How safe is swimming in random reservoirs?

Blue algae, cramp, cold water shock, deep currents, giant squid, mermaids,
apart from that it's pretty safe right?

Water authorities get well pissed off at anything other than fishing and those silly little sail boats on their reservoirs. We asked about kayaking and were met with a no

Don't forget the hover-fly larvae burrowing into your anus.

junk on the bottom which could trap you causing drowning
tetanus
diving in and getting a spinal injury
hypothermia
leeches
needles
feces
adders
broken glass
and irritating shrubbery and bugs

Imagine getting sucked into the foel tower intake, or the turbine race? You'd be dead. Scary just thinking about it. Is it the Ladybower res where the water just disappears down a round hole? Eeeeeek!

weils disease (sp?)

Squid?

There's those little worms that swim up your knob.. or is that Africa?

Seriously though, there's some kind of pathogen (can't remember if it's a parasite or bacterium or something) that is transmitted in rats' pee, and if you have any kind of cut or nick on your skin that's not scabbed over it gets into you and does bad stuff.

freshwater octopron snuff-movie 😯

Yeah, joking aside a mate had bad deal with Wiels desease after a triatherlon once. OK maybe not resevoirs, large upland lakes?

I'm kind of thinking mid-north wales, not to many needles around the teifi pools, could be a fair amount of irritating shubbery though!

Watch Lake Placid and then decide 🙂

The biggest danger is you might have a poo and it would block my tap.

And going down the sluices/over the dam.

As a windsurfer I spend lots of time in reservoirs and they're nice.

PS – how can it be proved that anybody drowned from cramp? They're not really able to tell you, are they? I've been in cold water loads and I've never had it (except when arching my feet to place them on top of the board in winter when my waterstarting skills were at an embryonic stage and even then, it soon went away.)

Seriously though, there's some kind of pathogen (can't remember if it's a parasite or bacterium or something) that is transmitted in rats' pee, and if you have any kind of cut or nick on your skin that's not scabbed over it gets into you and does bad stuff.

Wiels diesese. But you can get that in canals and rivers as well.

and if someone does die in one, the res is potentially out of action while they do the investigation….

and yes they are very cold due to the depth, usually have extremely steep sides so once you get in they are very tricky to get out of, no life rings, no ambulance access, no phones (often in the middle of nowhere so mobile signal issues) and big so you risk exhaustion from swimming and not realising how far it is from one side to the other

just dangerous all round. if you want water, go to the beach or the swimming pool

I have swam in dovestones res. Its quite eerie cos you can't see your hand just under the water its that brown! reasonably warm for a res!

drink a can of coke afterwards and you'll be fine – though that won't stop you from drowning

Jeez, what's wrong with your local pool?

its safe until you DROWN ! people drown in resovoirs every year…it looks safe from the shore then they swim to the middle and the current drags them under they get into difficulty and gulp…….

Local pools full of old dears doing widths, just woundered is all, I'm usually riding or walking close to a lake or res, dip my toe in occasionally but don't usually go much further out than wading distance.

Probably dont want you weeing in the water supply

* Cold
* Deep
* Big sucky things that the water goes down. You won't go through a pipe or a turbine, but when your body is pressed against an intake grate by tons of water pressure there's not really much point in hurrying for an ambulance.

I'd stick to rivers and lakes, they're usually fine if you're an okay swimmer, reservoirs tend to kill stupid people…

We used to swim a lot in the lake at Trawsfynnydd which was lovely and warm from cooling the nuclear power station there. That's been decommissioned now so I expect it's a bit cooler.

This short film should answer your questions 🙂

Its the cold that gets you because reservoirs are deep still water, so although they might feel nice and warm as you paddle in they are cold the deeper you go. Unlike the sea which warms up as it passes back over the warmed sand, or rivers which are are running and pass through shallow (warmer) areas, reservoirs stay reasonably constant year round (apart from the top inch or two which will go up or down through the seasons). As told to me from a water board ops bloke.

Oh and mentioned above, if they are drawing down water your **** because of the strong undercurrent. Similar principle if it freezes over, when they draw down there will be an air gap between ice and water.

A teenager drowned recently up our way so all the reservoirs now have massive signs for stupid people who cant read the big signs.

Stay out and swim in rivers or lakes, get the wild swimming book its a great read.

Here endeth the lesson

>Water authorities get well pissed off at anything other than fishing and those silly little sail boats on their reservoirs. We asked about kayaking and were met with a no <

That would be in England then…

Like one of the posters above, I've windsurfed in dozens of reservoirs over the years and not suffered any ill effects. Used to dog off school and go swimming in them too 😉

Assuming you stay well away from inlets / outlets etc it doesnt carry any more risk than swimming in a Loch / Lake and we've all done that haven't we?

A mate of mine drowned in the local reser when we were 17 so I avoid them.

Having said that, I have done a bit of dinghy stuff on resers which involves some (unplanned) swimming.

