My Pacific Ocean Scare
Most of you know I am a kick ass swimmer, former lifeguard and instructor. I have also swam in th Pacific many time and have been tossed out by it many times (rolling up on the beach), but I have never thought OMG this is it, I may be over my head before.
I have heard the horror stories from my parents about Acapulco bay, they watched a woman almost get washed out to sea when they were there 30 years ago. That beach has a reputation for always being black flag. I won't mess with a black flag, but you see yesterday the flag was yellow and the surf was almost non existent. So I was sitting there watching it, so blue, so lovely. I wanted to go in so I weighed my options, it was only yellow flag, zero to light surf. So I headed in, I was swimming around having fun floating and then I heard the security siren sound which meant there was surf coming in there was also serious rip happening. I started to head for shore but the tow was strong and I was just getting tired, and I was making zero headway I started to panic a bit and then that NLS training kicked in and I thought this is futile, I'll go parallel to the shore and try to get out of the rip and to the bouy ropes that are tied to the hotel and just follow it out. by the time I got to the line I was beat, and I grabbed on just as the surf hit. The rope was slippery and I started getting pulled back out my hands were just sliding down the rope. So I wrapped my arm around the rope. It worked I stopped sliding but I was still getting pounded by huge surf. The person I was visiting with had saw me swimming to the rope and figured I was already out, but I wasn't. Finally there was a brief break in the surf and I started to pull myself out, and another batch hit, this batch was big enough it picked me up and tossed me onto the shore and then tried to take me back out again. I stood up as fast as I could and I didn't even look to see if my bathingsuit was still in the right spot (it was) but I was covered in sand, swimsuit was full, hair, ears, everywhere was full of sand. I walked back over to our chairs and I was out of breath and shaking, and actually scared half to death. The person I was visiting had no idea what had gone on until he saw me completely covered in small stones. Of course I didn't let on to my friend (I have a reputation to uphold) about how scared I actually was but holy crap. I thought I was done. I called my parents afterwords and my Dad told me I had made the right choices, with the way I went to the rope parallel and then wrapping it around my arms to stop myself, which made me feel a bit better about the situation, the rip at that beach on yellow is insane and I think I will skip the ocean next time I am in Acapulco. I was almost a done, thank goodness I'm not and am here to swim another day.
Damn was I freaked out.
I have heard the horror stories from my parents about Acapulco bay, they watched a woman almost get washed out to sea when they were there 30 years ago. That beach has a reputation for always being black flag. I won't mess with a black flag, but you see yesterday the flag was yellow and the surf was almost non existent. So I was sitting there watching it, so blue, so lovely. I wanted to go in so I weighed my options, it was only yellow flag, zero to light surf. So I headed in, I was swimming around having fun floating and then I heard the security siren sound which meant there was surf coming in there was also serious rip happening. I started to head for shore but the tow was strong and I was just getting tired, and I was making zero headway I started to panic a bit and then that NLS training kicked in and I thought this is futile, I'll go parallel to the shore and try to get out of the rip and to the bouy ropes that are tied to the hotel and just follow it out. by the time I got to the line I was beat, and I grabbed on just as the surf hit. The rope was slippery and I started getting pulled back out my hands were just sliding down the rope. So I wrapped my arm around the rope. It worked I stopped sliding but I was still getting pounded by huge surf. The person I was visiting with had saw me swimming to the rope and figured I was already out, but I wasn't. Finally there was a brief break in the surf and I started to pull myself out, and another batch hit, this batch was big enough it picked me up and tossed me onto the shore and then tried to take me back out again. I stood up as fast as I could and I didn't even look to see if my bathingsuit was still in the right spot (it was) but I was covered in sand, swimsuit was full, hair, ears, everywhere was full of sand. I walked back over to our chairs and I was out of breath and shaking, and actually scared half to death. The person I was visiting had no idea what had gone on until he saw me completely covered in small stones. Of course I didn't let on to my friend (I have a reputation to uphold) about how scared I actually was but holy crap. I thought I was done. I called my parents afterwords and my Dad told me I had made the right choices, with the way I went to the rope parallel and then wrapping it around my arms to stop myself, which made me feel a bit better about the situation, the rip at that beach on yellow is insane and I think I will skip the ocean next time I am in Acapulco. I was almost a done, thank goodness I'm not and am here to swim another day.
Damn was I freaked out.