LOST & Found… the perfect swim!

So LOST is 13 years old this summer.  And for the past 13 years I have spent virtually every Saturday morning swimming the Lake.

I’ve kept stats on it too.  I’m a little OCD that way.  I started an Athletic Logbook on an excel spreadsheet that now goes back every day… for 16 years.  And for all the LOST swims, I’ve kept the stats on the water temp, conditions and number of swimmers.  It’s actually kinda funny to look at.  In the early years, I actually wrote everyone’s name in that showed up!  Which was possible when there was only 6 or 8 or 10 of us.  Stopped doing that when we consistently got more than 20 people out.  I think that is about when I started taking a picture instead.

Dylan actually took my logbook and graphed the swimmers and the water temp for all those years.  One of these days I’ll get him to publish it.  It would be interesting to see the growth in swimmers… and the average temperatures of the Lake over the years.  Which were the warmest and coldest summers, at least water temperature-wise.  I’d go out on a limb and say that last summer was the coldest ever.

But the point is… this might be the best summer for swimming in Oakville… ever.

The average summer warms up in June, from 50F/10C to 65f/18C… but then it rolls over in early July and goes from 65F to 55F.  And then it starts to warm up again.  We usually get 3 or 4 rollovers that, but not as severe.  Then by mid-August it is up to about 70F/21C.  And for the next month or so, it stays in the low 70’s.

But last year it was crazy.  We had an unprecedented roll-over on the day of the LOST Race, where it went from 72F to 47F… overnight!

Well this year has been equally weird.  It has been beautiful.

We’ve only had one roll-over… and it only went from 72F to 65F.  That’s nothing.  

And if this has been the nicest summer in 13 years… last week might have been the best day of the summer!  Making, what I would argue is, the best LOST swim ever!

It was 72F/22C.  It was as flat as pool water.  It was crystal clear.  And it wasn’t smelly either.  The problem with warm water is that if it gets too warm, things start growing in it.  You get much warmer than the mid-70’s and you better be swimming in water that circulates really well.

So the short answer is… get out there tomorrow!

And… sign up for the LOST Race or LOST Mile next weekend!  On top of being what could be the best LOST Race ever (knock on wood!)… we have more prizes, swag and loot than we have ever had!  (medals, silicone caps, Swell thermos bottles, LOST stickers, trophies, give-aways from Arena and MySwimPro.com!!!)

Cheers,

Rob