Swimming day 472 - Monday 30th April 2012

Back to the start of yet another week.  A grim weekend for rain and wind, but this morning a bright sky brought hope! 

Getting to the beach by 6.40ish (after another restless night) it was dismaying to see such massive waves.  There were about 9 of us this morning, but none of us would risk going in on our beach; and that includes the very strong swimmers.  No matter how strong you are as a sea swimmer, you will never be as strong as the sea; silly to say as so obvious, but sometimes the obvious is put aside in favour of the brave.  We headed over to the girly beach which was better, but not necessarily safe.  Four of us when in; Dr Mark, Shoichi, Simon and Me.  Getting in was easy enough as you are facing the waves and can choose your moment easily enough, however getting out is the challenge and the heart stopper.  Dr Mark was first out and nice and safe, whilst Simon and Shocihi were still out by the silver ball swimming around.  I’d had enough by then, especially as my bloomin goggles kept steaming up which really makes it difficult.  I swam in with head down and legs kicking until I was as close to the shore as I could safely get without the weaves crashing me.  This is when the heart really steps up a beat!   It is a case of swimming with one eye firmly behind you so as not to get caught out; by the time I was almost there the waves had picked up again and were crashing just in a big dip.  You need to avoid the dip at that time as that is the suck and pull down area and very dangerous.  I thankfully timed it well and was on the beach milliseconds before a monster wave curled in; it grabbed the back of my legs as escaped, but that was all. Safely back on land and the heart returns to normal and the endorphins kick in to give you that high; the one adrenalin junkies start to crave, the one that you need to somehow keep in check!!

Let’s see what tomorrow brings!