If put on a fortune cookie it would say: Strive to Inspire, rather than fail for an example
I wasn’t intending to post specific cases, but this particular one truly SUCKED…
Respect for the intent of the good samaritan and condolences to his family.
sing
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Yike. I wonder if there’ll be a follow-up story on the recovery of the good Samaritan. Sad.
The worst story I was ever party to happened during April about a decade ago on a small local lake–I will not list the who/where of the incident, out of respect to surviving family who still reside in the area…So don’t ask me any questions about what I’m about to relate. But in a nutshell,
it went down like this:
-Guy retired.
-Guy bought a canoe the next day.
-Guy and his wife decide to go out on lake in the State Park, almost immediately after purchase of the new boat.
-At the lake, nobody else is around.
-Parking lot was closed with clear signage and a wood barricade.
-Couple move barricade to park vehicle anyway…It’s sunny, air temp in the high 60s
-Out on the lake, wife wears a PFD.
-Husband goes without one.
-They capsize on flatwater, apparently not used to paddling/ the new canoe.
-Husband was reportedly a good swimmer, gets hypothermic, goes into cardia arrest.
-Wife screams for help while afloat. She sruggles, but manages to swim to shore.
-No phone, no nobody until a couple hikers coming off a nearby mountain trail hear her cries for help.
-Husband submerged, vanished.
-Body was recovered sometime later.
Suffice it to say, it was one of the worst incidents for a force of local volunteer first responders to happen upon.
Tell everyone you know. Cold water can kill.
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And the fox says, “Fresh fish kept chilled on ice? Pour moi?
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Lake Tahoe. Recently a linebacker on U of Nevada football from Hawaii a skilled waterman, goes paddle boarding in the summer with some friends. The wind comes up like it does almost every afternoon. No lifejacket. They find lifeless body days later.
Lake Tahoe. A County Sheriff finishes his summer shift patrolling the lake in a power boat. He steps off the power boat onto a tender to go ashore. Wind driven waves make him lose his balance and he goes over the side. No lifejacket and he drowns in 8 feet of water while on duty. Other officer could not retrieve him in time. An example of cold water reflex and inhaling water.
These are summer tragedies. In the spring it is much worse.
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A lot of these cases make me think of eckilson’s comment to “just focus on swimming skills”. I read that more than 50% of Americans can’t pass a basic swim test where the two tough parts are swimming 25 meters and getting out of a pool without a ladder. And 80% of Americans think they are better swimmers than they really are.
The Lake Michigan beaches near me are the reason that Lake Michigan always has the most annual deaths of any Great Lake by far. It’s just because the beaches are accessible to a lot of people (like the 10 million in Chicagoland) and the lake just takes the weak and unaware.
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Don’t think I ever said to “Just focus on swimming skills”? If you are out on the water I’d say the ability to swim should be a given. I’d say to focus on:
1 - wearing your PFD - nothing else matters if you can’t keep your head above water
2 - wear appropriate cold water gear
3 - paddle at your skill level
4 - paddle in a group, or if you are alone adjust the trip accordingly.
Swimming isn’t easy. I’ve had some relatively short swims that had me huffing and puffing when I finally got myself to shore.
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!!!
From Idaho,
there’s a ghostly rustle.
Spiratoose Papa,
has grab ahold Mike Bussell!
To Have and Have Not?
I’d say what’s had here’s wicked style,
with The Old Man and I see,
melted Snows of to kill a man Rhode Isle.
Everyone is a bad swimmer in cold water.
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I apologize for misquoting you.
“Most” are bad swimmers in cold water, unless one is year-round, open water swimmer.
Saw this person making good speed down the beach break this AM, about 50 yards out, parallel to shore. S/he had already covered about .5 mile, knowing where the open water swimmers usually start out from. Just wetsuit and no orange safety buoy the swimmers usually tow behind them.
sing
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Swimming skills are not much use in cold water. Swim failure in cold water can begin in as few as 10 minutes.
