Open water accidents you've experienced?

I am not sure mine are accidents, but more likely experiences. 1) My first open water race, a 10 K, in Fort Collins CO. My son and wife are my kayakers. They are feeding me along the way. I see the kayak getting too close to me so I dive under it, so as not to be run over by it. A little further down the way, my son hits me with the paddle. My wife then whacks my son with her paddle. My family has been liken to the three stooges. We have a tandem kayak so we can have these family adventures. 2) First open water race in the ocean the 24 mile Tampa Bay swim. At mile 1 the power boat is there to feed me. I had paid the owner $300.00 to guide me on this adventure, plus taking him and his friend to dinner. I was sure this was a good investment. At mile 2, no power boat, just the 16 year old kid in a kayak who has my feeds with him. He is concerned since he has seen the power boat leave us. I am not and tell me we are okay, the power boat will be back. At mile 3, 16 year old kid, calls mom on cell phone to tell her the news. She gets on the phone to the race director. At mile 4, still no power boat, just he and I in the Bay. I am not worried, I just swim. 16 year old is worried, calls mom again. She states that the boat has left the area and run for who knows were. At mile 5, 16 year old still sees no power boat anywhere. He is concerned. At this point in the race I am 4th in the race of 30 people. Still along way to go and my feeds are in the power boat that has left the area for who knows where. At mile 6, last of the feeds are consumed. I am not somewhat concerned, but continue to swim. At mile 7 race director catches us and tells me that I have to swim to the pier at the almost nine mile mark and get out since I have no power boat. I am very disappointed, but feel it is better to be safe than sorry. After swimming for 4 hours and 14 minutes, I put to shore. Others had done the same since it was so rough, but I was the only one to be told I had to get out. Mother of the 16 year old kayaker told me later that evening that by being calm I kept her son calm. I was glad he was calm. I had no other choice. I knew I could swim a very long time. 3) Catalina crossing - jellyfish stings and something nibbling on my feet. I would swim across kelp beds and something would nibble on my feet. I thought it was a shark and quickly turned around ready to hit the shark on the nose as a last effort. What I found out is was likely a cleaning fish, checking my feet for dirt and other items. The jelly fish stings, were mild. 4) English Channel attempt - Again, jellyfish stings, but there is sunscreen that helps protect against jellyfish stings. It is SafeSea. I had less jellyfish stings in this attempt since I put a great deal of it on me. After 14 hours of trying to swim the English Channel and only being 3080 meters from France I quit. I could not get either arm out of the water. It took two weeks before I could lift my left arm above my head. 5) 2008 La Jolla Rough Water Swim. Hitting and kicking like it was a fight for dear life. I had two large bruises on my thigh and lower leg, plus an scrape were someone's timing chip went across my left thigh. In all of the miles I have swam these items are it. I believe if I added it up all that I have raced or done solo it would be close to 100 miles in the open water. :)

I am not much of a land animal. I can barely walk, without help, and running is out of the question, but if anyone gets in arms reach, watch out.

Leonard, doggone it, you never told me all that stuff before my five-miler! :afraid: Sorry, but the habit of lying to women in a futile bid to get them to do what I want is too deeply ingrained to stop. It's pure reflex by now. Besides, if you take the number of incidents and divide it by the number of races I've done, it gives you a relatively small ratio. If you also factor in how utterly fearless (a.k.a. stupid) I am, the fact that I've survived this long practically guarantees that you'll never have a serious problem. Two more incidents I remembered (these are Swimmy's favorites): 10) During an Atlantic City ocean race, getting a jellyfish sting that was so bad it had me bleeding into the water. (Here sharky, sharky, sharky.) 11) At the end of the first hour of the MIMS race, accidentally running arm/head first into a huge stinging jellyfish. It felt like most of my body was on fire. The Court Without Appeal said that my screams could be heard a mile away. Much of my body was numb/burning for the next 1.5-2 hours and I couldn't taste my Accelerade for a bit longer than that. (Yes, I took some stings in the mouth.) -LBJ

Speaking of which... Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water: www.adn.com/.../864687.html -LBJ

Sorry, but the habit of lying to women in a futile bid to get them to do what I want is too deeply ingrained to stop. It's pure reflex by now. Besides, if you take the number of incidents and divide it by the number of races I've done, it gives you a relatively small ratio. If you also factor in how utterly fearless (a.k.a. stupid) I am, the fact that I've survived this long practically guarantees that you'll never have a serious problem. Two more incidents I remembered (these are Swimmy's favorites): 10) During an Atlantic City ocean race, getting a jellyfish sting that was so bad it had me bleeding into the water. (Here sharky, sharky, sharky.) 11) At the end of the first hour of the MIMS race, accidentally running arm/head first into a huge stinging jellyfish. It felt like most of my body was on fire. The Court Without Appeal said that my screams could be heard a mile away. Much of my body was numb/burning for the next 1.5-2 hours and I couldn't taste my Accelerade for a bit longer than that. (Yes, I took some stings in the mouth.) -LBJ damn lbj, watch out for those lingering pieces of skylab.

:rofl: Thanks for sharing these exciting stories--they really made me laugh. There you are, Animal = sharks, lions,...! And you do seem to be both a land animal and a sea animal :D

Well, I would guess having a tree limb falling on you is much more bearable than being swallowed whole and alive by a shark! Take a look at that picture again and imagine stroking straight into that mouth (I would not dare to close my eyes swimming in OW). Well, true dat--tree branches tend not to be carnivorous and don't have teeth. And at least in my neighborhood, there's a definite dearth of mountain lions and other large land animals with designs on having me for lunch... although about 20 years or so ago, a cougar was sighted by several people within Philly's city limits.... And weren't Land Sharks documented on Saturday Night Live? :D LBJ sounds like a very lucky guy, narrowly escaping each would-be accident! :) Leonard, doggone it, you never told me all that stuff before my five-miler! :afraid:

But I reasoned to myself, things can happen anywhere--a tree limb can fall on me while walking down a street. Well, I would guess having a tree limb falling on you is much more bearable than being swallowed whole and alive by a shark! Take a look at that picture again and imagine stroking straight into that mouth (I would not dare to close my eyes swimming in OW). LBJ sounds like a very lucky guy, narrowly escaping each would-be accident! :)

From what I read that gunk is in the Arctic, does anyone have plans to swim in that ocean? If so, can I watch?:)

Speaking of which... Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water: www.adn.com/.../864687.html -LBJ Gunk that eats jellyfish? At first I was thinking "this could be quite useful to swimmers." But the bird remains are somewhat more troubling. Watch for headlines in the Weekly World News.