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Hundreds Hit the Beach For 78th Annual Oceanside Pier Swim

By Alison St John / Reporter,  KPBS Public Broadcasting
Published September 3, 2007 at 1:00 PM PDT
This story was published more than 16 years ago.

The oldest rough water swim in California took place today. More than 400 people hit the water for the 78th annual swim around the pier in Oceanside. KPBS reporter Alison St John was there.

Hundreds Hit the Beach For 78th Annual Oceanside Pier Swim

The oldest rough water swim in California took place today. More than 400 people hit the water for the 78th annual swim around the pier in Oceanside. KPBS reporter Alison St John was there.

Surfers reluctantly relinquished the waves next to the pier to hundreds of swimmers of all ages, shapes, and sizes.

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Julia Maxwell is a master swimmer who likes leaving the lap pool for an ocean race once in a while.

Maxwell : I swim with the JCC Masters in La Jolla so people have come from all over.

Reporter : So how would you sum up conditions?

Maxwell : The water's a little chilly, the waves are a little big, but I think that it's nice that it's warm outside so we actually want to get in the water.

The ocean water was 66 degrees, and the crowds of red, white, and silver-capped swimmers didn't hesitate to wade in and strike out for the end of the pier half a mile away.

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However, the surf was so high some didn't make it out, while others were swept off course by strong currents. Most made it round the one mile course and arrived to cheers on the other side.

Julia came in second in her heat.

Julia : It was fun. The current was very strong -- big waves: hard to get out and hard to get in -- but other than that it was a very good swim. The water warmed up really quickly.

Swimmers from as far away as Michigan, New York, and Oregon signed up for the pier swim. Some said they were warming up for the La Jolla rough water swim next weekend.

By 9:30 a.m., the race was over, the beach was filling up, and the surfers gratefully returned to take over the waves.

Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John
Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.
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