Open Water Swimming at West Neck Beach: Saturday, June 26, 2010

It was a picture-perfect Saturday morning in June and the water was as smooth as glass. You could not order better conditions for an Open Water Swim in Cold Spring Harbor. Well, maybe one thing... it was pretty much low tide, not exactly dead low as the tide had already started pushing Long Island Sound water into the harbor -- just not soon enough to totally cover those pesky North Shore rocks!

Ahhh... but what great swimming conditions as we headed north towards the causeway with the far sailboat (not the one pictured here) as our destination. The target sailboat is the one moored just off the "Billy Joel" house at the end, (and the bend), of the Lloyd Harbor causeway. It's not really Billy's house, but he and many other celebrities have summered in it over the years. Wonder what they'd think seeing 30 or more swimmers passing by?

FYI, you should be able to "click" on individual pictures to make them a bit bigger.

It's not all SWIM, SWIM, SWIM! There's always time for a little chit-chat-- at least there is now that the water is warming up a bit!

Sal makes his way out of the water and pauses to give a special and very secret open water swim sign though I guess that it's not so secret now! And haven't I seen that "secret" hand-sign somewhere before?

Young guys like Louie like to run out of the water. Most swimmers just take their own sweet time getting out!

Not a bad way to start the weekend... and not a "frowny" face to be seen!

Bob tows in the LIFEGUARD Torp -- he's only needed it once in all these years of Open Water Swimming. Let's keep that record going strong!

Thursday Morning Fire Alarm Has Us All Scrambling!

The last time the YMCA fire alarm went off, it was for real and it was also one of the coldest days of the year -- but at least we had the Annex to take shelter in! This Thursday morning alarm was a lot more pleasant temperature wise as it was already in the low 80's when we all came running out of the YMCA -- some still in our bathing suits! And good thing that it was so warm as we had no Annex to run to -- it had been demolished the day before!

Tri/Masters Swimmers Open Water Swim Schedule

To the Tri/Masters swimmers:

I wanted to send out the proposed summer open water swim schedule. I know it is early, but for those of you who want to make plans, here you go...wetsuits are optional but recommended. These swims are all weather dependant...also jellyfish dependant as well.........No fee to go...we may carpool to save gas and for those who don't have beach stickers...we'll work on that as we get closer...

This has nothing to do with the Y or Lynn and me...just a bunch of friends getting together for a salt water swim. That being said, here is our planned (but tentative) schedule (all swims start at 8 a.m. on Saturdays, except the ocean swims at RM5 - get there early to beat the parking fee...will let you all know the time). The swims are staggered at different beaches to take advantage of the high tide.

June 20 - last day of the tri/masters session

June 26 - West Neck Beach

July 3 - Crescent Beach

July 10 - OWS clinic with Shelley Taylor Smith at Nathan Hale Beach

July 11 - Fran Schnarr 5 K in the Bay - Bay Club

July 17 - West Neck Beach

July 24 - Makamah

July 31 - Crescent Beach

August 7 - Robert Moses Field # 5

August 14 - RM5

August 21 - Tobay course (maybe bike afterwards)

August 29 - Tobay race

September 5 - John Daly Ocean 1 mile race - Long Beach (or day off)

See you in the salt! Hope you can all make it!!! Any questions or if you need directions, please let me know...this will be fun!!!!!!!!!

- Bob

Harry's Done It Again: Best In Show! Don't Miss It.

News From The WaterBlog June 12th & 13th Open Water Swims

Some great reporting is being done by Carol on her new blog: TheWater-Blog. Carol's reports are also going out via email and the feedback via "reply-to-all" has been tremendous. Here's a sampling from this weekend:

Cold Spring Harbor must be caught in some kind of weird time warp, because despite the fast-approaching summer season the water just keeps getting colder instead of warmer! It felt colder today than yesterday, and yesterday was colder than the day before....By next week, we'll probably be seeing icefloes again! Still, we had a gorgeous swim out to the buoy, assisted by an incoming tide and occasional encouraging winks from the sun through an otherwise cloud-laden sky. It wasn't too cold for a langorous buoy-side floating coffee klatch (without the coffee, of course), before we all headed back to the beach to make plans to do it all again soon! It's rumored there's a group going out tomorrow (Monday), and (weather permitting) we can probably count on Wednesday and Friday swims as well (at least). Weekday swims are usually at 6:15 (we've been pretty successful at getting the gate opened early for us), and Saturday and Sunday we swim at 8:00, unless you like getting up early on weekends, in which case you can join Rob and his cohort at 7:00! See you out there -- Carol

it really was a great swim. I feel so lucky to have found you all and to be inspired by you. gae

