Chill Swim
To encourage its members to continue swimming during the colder months of the year, the La Jolla Cove Swim Club has a fun and friendly competition called “Chill Swim”. To add to the fun, each swimmer receives their own Chill Swim nickname – mine is ChillKat. This year was the 10th anniversary of the event.
Swim to Easter Island – and Back
Each swim club member turns in their swim miles during the period from November 15th to April 15th. With all swim miles added together, the club made it to Easter Island (Rapa Nui) and back in 2018 – a distance of 8,330 miles. See photo below for location of Easter Island in the South Pacific. Each year, the location the club swims to varies and is based on the accumulated miles. 2018 was the 10th anniversary of the Chill Swim.
Legend has it that the swim club brought back MoChill during this years Chill Swim. Mo is one of the monumental stone statues called moai. Apparently Mo’s a good swimmer and came willingly. See photo above.
Mr. Chill
According the Doug aka Mr. Chill, a Board Member of the La Jolla Cove Swim Club and chief organizer of the annual event – if the total miles of all 10 years of the Chill Swim were added together, the combined miles of the club swimmers would circumnavigate the world over three times. Kind of a mind boggling statistic.
Doug was also the MC and one of the musician at the Chill Swim party. The event took place in the back yard of the home of one of the club members on a warm, sunny weekend afternoon.
The party happened to fall on May 5th – Cinco de Mayo. Participants enjoyed a Mexican food fiesta along with wine and beer. To top it off, a 10th anniversary Chill Swim chocolate cake was desert and a sweet way to end the meal. It was half eaten by the time I got to take this photograph.
Swim Patches and Awards
Club members were encouraged to dress in their Hawaiian finest, for which there were fun awards. Below is a photo of the award recipient for the best lei.
Individual awards for most swim miles were given out at the party. Club members with over 25, 50 and 100 swim miles during the five-month period received a patch acknowledging their achievement. I swam 70.25 miles and received a 50-mile patch and commemorative 10th anniversary T-shirt.
The club member who had the most swim miles this year was Penny with an astonishing 321 miles. See below.
Three new members were introduced and acknowledged, of which I was one.
There was also the Pink Dolphin award – but you’ll have to ask me to explain that award in person. See Rieko, a club board member showing off her patches from prior years below.
Below is a photo of club members: Ivan, who also contributed to the entertainment, Rieko, a club member whom I am yet to me and Ed.
Pier to Cove Swim, membership and other events
Club members volunteer to organize events. The Polar Bear Plunge is held annually on New Years Day at La Jolla Shores Beach. The swim is followed by a pot-luck lunch. Participants pose for a photo (see below) before stampeding into the cold water. Can you spot Waldo aka Chillkat?
The next swim event will be the annual 1.5-mile Pier to Cove Swim to be held this year on Saturday June 23rd, 2018. I participated in the Pier to Cove swim last year. It starts at the Scripps pier and concludes at the beach at the La Jolla Cove. Below is a photo of Charles Williams and yours truly after finishing the event in 2017.
For people interest in any event, the club website is http://lajollacoveswimclub.com/ You can also join for the club for only $20 a year. What a deal!
From what I witnessed at the Chill Swim party, it was apparent that the La Jolla Cove Swim Club members, who are from all walks of life, are fun, friendly and very supportive swimmers and fellow human beings.
