Evening Ocean Swims

This summer I rekindled an old love. No, old Jackson has nothing to fear, this relationship is strictly platonic.

I always had a fascination with water.  As a child, I would jump into every puddle, no matter how cold.  Even now, I could not imagine a holiday away from water.  I need to dip in, often before everybody else is up and enjoy the coolness of the fresh water on my skin.

For years I have regretted living so close to the ocean, yet hardly ever going for swims.  Almost every summer, I hope to hit the water more often, but apart from going to the beach with the kids before they hit the teenage years, I never had or made the time.

This year was different. I can't remember if it was my friend Wendy or me who suggested it first, but either way, the other was an easy sell and we started going to Ambleside Beach for weekly evening swims sometime in early August.

We usually would be there just before the sun was setting, although once or twice it was pretty dark by the time we got out.  Because of the cold winter, spring and early summer, the water never reached comfortable summer temperatures, but remained more or less frigid, depending on the amount of waves and sunshine.  After a couple of times, we had our routine worked out.  Dressed in bathing suit, capris and shirt, we'd be at the water's edge in no time.  Wendy tended to take for ever to get in, while I jumped in and them froze to death waiting for her to get ready for our swim. Later in the summer, I smarted up and waited until Wendy was at least in to her waist, before getting wet.

Most evenings, we managed about 20-30 min of breaststroke.  Attempts to crawl were quickly abandoned because the freezing water would give us 'icecream' headaches.  Initially, we would swim out the the buoys, then east towards the Welcoming Statue and back again.  When the temperatures were almost unbearable and the buoys hauled in for the fall, we just swim along the shoreline over the 'the man" and back.  Only once did we bail after getting in the water and realizing that it was just too cold.

Swimming in the evening was a perfect zen ending to often stressfull days.  The sky would be pink and orange, the mountains of Vancouver Island looming purple in the distance.  The setting sun would bath the North Shore Mountains in a golden glow and more often then not we'd see seals poking their heads out of the waves nearby and fish jumping.