big mouth strikes again

i continue to get in training where the schedule will allow and have actually been able to put in some pretty decent workouts lately. i'm consistently getting double digit long runs in on the weekend with the occasional foray onto difficult trails and i've been focusing my cycling on challenging mountain routes. last weekend, i was able to get out and do a 30 mile ride up glendora mountain road. it was a gloriously steady climb for the first eight miles and then rolling climbing up to the 15 mile spot where i turned around. the ride down, though? epic. twisty, fast, technical. i've never ridden down anything like that before and it was the most fantastically uber thing i've experienced on a bike. i'm hoping to get back out there this weekend and do the mt. baldy loop. that'd be fun and challenging.

but that's not why i'm here blogging today. time is scarce in the hipster household, what with wonderful tc being the focus of our lives now. speaking of which, tc and i went out shopping this week and bought his chariot. i actually just got back from his maiden voyage in it, but that's a story for another time, after i've taken pictures and whatnot.

no.

today is about swimming.

swimming in the ocean.

i've expressed my deep seated fear of swimming in the open water and how the thought of being below something on the food chain has me significantly freaked out. the week before last i was swimming the buoys at corona del mar again and with the water being super clear, i saw my first shark. he was a tiny little sand shark scooting along the sandy floor about 100y off shore as i was swimming back to land. no big deal, and it didn't spook me at all. but it reminded me that they're out there.

and then there was yesterday. a couple weeks ago i met another swimmer named kurt. now kurt is a strong swimmer and a pretty groovy guy. we swam together on the day i saw the sand shark and he had tried to talk me into swimming from the buoys, out of the beach cove, past the rocks over to little corona. i passed last time. but yesterday when i arrived at the octc meeting spot, there was kurt, happily ready to swim long. i couldn't resist his enthusiasm and i agreed to swim over to little corona.

we hopped in the water, hit the first buoy and then swam to the end of the buoy line. from there, it was a straight shot through really open water to the next line of buoys, maybe a little more than a quarter mile. so, i took a big gulp of air and headed out after kurt. we cruised along comfortably for a while and i was able to keep up with him for the most part. until i saw it.

a tree.

below me.

well, not a tree, but what looked like a tree. sticking up from the dark depths below. green and leafy. and floating all around it's top were bright orange girabaldi. i was spooked but fascinated. i must have paused for a second at the interesting sight, because when i sighted again, kurt was about 20 yards ahead and to my left. my heart rate shot up for a second and i pulled hard to catch back up to him. and as i cruised along, i saw more trees. and then i swam through one. i plowed right into my first growth of kelp. i stifled panic as i tried to shake it off while i crawled through it, and then again as it tangled around my legs as i left it behind.

my heart was racing at this point as i struggled to catch up to kurt, but at the same time avoid what was now becoming numerous stalks of kelp rising up from the deep. i continued to see schools of brightly flashing fish and more girabaldi and the occasional thought of shark popped through my head and fueled my racing heart. eventually, we made it to the little corona buoy. i was managing my panic, but i had not enjoyed the foray through the kelp. i was glad to have done it, though.

we rested for a second and then headed back. i was surprisingly more relaxed on the return trip, although the sight of those kelp strands sticking up still gave me the heebie jeebies when they'd appear out of nowhere. i eventually made it back to the 4th buoy and then swam back to the first and back to shore. the whole while i swam along the kelp free buoy line i was much more relaxed, able to swim head down and strong. i think it was because i knew what it was like out further and that i didn't have any of that to worry about along the buoy line. the trip out through the unknown had actually made me relax more along the area that i was familiar with. go figure!

so, as i sat here debriefing the experience, i decided to look up sharks indigenous to california.

names like 'peppered catshark', 'lollipop catshark', 'sleeper shark', 'nurse shark' and 'cookiecutter shark' made me relaxed and anxious to see some of these oddities. and then i saw the names that made me wish i'd never looked at the page.

ragged-toothed shark

crocodile shark

leopard and tiger sharks

WHALE shark?

and the one that has got me questioning whether i'll ever go back into the water...

MEGAMOUTH shark. MEGAMOUTH. okay, tell me i'm wrong in fearing something that someone felt it necessary to name MEGAMOUTH. colour me yellow.

i kid. i'm loving it out there, and as long as i continue to keep all my limbs, i'll be back and occasionally braving the kelp.

Posted by jeff at August 17, 2007 8:52 AM