Hey folks.
I summer in the Maritimes and love to open water swim in the ocean. The only problem is that this time of year the waters are inundated with jellyfish that sting. The sting hurts and turns exposed body parts (face, hands, and feet) into swollen hamburger over a one hour period of swimming. Moreover, the things just creep me out.
Does anybody have any tips as to how to swim amongst such chaos and not get clobbered.
Go to the pool!
Here in New Zealand we have jellyfish too (apparently with the global warming that ISN’T happening according to the denial-ist right wing, they are expanding their territory around the world)
We have several types. Blue bottles that are a small inflated blue bubble/sack (say 50mm across) with snot like globs hanging below them. They are incredibly painful. We also have some that are about 100-150mm across, Hard-ish clear discs with reddish brown stars on top. From what I’ve seen they don’t have tenticle things. We also have what appear to be Man’o War type, about 300-400mm across, clear, with a pulsating edge, with lots of long tenticles hanging down a metre or more.
the blue bottles often get washed up on the beach. I’ve been lucky enough to not get stung by them, but they are painful.
I did get stung in the face by a clear one with the brown star, when body surfing into the beach one time. Luckily I had goggles on. It felt like I’d been smashed in the face with a baseball bat, but with a thousand pins on it! Far out it hurt. I couldn’t contemplate anything except making the boo-boo go away! It was all encompassing pain. Bizarrely, it was that pain that is sorta numb at the same time it is killer painful. That lasted for about 5 hours, then tapered off. After 3-4 days my cheek was still numb, like the dentist had his evil way with a needle.
I haven’t hit of heard of anyone around here getting hit bu the man-o war ones. They are so big, and kinda dirty, so they are relatively easy to spot, as long as you watch where you are going.
Several years ago in Vietnam, a girl on the boat we were on, grazed up against one and was in tear inducing, screaming pain for about 8 hours. The marks on her body and legs looked like she’d been whipped savagely!
If your variety are stinging, go to the pool for your workout. It is NO fun getting stung by a jellyfish. If they are harmless and just gross, either HTFU or go to the pool 
According to legend here, peeing on the affected area helps quite a bit. Seriously. I’ve never had to do it or seen it done, but even a little bit of help is worth trying it. Make sure all your swim buddies are well hydrated before your swim, just in case.
I suspect our Aussie friends will know more. Jellyfish (including the box jellyfish) are one of the 100 things in Australia that are out to kill you! I remember watching a doco about box jellyfish and while we all thought they just floated around in the currents, it actually showed that they ‘hunt’ by travelling up and down particular beaches where the food is good. Scary to see. (yeat another reason to NOT live in Australia
Wear a wetsuit and hope for the best.
It’s shit I know
Maybe try a lycra suit. Not nearly as hot as a wetsuit but the cover to the wrists and ankles. In Australia they refer to them as “Stinger Suits” so they must do an OK job of protecting.
Yeah just another thing in the water which has it in for you…
I am one of those Aussies living on the Gold Coast and racing up the east coast to Cairns… so everything here tries to kill you…
Long story short wet suit and swim cap… even when its warm… and keep a bottle of apple cider vinegar if you are really paranoid…
I have been stung thankfully I had my suit on and it “only” got my foot… still hurt like a mo fo…
I can see if someone got stung all over their body in choppy conditions how it could easily end badly… another eason to wear the wetty I guess…
The life savers station had vinegar and put it on… turned down the pain but didn’t get rid of it…
Best advice if its crawling with em swim elsewhere…
While a swim cap, goggles and wetsuit are all good suggestions, given that your face is the first thing to go through the water, and most likely exposed, not really too much that can be done unless you swim in a gimp mask with the mouth hole zipper closed! (and that’s kinda counterproductive .
Based on my N=1 experience with a jellyfish in the face, all I can say is “GO TO THE POOL”
I intentionally swam with sharks a few years ago in Tahiti. The guys on the boat were throwing in huge chuncks of fish into the water all around us, and the sharks were going nuts for the food. While they left us tourists alone (bumping into us from time to time) it was an EPIC fun thing to do.
I would intentionally swim with sharks again. I respect them but don’t fear them. Jellyfish? FK THAT! I just don’t go in the water with them anymore. There’s just no upside to swimming with jellyfish.
If you’re dead set on being amongst those nasty creatures, they do make a silicon jellyfish proof mask. Diana Nyad wore one on her swim from Cuba to Florida: http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/03/tech/innovation/diana-nyad-face-mask/
Her’s was custom, but I’m pretty sure they make them available on the mass market. If I remember correctly, she had swelling of the lips due to the mask to the point where it was difficult to talk, but she was also wearing it for hours and hours.