Sunday, May 24th, 2026
Hello Kal Lake Swimmers:
At 7:20 I still hadn't started to put my wetsuit on. I dashed into the curtained spare bedroom where I keep it and put on my gloves to pull the suit on quickly. As I tried to pull it up first over my legs and then over my butt and waist it felt so hard!
Even though we had company and I overate and overdrank last night I didn't put on that much weight did I? Finally, in frustration, I took off my gloves in the semi-darkness so I could get better purchase on the rubber. Only then by feeling the material did I realize that I was putting it on inside out!
When we shared stories about stupid things we had been doing on the walk to Juniper Beach this morning I was declared the clear winner, a victory that seems to be getting more commonplace!
After almost promising that the lake would be 15 degrees or warmer yesterday, it made me a humble liar once again when we measured it at 13.5 degrees this morning. However, it didn't deter the seven of us from setting out from Juniper Beach, albeit not without some vociferous whining and sniveling.
Gary, Cindy and I were rubberized while our coldwater champs, Robynne, Kylie, Sean and Phred went naked. This time Cindy and I made it to the Painted Rocks before turning around, while all of the others carried on. We just saw Gary? heading back around the Point as we were leaving the park so we assume that he did approximately 3K. Phred was doing his qualifying swim for a relay Channel Swim this summer, supported by Sean so they were in for a long haul. Kylie and Robynne also did a long swim. we'll find out how long.
The water was fairly choppy this week, but it was nice to have the air temperature at 17 degrees and the sun on our backs, not so nice when sighting.
We plan on doing this once again next Sunday at 8:00 and hope that we see a few more brave people. The weather is anticipated to be warm later this week so I'm going to stick my neck way out and predict that the water will be warmer than 13.5 degrees by then.
Hey swimmers, save some time free on the weekend of June 19 - 21 as the Kokanees are hosting Divisionals that weekend. They will be counting on help from several of us to run the meet successfully. Anticipate a callout for volunteers with details in the next few weeks.
Finally, all of you swimmers in your sixties can take heart - the first 70 years of my childhood were the hardest!
Cheers,
Mike
Add comment
Comments