New Open Water Swim Spot

Well it doesn't look like I am going to be able to go out and fine my own canyon to explore this weekend. I *forgot* that I am in the middle of remodeling the living room, and I spent most of the day installing lighting fixtures and prepping the walls and ceiling.

But I did manage to try out a new open water spot down in Belmont Shore today. I've known about it - It's actually closer to me than Corona Del Mar. But I'd never been there. For some reason, I tend to head south to go do things. Belmont Shore is north. I know this sounds a little weird, but I'm not sure what to tell you.

Belmont Shore from the air. I swam along the beach running left to right in the upper mid left of the photo.

Belmont Shore is a really nice place. Though it's part of Long Beach, it definitely has it's own community vibe. The beach I swam at is at the south end of 2nd Street, which reminds me of Rodeo Drive with a beach community vibe. No Prada or Gucci shops, but there are a number of high end "California Couture" boutiques, and plenty of great restaurants.

The swimming spot is in Alamitos Bay on a little strip of beach parallel to Bay Shore Drive. Since it's in the Bay, the water completely calm and I dare say the water is a few degrees warmer than the ocean at the moment. There is a quarter mile buoy line along the beach. What is cool about it is that the buoys are never more than 50 feet from the shore, so I felt OK about swimming by myself. In contrast, you need to swim a couple hundred yards off shore to hit the buoys at Corona Del Mar. That's a little creepy when you are alone.

The buoy line.

I swam a mile. Part of me wanted to go longer, but I could feel that my stroke mechanics where breaking down. And since I've been working pretty hard with a coach on stroke lately, I didn't want to fall back into bad habits just for the sake of yardage. Plus I forgot to bring Body Glide, so my wetsuit was wreaking havoc with my neck.

You can barely see it, but I either just got back from the prom or I had a run in with my wetsuit. I assure you it's the latter and I promise you it hurts worse than it looks.

I liked it. Though I prefer Corona Del Mar due to more "open water" swimming conditions, it's good to know that I've got a back up, especially (or actually whenever) I need to swim alone.

From there I drove home in the Holiday traffic. As I predicted, the inland folks are back.

My world until Labor Day.