I still have the mile swim badges I earned at Scout Camps. I’d make it to the shore.
Strong river currents are the biggest threat. Swimming in a lake is different.
I think folks are underestimating the difficulty.
As a kid, I learned to swim - not racing form, but adequate to get around. As a Boy Scout, we did the requisite jump in a lake wearing clothes, etc. It is a real chore, a lot harder than wearing a swimsuit or running.
Item 2 my experience list, my first year at Scout camp was a very rainy year. The stream we had for a swimming hole was flowing strongly, and we had to pass a swim test going the full length 4 times, which was about the distance described.
I made it, but it was a real chore. Swim upstream against the current, fighting the whole way. Hey to the rope, rest riding the current the other way, but almost immediately at the other end and have to start swimming again. Current is a bitch.
Third data point, I once went swimming in a mountain stream in May in Arkansas. Air temps were low 80s, warm day. There was a rope swing we wanted to try out. I was the daring one who went first, swung or about 10 feet. When I hit the water, it was COLD. I think levitated to shore.
I also one time fell into a frozen pond. I only got wet up just over my knees, my sister and brother both got chest deep. That was almost debilitating. Had to walk a half mile or so, and it was all I could do. Brother had to help sister as she just wanted to sit down.
The point is, cold water will sap you of energy quickly, even moderately cold water. I hate competition pools because they are kept too cold.
Final point of interest, being older and moderately out of shape, when I’ve gone swimming lately, it is exhausting to go the length of the pool, and that is in a swimsuit without current.
Could I do it? Probably, but shucking clothes first, and kicking in on my back.
Yup. From about 1970 to the time I moved to Virginia in 1985 summers I lived at the family cottage from more or less Memorial Day to Labor Day with occasional lapses through the end of September if the weather was warm that year. My Dad and I would start our day with a mile and a half swim across the lake and back [spring fed, the lake itself rarely got warmer than about 50 F other than the sun warmed top layer of maybe 18 inches.] When younger and not working, I would occasionally swim down the shore to visit my cousins before we would go roaming around doing random kid shit. I honestly can not remember not knowing how to swim - I was told that my mom had me swimming around my first summer on earth at about 1 year old. I did end up taking the Red Cross courses all the way up til they ran out of levels. I think my parents just wanted some ‘quality time’ on saturday morning =)
mrAru could do it also, he did competitive swimming in high school [Kerman High in California] freestroke and butterfly. WHen in boot camp they asked if anybody wanted to go for the swimmer qual, he did the speed one butterfly and when offered a shot at BUDS informed the guy he already was tapped for Nuke School <evil grin>
I used to be a WSI (the level that teaches lifeguards) & have a technically good stroke even though I’m not a swimmer per se - never on the swim team. I know how to spot when swimming, both crawl stroke with head up & forward to keep an eye on my ‘victim’ & to breathe to both sides to spot the buoy for your turn, the dock, boat, or land.
I also only swim in the ocean in months with a “U”, June, July, & August, as well as January & February. :eek: Yes, I’m a polar bear, so I am used to being in (very) cold water, too.
I would make it. I might be sore the next day as those aren’t muscles I typically use that much, but to be sore the next day you need to be alive!
Yes, but May and the water would be pretty chilly out here - I could still swim it but it would be uncomfortable and would probably make your breath go WHOOSH! until you were used to it.
I am a strong swimmer and last time I did laps (about three weeks ago) easily did about 500 metres, and I wasn’t working hard (just a post-workout stretch).
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.
Ditto. For a brief time in high school I held the local pool record for the 200m freestyle (my cousin broke it the following year, the bastard). Those days are long behind me, but if I took it easy, 100m would be nothing.
I’ve swam in unheated pools in the (British) winter, and in the sea during late Autumn. Both I would say were cold, but I’ve never had reason to swim in a body of natural fresh water and it hadn’t actually occured to me that it’d be much different.
Just this early April, I swam around 30’ in somewhat cold water near Zion National Park. We were on a canyoneering trip and rappelled down a 50 foot pitch with 45 feet of rope, and plunged the last 5 feet into a pool of cold water. I say “somewhat cold” because while the rest of my family thought it was 50 degrees at the most, I didn’t think it was much colder than springs in Florida which are 68-72. I didn’t feel panic or shock and I could have gone much farther. How telling this is depends on whether my family or myself were more correct about the water temperature.
Now, if the water were close to freezing, that would be another story. I would panic at the feeling of my entire body being immersed in an ice bucket.
Sure. I swam across a local pond at a point where its about 350m across (so 700m in total) on a lark (without any training).
Bearing in mind that you need the self-rescue knowledge to remove your shoes, pants, and any heavy outer clothing. IMHO that’s a larger obstacle to survival than being able to doggie paddle 100m (which anyone who is not nearly dead from cardiac disease and/or in a state of panic should be able to do at their own pace, as swimming is almost the gentlest exercise there is)
Same here. I could still do it at 49
, but I’d be taking my sweet damn time.
Yes, I am sure. I have done both combat swim tests (in full uniform) and grew up in Manitoba, home of thousands of beautifully clear, horribly frigid lakes. It takes a few minutes for your body to relax, and for your lungs to be able to inflate, but as long as you know that will happen, you just need to wait for that to happen.
Once, when cliff-jumping in Lake of the Woods, I jumped into really deep (thus really cold) water. It was funny only because the people still standing on the rocks were calling down to see if I was okay (I had been leery about the jump). I physically couldn’t answer them since I couldn’t inhale right away. I sort of croaked out this bizzare response.
No problem.
Former lifeguard and competitive swimmer. What I’ve lost in speed but I’ve gained in buoyancy!
My mistake. I still think I’d make it.
Yes. I taught swimming, rowing and canoeing for five summers at Scout camp and still can do each pretty well.
No, but I would be so energized by terror that my legs would spin like Road Runner’s and I would zip across the top of water to shore and land without a drop of water still on me.
In my younger days I could do a mile, so maybe up to a 1/4 that for sure.
Yes, easily.
Yup, I swim laps several times a week, so I can’t imagine it would be a problem. But that is done under ideal circumstances. I do have to agree with those who mention the caveats of clothing and super cold water. Both of those impediments would reduce your swimmable distance.
I could not only swim to shore, I could get another person there with me.