Westshore Swim a Month for the Year of 2014

As a prairie girl from Alberta, I have always wanted to live near the ocean, a waterfall or lake. My favourite place to swim is in the turquoise warm waters of the Aegean sea in Greece. However, for cold water, I love visiting Jasper at any time of the year to plunge off the cliffs into the freezing cold water of Horseshoe Lake.

Since my husband and I are both lucky enough to work from home, we decided to make a huge change and move our family to Victoria, BC so we can be near the ocean, enjoy warm weather and have outdoor adventures year round. We stayed with my in-laws from Sept-November while we house hunted. We purchased a home in November and then went back to Edmonton for Christmas and New Years. Therefore, I missed the polar bear plunge on January 01, but I am definitely going to participate next year.

Since I am finally near the ocean and it is nice enough to enjoy it all year round, I decided that a monthly swim in the ocean is in order. Therefore, at least once a month for the year of 2014, I will swim in the ocean and blog about it.

My swimming rules:

1. I must go under the water for at least a few seconds.
2. I must be in water that is waist deep.
3. I must be in the water swimming for at least 2 minutes.

Now that I have set this goal, I decided it would be a good idea to research the quality of the water where I will be swimming. I am assuming that it is safe to swim in the ocean year round (this is not the case for lakes in Alberta due to summer algae blooms and the fact that the lake freezes). Since it is the winter, the water hasn't been tested since October, but I will definitely be using this great app in the summer: https://www.theswimguide.org/guide/get-the-app/ This is the beach where I will try to do all my swims for the year and the water quality is often great: https://www.theswimguide.org/beach/1144