Monday, September 26, 2011

Red Tide

I'm in between racing and training right now. Training is a nice mix of do-what-I-feel-like and not quite true off-season. Yesterday on our ride by the ocean I commented on how dirty the water appeared. It is brown and dark and looks the way it typically does after a storm churns everything up. Not appealing at all for ocean swimming or surfing.

Sunset last night at our little birthday / friends re-united party.

After the sun went down we realized why the water looked so brown during the day....there's a red tide right now. Red tide happens maybe once a year or so, I'm not really sure what the exact conditions are that cause it - but it's algae that blooms in the ocean and when the waves crash, they have a blue phosphorescence glow to them. It literally looks like bright blue lights are flashing inside the waves. It is quite possibly one of the most awesome nature light shows on the planet if you ask me.

I took a picture so you can see just how awesome it was.

And because my photo did not come out, I will thank Mike from Carlsbad who also captured a photo of the red tide. If you live by the coast in the San Diego area go down to the beach and check it out - the surf is supposed to be building and the bigger the waves, the better the light show!