Welcome to the East Bay Open Water Swim group!

March 19, 2023 update:

This list is no longer active. Please join us at our new location:

https://gaggle.email/join/east-bay-open-water-swim@gaggle.email

Message from Leah Carroll, Google Group Manager:

Welcome!

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link that appears in the footer of each message.

You can also change your delivery options (All email, no email, abridged, digest) by going to the group East Bay Open Water Swimming in google groups.

The default is for all email. To post to the group, send an email to east-bay-open-water-swim@groups.google.com.

Here's

some

intro information

about the group

, open water swimming in general,

and swimming at Keller

in particular

. (Most members of this list swim mostly at Keller Cove, Pt. Richmond, but also at Albany Bulb, the Berkeley Marina and at Crown Beach in Alameda). If you are interested in swimming at Albany Bulb, swimmers there recently started their own list you can join: https://groups.google.com/u/0/g/albany-bulb-swimmers.

The Keller Cove swimmers are not really a formal group. This is just a listserv that helps us to find swim buddies and sometimes circulate other relevant info about races, wildlife around Keller Cove, etc.

Here's a link to the map of the location for the beach:

https://goo.gl/maps/tWxdJMU2ggC74wLU8

Park on the street above the beach. Make sure you do not leave any valuables visible, or even any blankets that look like they might be covering up valuables. There are lots of car break-ins.

Break-ins are much less likely if you park on the other side of the tunnel, near the Mechanics Bank,

but then it

will

be a longer walk

and it's kind of cold and windy going through the tunnel,

or on Western Drive (see map), but there may be limited parking.

Car key can be wrapped in a paper towel and then a zip lock bag or better yet, a waterproof pouch. If you've got a safer swimmer buoy

(recommended for carrying stuff, so you can lean on it to rest in case of cramps, and so other swimmers can see you)

, you can put it and other small valuables inside that. If you don't have one, you may be able to put it in another swimmer's buoy.

Since I joined the listserv in 2013, there have been about four instances of clothes getting stolen off the wall where we leave stuff, so definitely don't leave valuables or difficult to replace items like prescription glasses on the beach. Leave them in your car (hidden) or put them in your buoy within a waterproof pouch. I found out the hard way that salt water peels the very expensive anti-glare and anti-scratch coatings off the glasses.

The group meets on the far end of the beach, directly downhill from the restroom building, and we put our stuff on the wall. However, the list has expanded a *lot* since the pandemic started. If you find the wall is full, with a swimmer every six feet, please find a different place to get ready/leave your stuff, like along some of the other big phone pole/logs that are lying on the beach. Plan to wear your mask right until you put your cap on, and put it on again once you've dried off your head.

Sunday morning is the most popular time for swims,

usually there's are also some before-work swims,

and there is often a swim or t

wo

at noon on weekdays. With the expansion of work-from-home and more flexible weekdays, there are often swims during the day on weekdays.

When we're on daylight savings time, some sunset/after work swims happen

as well

.

You can wait and join when other people put out a call, or you can put out a call of your own by emailing the whole list

(send to east-bay-open-water-swim@googlegroups.com)

.

When you go out for the first few times, you'll want to make sure other swimmers know that you're a first-timer

/new

so you can arrange to buddy up with someone about your speed (they'll usually want to know what your speed is for the mile in a pool

or open water)

. We are a friendly group -- we even have "swag" you can purchase, in the form of a lovely Keller Cove mug designed by a frequent Keller swimmer, Judith Greene-Janse: https://forms.gle/uNJQbGSKkkkzEZBeA.

You can rent a wetsuit at SportsBasement, and the rental price can count towards a purchase of that suit or a different one, or you can swim "skin" with just a regular bathing suit and no wet suit. A thermal cap can still be helpful though -- they have these also at Sports Basement and Transports or you can find one online (swim buoys may be found in the same places).

Regarding swimming in the rain: some of us continue to swim through the rain, while others are more cautious due to concerns about runoff and water quality, and they wait a day or two before swimming again. It's your choice how you decide to handle the rain situation.

Earplugs are recommended to avoid both swimmers' ear and "surfers' ear", and also to prevent dizziness/queasiness from cold water getting into the ear canal.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/swimmers-ear/home/ovc-20201440

http://www.californiaearinstitute.com/ear-disorders-exostosis-california-ear-institute-bay-area.php

T

ide info at this link: http://ca.usharbors.com/monthly-tides/California-San%20Francisco%20Bay/San%20Francisco/2016-05

When the tide is coming in, we usually swim towards the pylons (towards the Golden Gate), so as to catch a "tide ride" on the way back. When it's an ebb tide, we'll swim towards the Chevron Pier (north towards the Richmond-San Rafael bridge) to get a

helpful

pull on the way back.

Water temp info at this link: https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/dsdt/cwtg/cpac.html

Map showing how to get there. We meet on Keller Beach (zoom in on the map if you don't see it marked)

East Bay Open Water Swim

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