Long Beach Grunions Swim Team

The Grunions are hosting the 2011 Short Course Meters Championship Meet on December 2-4 at the Belmont Pool in Long Beach (see story above). This meet has become one of the favorite meets of some of the country's fastest swimmers. As a result, more records have been broken at this meet than any other meets in the United States! 
 
One of the reasons why we attract so many fast swimmers is because our meet has established a reputation as one of the best run swim meets in the nation, thanks largely to our group of dedicated volunteers. If you have participated in that capacity in the past, THANK YOU! for making our meet a favorite meet for many swimmers.
 
At an official swim meet, you usually require at least two timers per lane, but this doesn't happen at many meets. So, having two timers when you are ready to swim is a real big deal for the swimmers. It is like singing with the full orchestra! 
 
The primary reason for hosting this meet for our team is to generate additional funds to run the team. This year, we lost one of the pools as a result of the Los Angeles county's budget cuts. It was by far the least expensive facility. Since we are now renting a pool that is much more expensive, we are projecting that our budget for the pool rental will go up more than $10,000 per year. Our team is one of the least expensive masters swim teams in the region, and probably in the United States, and we want to keep it that way! But we really need your help in ensuring that our meet will continue to be run smoothly and will attract a large number of swimmers.

There are many ways to get to where we want to be, but I strongly believe that having positive personal experience at an event like a swim meet is a great way to showcase the talent and the energy of our community.
 
So, after reading all of this, it will only take a few seconds to check your schedule and send an e-mail to Yuji at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with the shifts that you can volunteer at the meet.
 
Here are the shifts at this year's meet:
12/2 (Friday)  
Shift 1 (8:45 am to 11:45 am), Shift 2 (11:45 am to 2:45 pm), Shift 3 (2:45 pm to 5:45 pm)
12/3 (Saturday)
Shift 1 (8:45 am to 11:45 am), Shift 2 (11:45 am to 2:45 pm), Shift 3 (2:45 pm to 5:45 pm)
12/4 (Sunday) 
Shift 1 (8:45 am to 11:45 am), Shift 2 (11:45 am to 2:45 pm), Shift 3 (2:45 pm to 5:45 pm)
 
Remember, we have 8 lanes. So we need at least 16 timers per shift. We need everyone's participation to keep our team going.
If you have any questions about this wonderful opportunity, please send Yuji an e-mail at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Long Beach Grunions are proud to host, once again, the SPMA Short Course Meters Championships, also known as the "Belmont Meet". This nationally acclaimed meet will take place at the Belmont Olympic Plaza Complex in Long Beach, Calif., December 2-4. Please click here to register for the meet.

The Grunions-hosted "Belmont Meet" is well regarded for many reasons, including the fact that it's a very fast pool (many national and international records are broken every year), and a very well-run meet.

We want to keep both of these traditions alive this year. If you're a swimmer, click here to register for the meet. If you are a Grunion team member or friend who wants to volunteer, please click here.

Grunions Win First Place at Pink Flamingo  

by Raul Reis  

Click here for the YouTube video.

All those hours of rehearsals, and all the sweat and tears that went into the preparation (including Kenny's ruptured Achilles tendon, ouch!) paid off last Sunday, as the Grunions won first place at the Pink Flamingo competition in Hawaii!! It was our team's third time bringing home the trophy.

All those hours of rehearsals, and all the sweat and tears that went to the preparation paid off as the Grunions won first place at the Pink Flamingo IGLA competition in Hawaii! It was our team's third time bringing home the trophy.

The Grunions' presentation at Pink Flamingo blew everyone away, even those of us who are on the team but knew nothing about the show. Entitled "What Happens in Paradise Stays in Paradise" (and conforming with  the overall Island Paradise theme), the presentation showed "typical" Hawaiian vacationers going completely wild once they get to the islands. It was funny, fun, irreverent, and the production values were fantastic. No wonder we won! Thank you Mike for organizing it, and everyone else for putting up such a fun show!  

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Grunions Place Fourth in Overall Team Scores

On that "winning" note, it's worth mentioning that the Grunions placed fourth overall as a team, in terms of points scored at IGLA. The overall team scores went almost hand in hand with how many swimmers each team took to IGLA, with the most well represented teams scoring the most points. You can check the results here. 

Saturday was a busy day for all Grunions competing at IGLA 2011 in Hawaii, but it was especially memorable for eight Grunions who did the Open Water swim at Waimea Bay, on the North Shore of Oahu island. After an hour ride to the North Shore, the Grunions were amazed by the beauty of Waimea Bay, the site of the competition (picture below). It was an absolutely perfect Saturday morning for a long ocean swim, and the place itself couldn't have been more amazing.

Calm waters, a bright blue sky, nice cool ocean temperature: everything came together to provide the perfect background for the Open Water competition. It was also the very first Open Water ocean swim for three of us, Ann Oakleaf, Susan Duquesnel and myself, and we couldn't have asked for a better location.

Four Grunions competed in the first race (1.2 mile): Mark Holt, Anne Jacobus, Susan and "The Leaf". All the women ended up winning medals for their age groups. The other four Grunions, Ryan Blaney, John "JC" Werner, Drew Giacobe and myself, competed in the "Ironman" open water race (2.4 miles). Ryan and Drew also won medals for their (very fast) times. I was just happy to complete my very first open water with a decent time :)

Meanwhile at the IGLA pool, Heather Lambert and Anita Cole were swimming the 200-meter fly(!), with Heather winning gold and Anita silver for their age groups. No Grunions guys swam the 200M fly, but three Grunion men, Jeff Liu, Kjell Stava and James Quintanilla, scored points in the 200 IM.

On Saturday evening, we all grouped together with swimmers from all over for an incredible Luau at the Honolulu Zoo. The party had everything, from roasted pig, poi, fresh coconuts and mai tais, to musicians and dancers performing traditional songs and dances from all over the South Pacific. What a way to cap an already perfect day!