Make a Wave Project

The three of us headed to the home break and made an appearance during my shift. There were folks on the beach. What I found truly disturbing was the sight of folks in the water. Why would anyone get in the water at an L.A. County beach after a major rainstorm? It's not about maintaining the spirit of the surf-a-thon. It's about keeping yourself healthy. In fact, had I been in charge, I would have kept everyone out of the water. Today was a good opportunity to teach people about the harm we're doing to our oceans. What better way to do that than explain that the surfing part of the event was cancelled due to harmful and unsafe water. If it's unsafe for humans, it's certainly unsafe for those beings that live in that water. I guess I'm saying I would have transformed it from a surf-a-thon/party to a protest/teach-in/party. But that's just my take on the event. Folks were on the beach having fun. We played Smashball with Soul Brother #2 for awhile. I didn't want to stay since I'd also been hearing, over the years, that the sand can be as dirty as the water!

I made up for my missed surf session by getting in the pool this morning. I've been doing light hypoxia training over the last few days. I once read that this is helpful in training you for being held down on bigger days. Perhaps that's true. I'm able to do a length of the pool without breathing. I try to do that about four times each time I'm in the pool. I found that what I do in the ocean also works here. When I first started the hypoxia training, I swam fast in an effort to get to the other end of the pool faster. When I did that, I was unsuccessful. Then I started to think about what I do when I'm getting worked by a winter wave. I don't fight it. I simply relax and wait for the pounding to end, hoping upon hope that I've got enough air to survive the Maytag effect. That's what I do in the pool now. I take a big breath, push off from the wall, swim slowly and concentrate on the black lane line at the bottom of the pool. When I take my time and slow down, that's when I'm successful. Go figure.