Tim Wishes All a Healthy and Happy 2008

How have you all been? Sorry I missed the holiday festivities. And boy do I miss the pool!

Wishing all a healthy and happy 2008. Send my regards to everyone and I hope to see you all again soon.

The new job is going great, but the schedule doesn't allow for much workout time in the morning and I don't usually get home until 8 p.m. So I work out what little I can in the mornings and slog through the long run with the guys at Caumsett on Saturday. Sunday is my only "sleep in" morning, so that limits my pool time. I can hear Paul saying that I have a "ticker problem" and my "priorities are out of order." Anyway, I hope to get our schedule figured out so I can get back in the pool soon. Until then, my best regards to all. -- Tim

January 5, 2008: Rob Does His Open Water Swim Off West Neck "Ice" Beach

Rob told me he was going in at 9AM and boy was he prompt! I got there just a few minutes late and was able to see him swimming back towards shore as I was driving up. I was only able to get these "after swim" pictures but Rob's son was there "clicking away" so as soon as Rob manages to thaw out and email me the "action" swim shots, they will be posted to for all to marvel at! (Editor's note: the first 4 pictures below have been supplied by Rob who has finally thawed out.)

And marvel you should as there was ice in the water -- not just a little but a lot. And don't forget, Cold Spring Harbor / Bay is salt water not fresh so the freezing point is even lower than 32 degrees. It was COLD with a capital "C"!

Swimming out -- but not to far as there were no lifeguards on duty...


Swimming back -- time to pick up the pace!

Do you blame him for looking like he was having trouble breathing -- he was walking and swimming through ice. Some 24 hours after this picture was taking, Rob said of his record-breaking January 5th, 2008 Open Water Swim: "its the coldest I have ever ever swum. No numbing. Just knives into my face and hands." We can all believe that understatement!

Bundle me up, bundle me up!

Bundle this swimmer up quickly -- though with an air temperature around 34 degrees it might have actually been warmer on the beach than in the water. Rob was expecting a water temperature of around 45 degrees but the 12 degree cold snap we just went through caused enough icing in the bay to really lower the surface water temperature. On Sunday, the day after his swim Rob emailed me the following: "I measured the surface temp and it was in the 20's" WOW!

Below is a close-up view of the slushy ice mix that Rob swam through! Congratulations to Rob and all those who backed Rob and Harry by voting January as the first date for Open Water Swimming in 2008. Better you guys than me!

Januay 1 2008 Polar Bear Swim: Does It Count?

The voting on when the first Open Water Swim of 2008 would take place -- January, April, May or June 2008 -- closed at one minute after Midnight on January 1st, 2008. And January received the most votes (6) with May (5) and June (4) not far behind. April only received 3 votes out of the 18 total votes cast. Thank you all for participating. The question now is -- Is January really the Winning Month?

Harry says "Yes!" as he "claims" to have done his usual New Year's Day Polar Bear Swim. I have yet to see a photo (hence the cartoon above). Also, and even more important, what really constitutes "the first Open Water Swim of 2008"?

Is it a jump in the water and get all wet? OR, Do you actually have to swim? And if so, how far do you have to swim?

Since we are the Huntington Master's Swim Team -- I think that it is fairly obvious that "to win" you have to swim and at least swim 100 yards or more. Harry said that he did BUT Rich, an eyewitness, disputes that claim. So for the time being, we await additional proof. January could still be the "winning" month as Rob is considering an Open Water Swim -- bum shoulder or not! Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Rob wrote the following email after the blog story above was posted:

"For those interested ( I KNOW Harry is ), I will be doing my annual Dec swim in January this year ( moved due to injury ).

If other people would like to join I will be doing a few hundred yard swim at West Neck beach on Sat morning, 9am. The outdoor temp is 45F so expecting the water and air temp to be close together.

We need to ready ourselves for the coming May OWS season's opening swim now ! :)"

The gauntlet has been thrown -- who will show up... even just to watch and witness?