Another tender sentence

Here's another sentence from page one of Tender is the Night, which amused me and made me want to buy this book. It's just there, in the middle of a paragraph describing the wider scene:

Before eight a man came down to the beach in a blue bathrobe and with much preliminary application to his person of the chilly water, and much grunting and loud breathing, floundered a minute in the sea.

For some reason I like that. It's so simple, yet I can see it.