# Can you REALLY swim? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 25, 2015, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781 "2015-05-25T10:36:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/61 "2015-05-25T22:01:26Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > As long as I can get out of any heavy shoes and other clothes, it wouldn’t be a problem. I’d do most of it on my back. That would be the the type problem that I’m worried about. I can easily swim miles in cold-ish open water, assuming I’m mentally prepared for it. not dealing with any other physical issues, and I’m dressed right (i.e., good swimming conditions) But if I’m tired out there, or am physically exhausted for some reason, or get tangled in my clothes, or injured due to whatever made the boat just sink, or get panicky because my boat just capsized, or something else, I may not make it to shore. Why am I in a boat without a lifejacket? That doesn’t sound like me at all. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/62 "2015-05-25T22:12:34Z")
I’m not in great shape, and haven’t done any swimming to speak of in the last 20+ years. That said, this would be easy. I can float on my back indefinitely, and adding a simple back stroke would get me to shore reasonably quickly. If I was in a hurry for some reason, I could roll over to my side and scissor kick my way to shore. Part of my water survival training from the Air Force involved swimming a similar distance in full flight gear, including boots. The first 10 yards required a crawl stroke, then a few yards with a side stroke, then whatever you wanted to finish. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/63 "2015-05-25T22:41:08Z")
I’ll go with probably. I cramped up once doing a 400m ocean swim for a team triathlon in water I’d class as chilly. I only had 100 or so metres to go, but it took forever and was pretty scary (not to mention embarrassing). I could easily see someone panicking, striking out too fast and getting into serious trouble in this scenario. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/64 "2015-05-25T22:50:08Z")
I’m not a good or efficient swimmer. I don’t see an issue. I’ve been dumped in wearing more than just normal clothing though and been in water much colder than a heated swimming pool. Unless there’s a serious current condition or the water is so cold where speed is a major on survival you have as long as it takes to get to shore. In fact you have the rest of your life to make it. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/65 "2015-05-25T23:03:42Z")
I can swim that distance feet-first. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/66 "2015-05-25T23:05:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > To all those saying you could do it, have you actually tried it? I could do that easily in warm water, but I know for a fact that I couldn’t do it in cold. Back when I was in Boy Scouts, I went on a canoeing trip in Canada, and one of the safety requirements was that we be able to swim 20’ in the river water. It was not freezing, but it was cold enough that it sent my body into panic mode. My panicked flailing sufficed for the required 20’, but there’s no way at all that I’d make it 15 times as far that way. ex-Polar Bear, swimming in Lake Ontario for New Years for something like 10 years =) I would seriously get grumpy at doing it if I didn’t have to, but 300 feet in 50 F or 45 F is quite doable even if I would be bitching mentally all the way. Hot cocoa and a nice fire pit at the shore would be quite welcome =) ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/67 "2015-05-26T00:23:55Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > I’m an old fart but could get to shore easily. In fact if when I got to shore I realized the cooler of beer was still floating where the boat sank I could swim back out to get the cooler and swim it back to shore. Could make it to shore and back to the cooler, likely die after realizing I couldn’t make it back and drink the beer in the middle of the lake ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/68 "2015-05-26T00:30:25Z")
There are worse ways to go. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/69 "2015-05-26T01:06:57Z")
I can’t swim at all. I’m somewhat hydrophobic. I counteract my risk of drowning by avoiding situations where that might happen. I can’t rule them out entirely, though, it may yet happen, but as even very good swimmers drown rather commonly, I don’t see my odds being all that different really. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/70 "2015-05-26T01:22:15Z")
Cold water survival: [INDENT][INDENT]Physical exercise such as swimming causes the body to lose heat at a much faster rate than remaining still in the water. Blood is pumped to the extremities and quickly cooled. Few people can swim a mile in fifty degree water. Should you find yourself in cold water and are not able to get out, you will be faced with a critical choice - to adopt a defensive posture in the water to conserve heat and wait for rescue, or attempt to swim to safety. Should you find yourself in the water, avoid panic. Air trapped in clothing can provide buoyancy as long as you remain still in the water. Swimming or treading water will greatly increase heat loss and can shorten survival time by more than 50%. [/INDENT][/INDENT] Luckily the OP ruled out especially cold water. > **[Cold  Water  Survival - Seo Title](https://ussartf.org/cold_water_survival.htm)** > > Cold Water What is it?  It is difficult even for an expert to define.  It is estimated to be around and under the temperature of 70 degrees.  However, this will vary in each case due to the specific circumstances and physical condition... [http://www.soundingsonline.com/news/mishaps-a-rescues/290028-survival-guide-for-cold-water](http://www.soundingsonline.com/news/mishaps-a-rescues/290028-survival-guide-for-cold-water) Yeah, I think I could swim 100 yards under the OP’s conditions. I might keep my clothing on if I was worried about heat loss. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/71 "2015-05-26T01:30:31Z")
