The open water discussion has been a little boring lately so time to add some controversy. The above quote was affixed to a plaque my swimmers gave me when I retired as Head Coach of the University of Denver Masters Swim Team. Yes, they knew where I stood on the subject. Others share my view. In my day job as a stock broker I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal “Wimp or Triathlete, You Probably Like That New Wetsuit" by Kevin Helliker, published on September 24, 1999. In it were several memorable quotes on the subject. "How pathetic, says Betsy Brennan a Lake Michigan swimmer" "When I see people in wetsuits, I think: wimp." Another Chicagoan Ted Erikson, who did a double crossing of the English Channel without a wetsuit, said on the increasingly use of wetsuit by swimmers in Lake Michigan. "I ask them, 'Why don't you just get a boat? Boats have heaters.”:D
Now, now now. All drownings are preventable. Abstinance is a 100% effective method to stop drownings. Medical emergencies create a situation where rescues are improbable.
Where were the lifeguards?
I did chuckle at the waterwings analogy. You must know my brother.
Stopping a meet due to adverse conditions is a very difficult decison, but sometimes necessary. If there isn't adequate safety personel to monitor the contestants, then as a meet director you have failed.
A Drowning is unaceptable. Where were the lifeguards?
I certainly understand race directors decisions (I am an ER doctor and get the fact we do things based on the lowest common denominator--i.e. ordering way too many tests assuming the person is too dumb to followup with his own doctor or canceling swims based on the fact that the worst swimmer out there has no idea that he sucks and will do anything so he can tell his friends he is an ironman).
Drownings are bad but I wouldn't call them "unacceptable." I am not sure when life got where it had to be perfectly safe and sterile (don't get me started on malpractice lawyers). Bad things happen and it does not necessarily have to be somebody's fault. If I choose to race in a lake that happens to be contaminated with Naegleria and I die of meningitis, the race director is not necessarily responsible. Personal responsibility has disappeared from the current fault-finding modern society. Sorry for the rant but this subject makes me apoplexic.
I know Ironman events have really changed their safety policy since that episode. I still submit someone can slip under even with the closest of safety monitoring. I just hope if I bump my head against another competitor and slip to the depths of the toxic waste dump known as Tempe Town Lake, my wife takes the life insurance money and moves to the Virgin Islands with a 19 year old cabana boy named Pedro (rather than calling Goldberg and Osborn law firm and extracting cash out of a poor race director).
Alas, the days of "manning up" are gone.
Doctor,
Please don't have a CVA on my account.
If conditions were such that,
"all the kayakers were tipped over from the wind and swells and were...well, too busy trying to save themselves. "
then the meet organizers and safety crew were seriously lacking. This event should have been cancled. Perhaps profit or egos of the event organizers took precedent over thier responsibility to the contestants. Maybe safety crews are not needed, people just need to man up.
Wait, I know, waterwings are the solution.
I think lifeguards and kayaks are supposed to be there for EMERGENCIES, not for stupidity. I personally would never have gone out in those conditions because I know i am not experienced enough with those conditions to be able to handle them. if i went out in such conditions i certainly wouldn't EXPECT a lifeguard to save my life.
i'm 52 yrs old. this summer i trained in lake michigan for an alcatraz swim. i wore a wetsuit and swam 3-4 miles a shot in a wetsuit in 59 degree waters in late may early june. i wore the wetsuit for warmth (along with the thermal cap). hell i was damn proud of myself and i sure in hell wasn't floating for 4 miles in those choppy waters, at least my arms and body didn't feel like i was floating! i'm a simple guy, and the wetsuit gizmo, is a little out of my sphere, but it kept me from turning blue and purple in lake michigan and prevented sudden cardiac arrest! those were great lake michigan swims. that's what it is all about for me.
