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!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

"Yes, Virginia, There Is Still Open-Water Swimming in December!"

The sun was already low in the sky, though it was still shining brightly, when Annmarie Kearney-Wood, Gae Polisner and I stepped into the West Neck Salt at 3:07 this afternoon for our first-ever December open-water swim! The water felt cold but not unbearably so -- no doubt as a result of the 60+-degree weather of the last several days -- and with our new "Psycho gloves" or their equivalent (Gae was right -- they are a game-changer!), we felt like we could swim forever, despite the whitecaps and the crazy chop kicked up by a steady northwesterly wind. Thirty-five minutes later, with our toes numbing up from the cold, we weren't so sure, but when we emerged from the water, giddy and giggling on this December afternoon, we were making plans for our next December swim, on Saturday morning at 11:00! See you in the December Salt -- bring your "Psycho" gloves! Oh, and Christine and Rob, YOU OWE US A DRINK!!

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