Today I got a last minute request to go swimming from my open water swimming friend Nataly, so we met up down at the Oakland Estuary/Jack London Aquatic Center and went out for a swim. Open water swimming is something I’ve gotten back into recently, mostly due to Nataly. At Jack London we go out onto a pier and just swim among the boats. This time we ran into a large group of high school students doing regatta/dragon boat practices. Usually the water - which is salt water from the bay - is not so bad, but occasionally it smells really fishy, and today was one of those days. I did some open water practice back in the day as part of my triathlon practice, but this time around I”m just swimming for its own sake. It’s a great workout. I swim with a wet suit because I hate the cold, but you really don’t have to have one, and Nataly doesn’t use one.
