Alcatraz 2008 Departure

It's amazing the reaction you get from people when they find out you're going to do something that's a little bit outside the realm of normal activity.

I'm not skiing down a sheer cliff or base jumping, just going for a leisurely swim in the San Francisco Bay.

The comments have been pretty consistent.

Don't you know how cold it is?

Aren't you afraid of sharks?

Is there something wrong with your pool?

The answers: yes, yes and no.

These have been the more popular responses since word got out that I was going to join a group of swimmers from my nephew's swim club, for the 1.5 mile dog paddle from Alcatraz Island to Aquatic Park on May 1st.

The kids are doing it as part of a fund raiser for drowning prevention awareness.

I was doing it to chaperon my 10-yr old son Michael who wanted to try it.

He didn't finish the final qualifying swim and will watch this year from one of the chase boats.

I decided to push forward and will be accompanying a 12-yr old swimmer who I'll meet tomorrow.

It's not a race, but a chance to do something that 99% of the people on this planet will never attempt.

I was one of those people until this opportunity presented itself last year.

My childhood was immersed in year-round swimming from the time I was 8-yrs old until I graduated high school.

Of course, I wasn't swimming in 53 degree water, with swells and currents pushing you all over the place.

It's those glaring statistics that fuel questions about my reasons, and the same questions over and over again about my state of mind.

Aren't you scared?

NO!!!

Nervous, maybe.

But it's the kind of anticipation that fuels the competitive soul.

And no, this is not a stepping stone for some other bigger and badder stunt.

I want to see if I can do it.

Then, I'll try it again next year, hopefully with my son.

Get Off The Gas!!!

If you want to be frustrated, try asking someone associated with the petroleum industry for an explanation into high gas prices.

There is a basic line of logic with each answer, but the reasons can differ with each person giving the explanation.

So what can we do?

I had a viewer tell me they weren't going to start driving their SUV again until gas dipped back down to around $2 dollars a gallon.

Two dollars?

It's unlikely you'll ever see $3 dollars again.

One simple answer from Triple-A is to try and use less gas.

Carpool, do all your errands in one trip or not waiting until the tank is empty to fill up.

Using less gas is suppose to equal a drop in price.

But maybe the answer can be found in your right foot.

Ease up on the gas.

I'm sitting at a stop light recently, right next to a jacked-up Duramax Diesel truck.

The light turns green and the DD driver punches the gas.

I'm driving my wife's Avalon.

It doesn't look, sound or feel like a race car. It gets good gas mileage and has a little giddy-up if you need it.

I didn't.

Despite my mild acceleration, I managed to stay next to DD for several hundred yards, when he backed off the gas.

As I started to SLOWLY pass him, he jumped the gas AGAIN.

With the price of diesel already eclipsing $4 a gallon I looked over in disbelief and laughed.

One of the cars I drove for a short time in high school and college was a '71 Cutlass 442 convertible.

A monster of a machine with a 455 Rocket Olds, 4 barrel carb, competition cam, hi-rise intake manifold and posi-traction.

You could hit the gas from a dead stop and not move.

The back of the car would lift up off the ground as both tires spun, before the heat and traction finally took hold of the asphalt and rocketed you forward.

Of course, that kind of driving usually resulted in about 6 miles per gallon.

Then again, regular gas was about .75 cents a gallon when I started driving in 1979.

It's almost 30 years later and gas is around $3.50 and diesel even more ridiculous.

Hey Mario, SLOW DOWN!!! It's a truck for goodness sake.

You're making gas more expensive for the rest of us.

Alcatraz Update

I don't ever want to be one of those Dad's...

My son Michael and I went to San Francisco over the weekend to qualify for the Alcatraz swim in three weeks.

We hit the water on Saturday afternoon and again on Sunday.

Michael made the distance on Saturday (with a lot of in-water coaching from me) but failed to complete the swim course on Sunday.

Quite simply, he couldn't adjust to the water temperature, the salt water and possibly the wide open expanse of the Bay.

The water was in the 50's on Saturday, but had dropped to sub-50 on Sunday morning and it was too much for him.

I thought about the cold water lake swims we had done in January and February to prepare for this day.

All the time and energy spent by both of us to prepare for the physical and mental challenge.

It drove me, to drive him, on Sunday morning, when I had a flashback of a parent-child encounter in 1993 in Bakersfield.

An unnamed coach was berating his 10-yr old football squad in front of the other team and the home fans.

He yelled how they were embarrassing him!!

I was floating in Aquatic Cove as Michael approached me, obviously frustrated by his failure to completely adapt to the 48-49 degree water.

He kept trying, but it wasn't going well.

I encouraged him for a couple more yards when it became painfully clear that I would be doing the swim without him on May 1st.

He turned for the shore and swam off with another group of kids that were headed for the beach.

I continued on without him, wondering if I forced him into this adventure.

I finished the swim and came out of the water to find my son looking discouraged.

We talked for a while and he mentioned that he thought he let me down.

I told him it couldn't be further from the truth.

There will be 50 kids in the water in three weeks, with only a handful of them 10 and under.

The overwhelming majority are teenagers.

He said he wanted to try again next year.

I told him I want us to do this swim together, hopefully before I turn 50.

So now I push on with my brother Bob, Tom and his son Colin.

But I'll be thinking of Michael the entire swim.