The calm before the spume

It’s been a week of swimming extremes.

Above is how it’s been. Incredibly flat and beautiful. The water is warming steadily as spring advances into summer. But it’s still quite clear as the summertime algae hasn’t really bloomed yet.

But yesterday a storm blew in with big winds. Little kids were playing in the spume blowing in off the wave tops like it was snow. For the Friday night happy hour swim it was so strong that I couldn’t get past the breakers and had to go back in. This morning I tried again. I was mentally prepared for the waves and conditions were a little better, and so I had a rollicking fun time and a good workout.

It’s a long weekend here (Monday is Labour Day, and coincidentally will be five years to the day since I first set foot in NZ), so hopefully conditions will get better each day.