal at all and soon I am past the surf and heading north. The water feels good. As I am reaching the north end of Strands near the bathrooms, I see a buoy near by and notice that it has black marker writing on it. This excites me because it means they are finally putting out the jr. guard buoys. What do you know, it is my friend Bob Marley. It is so good to see him. It’s been a good 10 months since I last laid eyes on him. A lot has happened since then. We have a lot of catching up to do.
I start to enter into Salt Creek on the other side of the point. There is a surf competition under way and an announcer is reporting on the scores of various contestants over the PA system. As luck would have it, there is actually surf here today. In fact, there is some darn good size over here and it is breaking pretty far out. It is much bigger here than it is just down the beach at Strands where I got in.
I keep swimming and I catch myself starting to stress out over the inevitable swim back to shore. What if some crazy set rolls in just as I am swimming inside? I focus on calming my thoughts and breath. I have been in larger surf than this. I have been doing this for years and can handle myself fine in large surf. This is not the North Shore or any other “big wave” break. I will be fine. I will walk back up those stairs just like I have on every other swim. Even if I do get caught in a big set, the very best thing I could possibly do is to be calm.
So I keep swimming north and just visualize myself breathing calmly, as I am now, through a potentially large set of waves. I imagine myself diving beneath the surface before they break on top of me and letting their energy push me to shore. And in the meantime, it is quite lovely out here. I turn around as I get close to the Monarch Beach club. As I swim further south back towards the main break at the point, I can see the waves breaking and I can tell I need to put some more distance between myself and the beach in order to clear the breaking surf up ahead. The swim goes pretty fast. I can feel the waves pass under me. Some are impressive and it seems I am just at the edge of where they will begin to peel, but they just keep moving and break further towards the shore.
Once I am just north of the point where the biggest waves are, I can see a red buoy to my right. It looks just like the shiny lifeguard buoy I have been seeing at the north end of Strands lately. I wonder if it is the same one. I say hi. No response. Then I see a surfer ahead almost parallel to where I am. Hmm. I better swim a little further offshore again. A big wave comes and even the announcers on the PA sound impressed. It breaks pretty close to me. I keep calm. It’s the only thing I can do really to improve the situation. I wonder if size has come up by where I will be swimming to shore. It’s possible, and I have zero control over whether it has or not.
So here I am finally. Time to swim in. I must say that ever since I past the point into Strands, the waves do not seem nearly as ominous and seem to be breaking much closer to shore. I pivot 90 degrees and just put my head down and swim and breath as calmly as I can. Soon I am free and clear. No drama (except for what’s in my head). I must have made it in between sets because there really was nothing to contend with - just the way I like it. And just as I had imagined in the water, once again, I climb up the stairs unscathed. When I reach the top, there are large patches of blue sky looking east. What is this? It looks familiar and yet so foreign. I think I like it. It certainly feels good on the skin.
