Ryan and Nikki came up to Helena mid-summer and Ryan and I decided to do a long swim and try out our wetsuits. Ryan had previously been borrowing a wetsuit from his brother-in-law but had finally made the leap and got a new one. He had tried it on and pretended to swim in his front yard but other than that hadn't used it. His 30-day trial and return period was quickly coming to a close so we decided to get out and use it. After much discussion we decided to swim in Canyon Ferry Lake, from Yacht Basin Marina to Cemetery Island and back. Round trip it works out to be about 1.25 miles. We decided to go early in the morning before the boat traffic got heavy. Lindsay and Nikki decided that they would escort us in kayaks to keep us from getting run over. Plus, they could get out and have fun while Ryan and I got some training in. We arrived at the Marina rather early and having never been there before we had no idea how it worked. Regardless, we got the kayaks in the water, wetsuits on, parked the truck and trailer and off we went on our swim. Now Ryan is a much faster swimmer than I so I figured we would get split up rather quickly, but as Ryan later said, he can't swim in a straight line so I somewhat kept up. A few times we tried to draft off of each other but being fairly new swimmers, we didn't last more than 10 strokes before crashing into each other or becoming completely separated.
The swim to the island was almost directly into the sunlight and I realized right away the importance of having tinted goggles, and goggles that don't fog up. I could barely make out the island as a blob in my goggles and swam towards it. At the island we took a few minutes to relax, goof off, let the dogs run around (Sampson and Heiko rode with Lindsay and NIkki) and then swam back to the Marina.
The Marina was much busier when we arrived back at the docks. We took care to skirt the docks and swim around all the boats. Once Lindsay and Nikki beached up on shore, Ryan and I started stripping off the wetsuits. Nikki headed up to the car to put the dogs away and got quite the lecture from the lady who runs the Marina. I guess we did everything wrong. Apparently the Marina doesn't allow swimming which we found funny because they had a huge water trampoline. We were supposed to pay $10 per boat to launch our kayaks even though there was no collection station or attendant. I parked my truck and trailer in the wrong spot, and dogs weren't allowed on the premises. Overall the lady was about as rude to Nikki as a person can be. Not that I ever do business with Yacht Basin, but that pretty much sealed the deal that I wouldn't ever do business there. I find this really unfortunate because I really liked swimming to the island and back! Oh well!
Overall the swim went well and I felt pretty good. Ryan on the other hand has some pretty sever chaffing issues even though he had liberally applied some lube to nearly his entire body. The chaffing was primarily around his neck and he was worried about whether to send the wetsuit back or keep it. Thus, we made plans to do another swim the next weekend while they were back in town.
The swim to the island was almost directly into the sunlight and I realized right away the importance of having tinted goggles, and goggles that don't fog up. I could barely make out the island as a blob in my goggles and swam towards it. At the island we took a few minutes to relax, goof off, let the dogs run around (Sampson and Heiko rode with Lindsay and NIkki) and then swam back to the Marina.
The Marina was much busier when we arrived back at the docks. We took care to skirt the docks and swim around all the boats. Once Lindsay and Nikki beached up on shore, Ryan and I started stripping off the wetsuits. Nikki headed up to the car to put the dogs away and got quite the lecture from the lady who runs the Marina. I guess we did everything wrong. Apparently the Marina doesn't allow swimming which we found funny because they had a huge water trampoline. We were supposed to pay $10 per boat to launch our kayaks even though there was no collection station or attendant. I parked my truck and trailer in the wrong spot, and dogs weren't allowed on the premises. Overall the lady was about as rude to Nikki as a person can be. Not that I ever do business with Yacht Basin, but that pretty much sealed the deal that I wouldn't ever do business there. I find this really unfortunate because I really liked swimming to the island and back! Oh well!
Overall the swim went well and I felt pretty good. Ryan on the other hand has some pretty sever chaffing issues even though he had liberally applied some lube to nearly his entire body. The chaffing was primarily around his neck and he was worried about whether to send the wetsuit back or keep it. Thus, we made plans to do another swim the next weekend while they were back in town.