It takes a SEAL to swim it long ways. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-nav...ire-mississippi-river-for-gold-star-families/
I don't normally go swimming in the lake because they're too far away from me and when I go to them I want to wear a life vest and shoes when I swim in them.
At age 14 I was carried by a rip tide while pulling my sister on a boogie board. We were caught in it bad and I ensured she was secured on the board and I held the cord. We got pulled very far away from land. Still visible- very visible. But I was gassed out and couldn't carry us back to shore. We drifted so far that I could barely see the 'line' of which was land. We just waited and we got rescued by jet skiers. Therefore, I will not be swimming past the surf
An old girlfriend of mine was surfing off Brighton and got swept out to sea on her board. She was out on her own for about 6 hrs before she got rescued. She never surfed again.
Thank you., that is most helpful. My research agrees that being out of sight of land would be most terrifying, even for a good swimmer which is what my protagonist is. OTOH I still have 2 problems. a. What about "Channel Swimmers", and other long-distance types. Don't they go out of sight of land quite frequently? b. If your head is right at the surface don't you lose sight of land every time even a small wave goes by if you're even a little distance out? This is a crucial point, the entire novel sort of hinges on my protagonist being a long-distance swimmer rescued from that situation. (Possibly it's not that good an idea to write a novel about a competitive water-based athlete when you can't swim, but I like challenges.)
A channel swimmer would never do it without a boat. Apart from the obvious safety requirement and needing to know which direction to swim they also need to take on food and water.
All the Cuba to Florida swimmers need a chase boat for hydration and safety. If you’re in salt water burning calories at a fairly high rate, you’re not going to last long without hydration. Jelly fish encounters are also more common than shark incidences. Can really ruin your day to swim into one.
In the U.S. you stay within the sight of land on distance swims. Sharks are rarely a problem, unless you are choosing Central California, but the water is too cold there anyways. If you do a distance, like to Catalina Island, you have a boat with you.
I've seen long distance swimmers in the middle of a large lake, and they were towing bright fluorescent orange plastic floats behind them, apparently for visibility and safety, and I believe these floats also had a compartment in them to be able to store belongings, like car keys, wallet. For very long distance, it's not inconceivable that these floats could have an emergency distress beacon built in. The floats can also help prevent drowning if the swimmer becomes tired out, since they can grab onto it and rest.
You'd have to be a lunatic to swim solo (unsupported) out of sight of land for recreation, or even some sort of sport training. I was a Navy diver way back when, and the "combat swimmers" trained for that sort of stuff, and those guy were absolute lunatics. Those guys not only swam for miles out of sight of land, but they did it underwater, and at NIGHT. I've done some seriously crazy things in the water(ah to be young, dumb, and invincible) but I can't even fathom the level of bravery and insanity that it takes to be a hardcore combat swimmer. There are some good books about the UDT guys who reconned beaches in WWII and Vietnam. That stuff was buzznuts. I'll post some links if I can dig them up. In talking to some of those guys back when, I gathered that sharks aren't really much of a threat, and they were far more scared of jellyfish. I went through a class called "drownproofing" and, thirty years later, I still wake up from time time time in a cold, frantic sweat reliving that in my nightmares. That said, drownproofing was combat swimmer 101, and that was child's play compared to what the combat swimmers went through in the rest of their training. Drownproofing - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Drownproofing Drownproofing is a method for surviving in water disaster scenarios without sinking or drowning ... The US Navy also took interest, and adopted it as part of their standard training. It is claimed that during Lanoue's time teaching at Tech from ... Not comfortable enough in the water? Master the SEAL Drown ... sofrep.com › specialoperations › not-comfortable-enough-in-the-wate... A former BUDS graduate told me once that for candidates going into Naval Special ... Photo: US Navy SEAL candidates conducting a drown proofing test.
Then there's this batsh!t looney toon... Big River Man - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Big_River_Man Big River Man is a 2009 documentary film directed by John Maringouin. It follows the Slovenian long-distance swimmer Martin Strel as he swims the entire 3,300 mile length of the Amazon ...