My condolences to the family.
I'm not trying to imply that the extra-cold water this year contributed to this particular death. However, I think the race directors should have their heads examined for staging this race in MARCH!
I swim year-round at Aquatic Park, as do many of my fellow members at the South End Rowing Club. Not speaking for my club here, but I know a few things:
1. Feb. 9 is the median coldest swim-temp day of the year. This year's race was placed only 3 weeks after this date.
2. This year, the winter swimming temps have been just slightly colder than usual. If you got 51 degrees at the race, that was lucky. It's been 49-50.
3. WIND peaks in the spring, between early March and end of May. Big-sea conditions are what you get about every other day.
4. TIDES are the least predictable in the spring. Often they are stronger than usual. Timing can be off what the tide tables say, by more than an hour. There can be maddening eddies near the shoreline. This makes it challenging even for highly experienced swim directors to instruct swimmers as to what they should sight on.
5. This combination of difficult conditions - temps, wind, and tides - subside like clockwork every year, by June 1. The Escape is usually in June. Temps by then are between 57-62, and persist at 57-62 till late October.
In other words, Sunday's swim conditions were no anomaly. Entirely predictable.
Lifeguards I spoke to said they pulled more people from this swim than from any Escape in memory, and that the swimmers were terrified.
Summer water temps persist through October, and wind (and wind-driven waves) are minimal in the fall. The race directors moved the date to avoid conflicts with the summer America's Cup races. Why did they not move the Escape to October?
I have completed 10 swims from Alcatraz - the first was at the 2006 Escape, the other 9 have been with my swim club. I almost never do Alcatraz swims between January 1 and April 30; conditions are not to my liking. (That said, many people do - but they are no novices.)
My congratulations to everyone who jumped in that water on Sunday!
- Oleander
I'm not trying to imply that the extra-cold water this year contributed to this particular death. However, I think the race directors should have their heads examined for staging this race in MARCH!
I swim year-round at Aquatic Park, as do many of my fellow members at the South End Rowing Club. Not speaking for my club here, but I know a few things:
1. Feb. 9 is the median coldest swim-temp day of the year. This year's race was placed only 3 weeks after this date.
2. This year, the winter swimming temps have been just slightly colder than usual. If you got 51 degrees at the race, that was lucky. It's been 49-50.
3. WIND peaks in the spring, between early March and end of May. Big-sea conditions are what you get about every other day.
4. TIDES are the least predictable in the spring. Often they are stronger than usual. Timing can be off what the tide tables say, by more than an hour. There can be maddening eddies near the shoreline. This makes it challenging even for highly experienced swim directors to instruct swimmers as to what they should sight on.
5. This combination of difficult conditions - temps, wind, and tides - subside like clockwork every year, by June 1. The Escape is usually in June. Temps by then are between 57-62, and persist at 57-62 till late October.
In other words, Sunday's swim conditions were no anomaly. Entirely predictable.
Lifeguards I spoke to said they pulled more people from this swim than from any Escape in memory, and that the swimmers were terrified.
Summer water temps persist through October, and wind (and wind-driven waves) are minimal in the fall. The race directors moved the date to avoid conflicts with the summer America's Cup races. Why did they not move the Escape to October?
I have completed 10 swims from Alcatraz - the first was at the 2006 Escape, the other 9 have been with my swim club. I almost never do Alcatraz swims between January 1 and April 30; conditions are not to my liking. (That said, many people do - but they are no novices.)
My congratulations to everyone who jumped in that water on Sunday!
- Oleander