Making Waves

Growing up in North Carolina we would go to the beach every summer for a week or so. The water was warm and swimable, if dirty. Regardless of how careful I was, every summer I'd get knocked over by a wave and have that horrible moment of tumbling, not knowing which way was up, and getting water up my nose.  I hated it, and it instilled in me a fear of high surf.

In early November, the spouse and I were in California for a vacation. I did a swim in the ocean near Ventura, and wanted to do another near Carlsbad. When we got to Ventura and I looked at the water, I was not fully confident of my ability to swim in the surf.  This is what it looked like:

Yeah, I know, most don't look at that and get scared. But I do. Any breaker feels like a lot to me.  But I went and swam. I did laps parallel to shore for half an hour while the spouse sat on a beach chair and read.

A friend from Alki had told me, prior, that if I watched the water for a while, I'd see the wave pattern and have a better sense as to when to go in.  She was right. After watching the waves I knew when I was about to get a low one, and used that opportunity to get to deeper water.  I had a great swim (the water was WARM compared to up north here) and was proud of how I did in waves I wasn't that confident about.

Then, New Year's Day 2018 came. And I wanted to do a NYD swim.  Not just a "plunge" where you go in and immediately come back out, but a true swim. The gang from Alki met up for a 1pm swim.  There were just a few of us who showed up:

The wind was from the north, so the waves were big.

I got in and swam. It was hard. I was uncomfortable. I got water up my nose and in my throat.  But I felt safe.  There were so many other swimmers, and I'm getting more comfortable in the water as well.  I'm really glad that I swam, even if the video should be entitled "Rebecca, look behind you".

Happy new year, and see you in the waves!