I’m not a strong swimmer; in fact, I rarely swim. But I _can_ swim, and I suspect I could survive the OP’s scenario. I was kind of “late” in learning to swim, despite the fact that I had all sorts of opportunities to learn when I was a kid (I’ve lived almost my entire life on the Columbia River, and swimming lessons were part of my schooling as a child). I was, frankly, terrified of the water. My earliest memories involved dreams of my mother trying to teach me to swim in the worst possible way: holding me in her arms while she swam to the deepest part of our apartment complex’s pool, and then dropping me. In those dreams, I sank straight to the bottom of the pool, and then, in a panic, walked across the bottom of the pool until I could get out. This was a repeated nightmare, and it left me terrified of venturing beyond the shallow part of a pool. My mother has consistently denied ever trying to teach me to swim that way. I finally got an explanation when I was an adult. Apparently, some time before I was 2 years old (so … 1967 or '68), I fell in the pool. As my dad told it, he and my mom were sunbathing next to the pool, and a teenaged girl came up to them and said something like, “Excuse me, but your baby just fell in the pool.” And my heroic dad jumped up, dived in, and pulled me out. Of course, I have no actual memory of that, but it would explain the nightmares, and my irrational fear of the water. I was 12 or 13 before I finally worked up the courage to actually _swim_. And that was only because I had a crush on a girl who was a very strong swimmer, and I was embarrassed by my lack of swimming skill when I bumped into her at the local swimming hole. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/72 "2015-05-26T02:31:38Z")
Sure. More than that. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/73 "2015-05-26T02:35:23Z")
I used to swim a mile every day. (Well, almost every day.) I should me able to swim 1 hundred yards. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/74 "2015-05-26T02:55:14Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Cold water survival: [INDENT][INDENT]Physical exercise such as swimming causes the body to lose heat at a much faster rate than remaining still in the water. Blood is pumped to the extremities and quickly cooled. Few people can swim a mile in fifty degree water. Should you find yourself in cold water and are not able to get out, you will be faced with a critical choice - to adopt a defensive posture in the water to conserve heat and wait for rescue, or attempt to swim to safety. > > Should you find yourself in the water, avoid panic. Air trapped in clothing can provide buoyancy as long as you remain still in the water. Swimming or treading water will greatly increase heat loss and can shorten survival time by more than 50%. [/INDENT][/INDENT] > Luckily the OP ruled out especially cold water. > [Cold  Water  Survival - Seo Title](http://www.ussartf.org/cold_water_survival.htm) > [http://www.soundingsonline.com/news/mishaps-a-rescues/290028-survival-guide-for-cold-water](http://www.soundingsonline.com/news/mishaps-a-rescues/290028-survival-guide-for-cold-water) > > Yeah, I think I could swim 100 yards under the OP’s conditions. I might keep my clothing on if I was worried about heat loss. Most people in this thread are concerned with the distance, but the distance isn’t the key factor here, but rather the temperature of the water. If it’s under 60 degrees (which isn’t unreasonable given that most of Lake Michigan is currently in the 40s), most people would not be able to move their arms and legs in anything resembling a productive way within about five to ten minutes. If they’re swimming slowly, this will not be enough time to make it to shore. If they’re swimming faster, they’ll lose heat faster. Despite any claims to the contrary, most people would be toast. In short, this sort of situation is very, very, very dangerous, and part of why even an Olympic swimmer would be well advised to wear a life vest. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_from\_CB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/278dde/32.png) [@Alex\_from\_CB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_from_CB)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/75 "2015-05-26T02:56:18Z")
I had to …get… a mile in the water prior to doing the water portion of my scuba certification class. Isn’t that a requirement? It was in a big pool. Weren’t allowed to touch the walls. Took forever. An hour or more? Some side stroke, back stroke whatever it took to finish, with no time limit. I was age 39 and my wife age 37. Re cold water…how cold? (Note: CB= Cocoa Beach) Cold water is the central Florida spring’s water temp., 72 degrees. Can’t imagine not being able to travel 100m barring some very cold, debilitating water temp. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/76 "2015-05-26T03:51:33Z")
Yes. Swimming lessons as a child and I’ve kept it up as a hobby. I swim 2-3 times a week currently and have been doing so for years. My lessons were in the morning in an outdoor pool in Ohio so cold water is not unknown to me. Also I am fat and muscular. I float like a goddamn bouy and pull myself through the water quite well. And hopefully it keeps me warm too. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/77 "2015-05-26T03:53:16Z")
> [@Sparky812](#): > > No problem. > Former lifeguard and competitive swimmer. What I’ve lost in speed but I’ve gained in buoyancy!😃 I wasn’t ever a lifeguard (always got higher paying summer jobs!) but was also a competitive swimmer. Pretty sure I could still manage 100 meters in clothing without much trouble at all. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/78 "2015-05-26T04:12:10Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > I think folks are underestimating the difficulty. I don’t think most of us did. When it’s literally swim 300 feet or die, I’m going to make it. As of right now, the temp in Lake Michigan is about 50. My muscles might cramp, I might get tired, but I’m not going to die with 300 feet between me and the shore, assuming I started out with full strength. If I had been up all night drinking on the boat or it was night and I didn’t make a straight path back and turned it into 800 meters or my arms were tired from fishing or it was windy or there was some other challenge, that’s different, but given what the OP stated, I’ll make it, even if it takes all my energy. But like I said above, clothes (at least pants) and shoes have to come off or you’ll spend a good chunk of your energy dragging them along. Hell, if you’re feeling strong enough, you could probably just carry them with you, just don’t try to keep them on, they create a lot of drag, especially your shoes. They act like brakes as they catch the water each time you move forward. Also, another thing, not that this makes a whole lot of difference, but if it’s 300 feet to shore, it very well may be 250-270 feet until you can touch the bottom. I know that doesn’t seem like a lot, but 30 feet takes 10% off the swim. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/79 "2015-05-26T05:28:31Z")
No life jacket, difficult question: can you save your 6 yr old kid as well? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781/80 "2015-05-26T06:29:45Z")
Sure, that’s cold-ish water compared to a swimming pool. The sea here in England never gets very much warmer than that, though, even at the height of summer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-swim/720781.md?page=5)