Whether you stopped swimming in early September, when the water temperature dropped below 70, or in early October when it dropped below 60, or are still swimming when it's dropped to below 50, you are still doing something that most people -- even most swimmers -- find unimaginable. So for all the good-natured teasing about wusses and wimps, I want to go on record as saying that there are no wimps or wusses in the West Neck Pod, and you are ALL my heroes, every day, every time! See you in the Salt!
DISCLAIMER: Open-water swimming is inherently dangerous. Open-water swimmers risk drowning, hypothermia, hyperthermia, heart attacks, panic attacks, cramping, jelly fish stings, fish bites, boat or jet-ski collisions, collisions with floating or submerged objects (including other swimmers), and other calamities that can be injurious, disabling or fatal! The "West Neck Pod" is an informal association of open-water swimmers who swim "outside the lines" with no lifeguard protection, it has no formal membership, organizational structure or legal identity, and its participants, including the author of this blog, make no representations and assume no liability with respect to its group open-water swims. All swimmers who participate in West Neck Pod group open-water swims do so at their own risk. Be careful out there!
Sunday, October 30, 2011
On "Wimps" and "Wusses" and the West Neck Pod....
Whether you stopped swimming in early September, when the water temperature dropped below 70, or in early October when it dropped below 60, or are still swimming when it's dropped to below 50, you are still doing something that most people -- even most swimmers -- find unimaginable. So for all the good-natured teasing about wusses and wimps, I want to go on record as saying that there are no wimps or wusses in the West Neck Pod, and you are ALL my heroes, every day, every time! See you in the Salt!
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Taking the forecast with a grain of Salt...
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Saturday, October 22, 2011
100 Days of Open-Water Swimming
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This season, it occurred to me to count how many "just one more" open-water swims my season actually encompassed. Inspired by downhill skiiers' concept of a "perfect" skiing season of 100 days, I decided to make that my goal for 2011, and started counting with my first swim on May 27th. Today, October 22nd, was Swim #100 -- marking the completion of my "Perfect 100-Day Open-Water Swimming Season"! Bonnie, Gae, Karen, Rob Ripp, Rob Todd, and Tim Sullivan joined me in the water, while Ken and Joye tracked us from the beach as we made our way from South Buoy to North. Our tentative plans for a "Big Swim Across the Harbor" were quashed by the persistent westerly wind and whitecapped waves, but the chilly, 58-degree water temperature and 46 degree air temperature were otherwise no deterrent to this determined pod-let of other "outies," who were equally determined to see me achieve my 100th swim. With the unusual and even dramatic weather of this season -- from Hurricane Irene to the rain-drenched August to the precipitous cold of early September, followed by October's relentless westerly wind, that swim was never a certainty, and I think we all were a little relieved that I made it! Of course, now that I have, that doesn't mean my open-water swimming season is over! Tomorrow will be a day off for me (as I embark on my first-ever "Ziplining Adventure"), but I'll be back in the Salt next week -- weather permitting! ...By the way, although I seem to have been the only Pod member consciously counting swimming days, rumored sightings suggest that the evanescent "Pod-Father" Rob Martell has substantially exceeded the 100 number -- and he will certainly take the prize for longest open-water season, as his first swim was posted on May 15th and, as history suggests, he will continue to swim into December....!
Next season....counting mileage?? See you in the Salt!
* Thanks to Newsday, whose October 16th "Long Island Section" cover inspired the adaptation above, and to Kathy Wickham, who "Photoshopped" it into existence!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
"The Tempest" meets "The Ides of October"...
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Columbus Day Road Trip a "Swimming" Success...!
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Heading Into the Post-Season...
This morning the air temperature had warmed up again to 56 degrees by 8:00, and the water temperature was still a tolerable though chilly 60-64 degrees, but only Gae, Annmarie, Bonnie, Sue, Joye, Liz and I, along with Rob Ripp (the sole representative of his gender!) were there to enjoy a blissful Causeway swim in clear, still water under a windless, cloudless, impossibly blue sky.
For those of us who continue to swim in the open water in September and October and even November (and, for our crazy Canadian, Rob Martell, in December!), the Fall is unquestionably the best time for open-water swimming, and it just keeps getting better and better! Aside from the astonishing crispness and clarity of the water, the exquisite oblique light, the dramatic kaleidoscopic skies, the emptiness of the vast horizon, and the stillness and quiet of the nearly deserted beach and harbor, we embrace the bittersweet awareness that each swim might be the season’s last. So every stroke in this late-season is precious, as we try to burn every image and sensation into our memories, to sustain us through the long, Saltless winter. For me, this season’s memories will include some "firsts": the Pod’s several exhilarating forays south to "The New Beach," choreographed "circle-dances" and a beer-toast out at the South Buoy, an armada of orange "floaty-bags" trailing behind a sea of swimmers; and (I hope) some "lasts": Bonnie’s breast cancer, Joye’s broken ankle, Chris Vasallo’s neck surgery, and Frank Fiore’s bike accident....But, this is only October 9th, I still have 8 more days of open-water swimming to achieve my "perfect" 100-Day Open-Water Swimming Season (and beyond!), and there are plenty more memories to be made before we say goodbye to this 2011 open-water season. Next on the list: The West Neck Pod’s first-ever Columbus Day "Road Trip" to Long Beach in Sag Harbor – honoring the "explorer" in all of us....See you tomorrow in the East-End Salt!
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