Man dies at Escape from Alcatraz swim

Are there really currents in the bay? A huge volume of water flows in and out of the Golden Gate twice a day, every day. At peak ebb or flow, it's far faster than any human can swim. Any Bay swim is planned entirely around the tide table. So to hold this race at all, they need a weekend day when the tide will be slack or just starting to move between 6 and 8 am. That consideration is surely far more important than a few degrees' fluctuation in water temperature. In windy weather the Bay can be really choppy too. That problem could happen any time of year. Big enough chop should cancel the swim, but if they held the event only in glassy water they would not hold it ever.

A huge volume of water flows in and out of the Golden Gate twice a day, every day. At peak ebb or flow, it's far faster than any human can swim. Any Bay swim is planned entirely around the tide table. So to hold this race at all, they need a weekend day when the tide will be slack or just starting to move between 6 and 8 am. That consideration is surely far more important than a few degrees' fluctuation in water temperature. Also, in the Alcatraz race that I did, we were given advice about the best route to follow if you were at all concerned about missing the entrance to the finish area, and I don't recall it being a problem for anyone. I'd be surprised if the majority of people who were removed were removed for that reason.

I have been told that they retrieved three times the usual number of swimmers from the water. Which I am sure had nothing whatsover to do with water temperature. You do know that there are currents in the bay. My guess would be that the majority of participants pulled probably missed the finish.... I train with swimmers that routinely train in water well into the 30's. Its not rocket science, its adaptation. .... same at the other extreme. I have no desire to race in water over 80 degrees, but if I had entered such an event, I wouldn't let race day be my first exposure to that condition.

Here is some information which was posted by Stuart McDougal as a comment to the post I made on my FB page: "Some more info on this. The swimmer did not die within a minute after the jump - I thought that just didn't sound right, especially with all the kayaks and watercraft within yards of the jump. Turns out another mostly distressed swimmer, resorting to breaststroke found him face down 1/2 mile into the swim. Turned him over and he was blue. Waved over kayak's and tried to admin cpr. Motorcraft arrived, loaded him on boat and continued cpr, but was already too late. The swimmer that found him and tried to resuscitate was one from our Disney Tri Team."

You do know that there are currents in the bay. My guess would be that the majority of participants pulled probably missed the finish.... I train with swimmers that routinely train in water well into the 30's. Its not rocket science, its adaptation. .... same at the other extreme. I have no desire to race in water over 80 degrees, but if I had entered such an event, I wouldn't let race day be my first exposure to that condition. You're right, it's not rocket science. It's human physiology. The point is that the water temperature very likely did contribute to the man's death. To argue that it didn't is absurd. Are there really currents in the bay?

You're right, it's not rocket science. It's human physiology. The point is that the water temperature very likely did contribute to the man's death. To argue that it didn't is absurd. Are there really currents in the bay? Not to get all semantic, but I'll agree that not being prepared for swimming in water that temperature did possibly contribute to this man's death... so... you still have a load of tri deaths that you can't possibly attribute to water temps: www.nytimes.com/.../swimmers-death-casts-shadow-on-ironman-triathlon.html www.nytimes.com/.../man-dies-during-new-york-city-triathlon.html and this from USAT: The five-member Medical Review Panel, consisting of three physicians and two race directors, reviewed data from 2003 through 2011 to identify patterns and possible strategies for preventing deaths in triathlon. During that time, 43 athlete fatalities were recorded during a race event, of which 5 were considered “traumatic,” caused by injuries from a cycling crash; of the remaining 38 deaths, 30 occurred during the swim, three took place during the bike, three during the run and two after the completion of the race. A 2010 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association stated triathlons are twice as deadly as marathons. With an overall rate of one death per 76,000 participants, the USAT study deemed triathlon’s fatality rate to be similar fatality rate to United States marathons (1 in 75,000). Perhaps they should relocate the "Escape From Alcatraz" triathlon to Cancun?

Wait, current and chop?

The year I did it they instructed people to aim torward a specific structure in the city based on their speed. I underestimated my speed and ended up finishing by swimming with the fast tidal current. (I was swimming alone because I didn't trust the mob). I think easily over a 100 people overestimated their ability and missed the get out point and had to run back along the water on the beach. Running along the beach is not the same as needing to getting pulled out... and currents don't explain why there were three times as many people pulled out in this swim as compared to previous swims, unless they misread the tide charts.

As of the time of this posting, the event is not scheduled for 2013 due to the $1,000 insurance bill from USMS for USMS sanction/insurance coverage. We are a small LMSC with limited resources and the event is a small event (approx. 50 swimmers for the past three years each year). Mermaid, that's a shame about your race. We were lucky in that the club host had sufficient reserves to absorb the additional fee this year for the two OW events they normally do, and the LMSC can cover the cost for a third OW event that might apply for a sanction if they can work out the other (non-fee related) changes with regard to sanction. In the OW Sanction FAQ, early on they have this Q/A: Q2: We host a small (80 - 100) open water swim each year. The increase in sanction fee may cause us to permanently cancel this event if we cannot get some grant relief on the $1000 sanction fee. When will we know this is available and how do we apply? A2: The USMS Open Water Committee will be responsible for the administration of the grant relief program if it is approved by the USMS Finance Committee. The grant relief program will be available to LMSCs and not events. Have you looked into this grant to see if your LMSC can apply?

Did a swim from the GG bridge to Aquatic Park with E=H2O and 8 others. We were riding the flood. 9 made it through the opening in the breakwater, one had to be towed... thats a 10% current thwart ratio That's a different swim...