An excerpt from a story in the Washington Post:
"On March 6, 1968, when nine Marines set out across the Potomac near Quantico, Va., in a 25-foot “war canoe.” In the most notorious disaster in small-boating annals hereabouts, the Marines capsized 100 yards from shore after almost completing the crossing.
The water was relatively calm but still winter-cold at 36 degrees; the Marines wore sweat suits and no life preservers. All were strong swimmers, having trained two months as water survival fitness instructors. But nary a one made it to shore. They all died."
I suspect that any one of these Marines were far better swimmers than almost anyone on these forums. If they were wearing PFDs it’s possible that some of them might have survived if anyone saw them in time. Death from hypothermia can take time, often over an hour.
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Yes! Cold water can be deadly for sure! Man I’d feel lucky to get 10 minutes of functionality fully immersed in cold water. And if the gasp reflex plays a big part you may not have one minute. I just think a lot of common paddling scenarios are close to shore so when you hear about someone falling into a calm lake or falling off a dinghy in shallow water and drowning it makes me wonder whether the victim could even swim.
Lots of stuff online about cold water swimming clubs and health benefits. Seems like another thing that can be improved with practice.
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I try to avoid swimming in cold water (but have had to on more than several occaisons), but I don’t avoid being exposed to cold water. As most here know, I go out year round and get hit with cold water constantly. I have never had a “gasp reflex” because I presumably have gotten used to cold water. I always include some rolling, sculling and bracing practice whenever I go out, year-round, to get my face and head used to cold water immersion (the rest of my body is in a wetsuit!).
Still, I don’t count on swimming and being accustomed to cold water. Except for occaisons in summer surfing, I almost always have a PFD or flotation device on. Even in warmer water, on bigger waves days, the smashing, pushing and pulling of breaking waves and rip currents can take a toll on one’s stamina.
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I’ve never had the “gasp reflex” either.
I think the distinguishing characteristic between those of us who go all year round and prepare/acclimate for possible cold water immersion, is leagues away from those caught totally under dressed, unprepared/under skilled.
I’ve always ever used a drysuit only on frosty freshwater; and I’ve only ever used wetsuit on salt water. Never the opposite. (Don’t ask me why, I just do.) And it’s also almost a ritual with me, that even before hitting the water to launch, I scoop up a good helmet–full of even the coldest H2O to dump over the top of my head…Much to the amazement of some partners that have been along–I’ve been asked, “What the hell are you doing?” I tell them I like to get both the sweat out of my eyes in advance; as well as “the shock of recognition,” out of the way first.
Most of this thread does not take into account there’s a vast difference between the involuntary frozen “plunge” and a sustained/continuous icy swim.
It’s been said, one can get used to anything…
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I took another swim today - third swim in three trips (I think my new drysuit is a jinx). I dumped going over a pour-over into a hole at the top of a long rapid. I grabbed my boat tried to push it to shore, but let it go when I got a look at what was downstream and focused in getting myself to shore. Rivers around here are now in the mid 40’s. No gasp reflex, but I was a little embarrassed 
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If yer not embarrassed, you’re not trying hard enough!
I remember like 15 years ago, I swam three times on the New Boston, blowing my roll at each attempt. Daggermatt and TommyT, I think,we’re both in attendance–It was a helluva way to meet other Pnet paddlers for the first time…I was in tip-top shape the weekend before in my very familiar home Class Three stretches. And the killer was, two of my swims occured while simply eddying-out after coming off chump-sized squirrely sets. The bigger drops/chutes along the stretch, I took without a hitch! But things did improve for me the very next day(it was an overnight)during the second run. Dramatic actors have to first learn their new lines properly when presented with a new script, I guess.
Anyway, long as we live to tell…and laugh!
Define cold water please.
I’ve had a few swims at New Boston with Daggermat myself. That is a run where you worry about the big stuff, but the little stuff can get you too. I try to remember the run like this - 13 years ago with Daggermat, so around that timeframe…
Knowing the lines and not paddling into stuff that you shouldn’t paddle into helps a lot. Trouble is that means that sometimes you need to learn the hard way. 
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