Its been eating at me for years. Who knows the waters better than open water swimmers,Triathletes and anyone who just like to be in them.
Recognize these special places and use donations to promote the sustainability of them and bring about positive change to water resources in general. If a community knows it has a body of water nationally recognized by such a special foundation it would be awsome.
Recognize these special places and use donations to promote the sustainability of them and bring about positive change to water resources in general. . .
I'm not at all clear on the intent and remain dubious that advertising "special places" would do anything but hasten their end as special places, especially if there is an activity, such as swimming, to be done there. More people come, want facilities (toilets, car parks, food vending stands), rangers are assigned, rules and regs are slapped on, and pretty soon there is a 16-y-o kid in a rowboat saying, "You're not allowed to go above your chest. Don't you know where your chest is?" Then hours are posted and you are arrested for unauthorized entry into the water and spend the night in jail on a misdemeanor charge. I've watched the Indiana Dunes-Lake Michigan swimming experience get degraded in exactly this way. And many, many other places.
Backcountry skiers have an ethic of not revealing their lines, their secret stashes. Hikers have an ethic of not posting GPS tracks for a nice bushwhack.
I do believe local folks know about wonderful places to swim. They might not want to talk about them too much. And I'd like to think there are some special places left I will never know about, never see; they will be special for the one or two or three others that occasionally make their way there.
I would support restoring some nice swimming holes that are no longer swimmable, and perhaps turning them into "public special places."
A little longer on the soapbox: I will turn now from the countless semi-wilderness, isolated, overlooked, and quite special areas I have seen turn into Coney Islands in my lifetime, ecosystems destroyed, aesthetic experience canceled, barriers erected, and point to municipalities' insatiable need to raise revenue. What town or county would NOT try to capitalize on anything they could seize on and attach fees to?
In two days I will be officially Old. I am going swimming in a special place, even if I freeze my knickers, and I hope everbody else takes a few minutes to enjoy a special place, or think about one, during the day. Happy October!
Ok , so where should we get started...I'll Commit.
take a survey on best swim spots? publicize them ? Notify the locals? Lets get some people on board...I 'll give it some time on the net ..hell its gonna be winter ,got nothin better to do. Who s in.
I like the idea. There are a lot of organizations that focus on certain water resources. There is Surfrider of course. There are also many other "Riverkeeper"organizations (eg Columbia Riverkeeper, Willamette Riverkeeper, Lake Ontario Keeper, Lke Champlain Lakekeeper etc.) I don;t know if it will ever bring in much money, but that is not the point. It would bring attention to the importance of the resource and give free publicity to the nonprofit organizations that work year round.
I'm not at all clear on the intent and remain dubious that advertising "special places" would do anything but hasten their end as special places, especially if there is an activity, such as swimming, to be done there. More people come, want facilities (toilets, car parks, food vending stands), rangers are assigned, rules and regs are slapped on, and pretty soon there is a 16-y-o kid in a rowboat saying, "You're not allowed to go above your chest. Don't you know where your chest is?" Then hours are posted and you are arrested for unauthorized entry into the water and spend the night in jail on a misdemeanor charge. I've watched the Indiana Dunes-Lake Michigan swimming experience get degraded in exactly this way. And many, many other places.
Backcountry skiers have an ethic of not revealing their lines, their secret stashes. Hikers have an ethic of not posting GPS tracks for a nice bushwhack.
I do believe local folks know about wonderful places to swim. They might not want to talk about them too much. And I'd like to think there are some special places left I will never know about, never see; they will be special for the one or two or three others that occasionally make their way there.
I would support restoring some nice swimming holes that are no longer swimmable, and perhaps turning them into "public special places."
A little longer on the soapbox: I will turn now from the countless semi-wilderness, isolated, overlooked, and quite special areas I have seen turn into Coney Islands in my lifetime, ecosystems destroyed, aesthetic experience canceled, barriers erected, and point to municipalities' insatiable need to raise revenue. What town or county would NOT try to capitalize on anything they could seize on and attach fees to?
In two days I will be officially Old. I am going swimming in a special place, even if I freeze my knickers, and I hope everbody else takes a few minutes to enjoy a special place, or think about one, during the day. Happy October!
Maybe I misunderstood the original post (I don't think so), but I thought the "special places" which were referred to were just those places that are well known in the swimming/triathlon community. I do not think the intent was to refer to what is known in surfing circles as "secret spots". The places referred to are just those places where races are held.
In Portland they started a triathlon where the swimming is done in the Willamette river. There were eye brows raised for that. If you did the race this year and you finished you were awarded/given a frisbee that said "yes I swam in the Willamette". It is just one of the things that people are doing to help people become aware of this important resource.
As for the formal designation of special places and the impact such a designation has on the place, that is a more controversial discussion. However, my opinion is close to yours on that one. There are some places which were designated National Parks (eg. Yosemite, Yellowstone, even Denali where i once lived) and have suffered because everyone learned about it because it is a National Park and they just had to see it. On the other hand, in all likelihood if it hadn't gotten the exposure as a National Park I would not have learned about Yosemite and would never have seen it. Truly , that would have been a loss.
Oh and by the way, I am already old, but as I like to say, not THAT old.
I don't know what is being proposed. The Willamette is a good example of highlighting a resource usable by swimmers that has been discounted and one I would support, although it doesn't strike me as a "special place."
Chefster, can you flesh out what you mean? Do you have an example?
Where do donations come from? What do donors get in return?
Its been eating at me for years. Who knows the waters better than open water swimmers,Triathletes and anyone who just like to be in them.
Recognize these special places and use donations to promote the sustainability of them and bring about positive change to water resources in general. If a community knows it has a body of water nationally recognized by such a special foundation it would be awsome.
First off the previous quote, "If you didn't swallow water in your last race, you weren't racing."gave me my first laugh today. It reminds me of swimming the Hudson last year in the NYC tri. After jumping in the water at the start I realized how bad it was...so I couldn't swim full tilt.
I did accidently get a gulp of the Potomac this year and did not get sick.
Ok ,here is my point. Open water swimmers / Triathletes are more aware of the water situation in this country than most people. I think we should take a responsibility with our knowledge to educate people and preserve what we have left.
As Triathletes we are in better shape than we have to be, therefore produce a larger carbon footprint than necessary...so I think we should give something back. Being an influence to bring an awareness to our waters might be a great way to balance things out. The best swim spots have been there forever, but add a boat launch for jet skis.. and bam..its over..
Many lakes that have a beach...have such a small swim zone , its smothering..tell me we couldn't get this to change.... I mean I look at a paticular lake and see such a small area for the hundred or so people to swim in while a few jet skis with the whole lake to buzz around in encroach the boundries as if to threaten anybody who might venture out...I think there should be two sets of markers....the exsisting ones and then some that run parallel further out for lap swimmers.
Speaking of The big parks..look what snow mobiles were doing to them before people started cracking down......jet skis are to swimmers what snowmobiles are to xc skiers.
we are aware, we get in it,who else is going to do something?