Despite the very chilly temp I was still comfortable in my "shortie" once we got moving. Definetely another really nice swim. Carol, I am so glad that you encouraged me to join the group & I plan to join you for every weekend swim that my shedule permits. Have a good week everyone! Tommy

Reading Carol's " swim of the day" and the reply's make it equally enjoyable. Regardng a monday swim, I'm assuming chris v will be anxious to get into the water since he missed the weekend. He will probably persuade tim to join of which they know where to get a couple of hot cups of coffee. With that said, monday still on hold until I get some feedback. Quite frankly, this old body could use the day off. Until we swim again! Ken

Sans wetsuit is very chilly and definitely worse than yesterday if anyone was thinking about giving it a shot. we are back to late May and its fallen to high 50s again. As long as one does not stop it was a wonderful swim for us early pod people. Rob

Rob, I'm impressed. That water temperature was hard core and something "survivor man" would have choked on. It was quite comfortable (temperature wise) in the suit though.In fact we even had a long chat session at the buoy in the second pod swim! Ken and I discussed how OW swims give you the opportunity to hone technique without having it interrupted by a flip turn. I experimented with head position, hip rotation, front quadrant hand entry and glide and early vertical forearm to get that "swimming down hill" feeling (you know, just like Grant Hacket.....yea right). Once you get the stroke set up you ramp your effort up to threshold pace.......quite exhilarating! When the water gets warmer I think it would be a good idea to look at the "pods (those who want it)" stroke mechanics in the swim area before heading out and give some things to focus on for the swims. Maybe we can do it like one Saturday (or Sunday) a month. Rob T.

I really missed swimming with all of you today (except for the part about the cold water), but I had to do the mommy thing and watch my son get a Cub Scout medal at church. As that was way too much goody-two shoes nonsense for one day, I’m hoping to park illegally, jump a locked gate and swim outside the lines without a lifeguard real soon. Let me know if any 6:15 swims are in the offing this week. Yours in anarchy, Margot

Open Water Swim Schedule: June 11, 12 & 13, 2010

The Water-Log: Hello, Saltines! Here's an auspicious sign for our open-water-swimming this weekend: a double rainbow over the LIE!

The Pod will be swimming at West Neck Beach on Friday morning at 6:15 on an incoming low tide (low = 5:08 a.m., high = 11:04 a.m.); and on Saturday and Sunday mornings at 8:00 (low tides at 5:55 and 6:42 a.m. and high tides at 11:51 a.m. and 12:38 p.m., respectively).

Great conditions for a Causeway swim (which was just sublime on Wednesday!).

As for the parking situation, the Town of Huntington is theoretically going to cooperate with us and open the gate to the beach parking lot earlier in the mornings. We'll test that theory tomorrow morning and see whether or not the gate is open at 6:15! FYI, as a result of recent "complaints" about cars parked outside the gate (us), if you do park outside the gate, the Lloyd Harbor police may ticket your car. Also, if the gate is open and you park in the West Neck Beach parking lot but do not have a 2010 Town of Huntington beach parking permit sticker on your car, and your car is still in the lot after the beach officially opens at 8:30, you may get a ticket. Non-residents and resident-cheapskates might want to think about car-pooling with your favorite legal Saltine(s)....See you in the a.m.! -- Carol

Watch Out Huntington! There's a New BMW Motorcycle in Town...

And will someone please tell me how these "biker" guys seem to attract all the girls? Is it the "bad boy" image... or the feel of the air flowing through your hair? Hey, wait a minute, we're all swimmers... isn't "the feel of the water" what we really crave?

Gae Polisner, writer and new Open Water Swimmer Blogs About Her First West Neck Beach Swim

Gae wrote a great first-hand account about her swim this Memorial Day Weekend with the West Neck Pod crew -- and one uninvited swimmer... a Large Swan. CLICK HERE to go to Gae's Blog... read and enjoy!