I was swimming in one last week. Quite a bit of swimming when sailing these :

It was colder than I expected.

I used to do a lot of wandering around in ponds in my old line of work.

The big problem is silt. You can look at the bank, look at the pond / lake bed and it'll appear to be fine. Take a few steps in and you surprisingly often drop straight in up to your waist or chest as the ground underneath you gives way.

Every time you drop into cold water, you involuntarily take a BFO breath, and so it wouldn't be too difficult to envisage a situation where one might drown.

There are clubs that run outdoor swimming sessions. Even if you don't join one, find out where they go and use that location as it's more likely to be safe.

Reservoirs are generally very dodgy for all of the reasons above. But I have swum, kayaked, sailed etc. etc. in many that are perfectly fine. The cost of picking the wrong one is high!

Google wild swimming, there's a whole heap of people that do it. Like mtbing though it's got an associated risk that you need to be aware of.

Where do all these "strong currents" and "undercurrents" in the "deep still water" come from?

Reservoirs tend to start out as small lakes, in valleys, which are fed by a river system and have a dam at one end. They're lakes, and behave as such.

The reason we're kept out of them is usually due to over-cautious landowners and operators with over inflated health & safety concerns and (more likely) angling clubs which have paid extortionate fees to secure the trout fishing rights.

Yeah, but dams drain from the bottom, like a bath – hence Whirlpools Of Doom.

This short film should answer your questions

mental!

Check out this film: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1964to1979/filmpage_vandalism.htm
"Britain's Crap and We're All Doomed" (working title)

I swam across Lake Vyrnwy last year, and it was a lovely swim. We swam across about 80 m back from the dam, it was relatively warm and still and it was great to just swim without turning or worrying about bumping into people.

http://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com

I've been expecting open water swimming to be the next big thing.

Public information films – I've just been inspired to see if I could find one I remember vividly from my childhood and it's on youtube!

I give you Robbie

I've swim in a few man made lakes, and a few natural lakes in alps, Scotland etc. I don't think there's much difference except that reservoirs are more likely to have signs saying no swimming. having said that, several of the big reservoir lakes in Wales, they let swimming happen, and there are also a few in England.

obviously don't swim right near water intakes, or jump in before checking the depth, or go in too quick when the water is cold, same as any other outdoor water you might swim in. be aware of hypothermia, wind, and be realistic about how.far you can swim if you're heading across a lake.

if there really were strong dangerous currents (in flat water lakes?) they wouldn't let people boat on them, and they'd be a whole lot more exciting to boat on.

Wherever you swim outdoors, people will tell you it is too cold, too strong currents, too wide, too deep, too shallow, too narrow or generally too dangerous in some way or other. mostly, people saying this are idiots with no knowledge of swimming, or the water concerned, you can spot these cos they'll warn you about dangerous currents in lakes, or about the water in rivers in summer never getting above 5 degrees c and other bollocks. if you're not sure about a piece of water, find someone who actually swims and ask them.

Joe

Loads of reservoirs around where I live and only a couple allow any sort of sailing etc exactly because they're not safe. Of course the pool is between me and the first reservoir so I've never bothered to work out if that's true (and also I'm not going to gamble as the stake is a bit over the top).

My local reservoir has signs everywhere warning of the dangers, still doesn't stop the local **** from doing as described above when the weather gets hot.

Many trees and buildings etc that were in place when it was flooded are still there. Strangely, they get to be nearer the surface the warmer the weather gets.
There is an underground connection to a local river where they draw water from in times of drought. There are currents and suctions created by that process, which strangely tends to happen most the warmer the weather gets.
As the water level drops the various pollutants and bio hazards become concentrated into much smaller areas, which strangely tends to happen most the warmer the weather gets.

Recently there was talk of closing all leisure activities there due to a couple of deaths of numbskulls who ignored all the warnings.

Why?

It worked on the basis that they figured that because certain sports are allowed in a restricted cleared area, people presume that the signs are to stop them entering the water in places where access is free, rather than for genuine safety reasons. i.e. they're doing it over there, so it must be safe…..

People die in reservoirs. Same as in the sea, and in other places people swim.

When they die or get injured, it is usually because:
a)people swim in deep water, and run out of energy
b)people jump or dive into shallow water and hurt themselves
c)people go into cold water in winter
d)people go into strong currents in rivers or the sea and end up swimming in deep water, running out of energy

all the other stuff, whilst in theory it might be dangerous, in practice is not something to worry too much about, it just clouds people's understanding of what the real dangers of swimming are, and how to swim safely. It is worth worrying about whether you are too cold, and whether you have the energy to swim where you're trying to go – those are the really relevant dangers, and why so often it is teenagers that get into trouble in water – as they have an over inflated idea of how far and well they can swim.

Many of them are pretty boring places to swim mind – there are almost certainly more interesting places near you to swim.

Joe

joemarshall – Member
People die

there, i fixed it for you.

there, i fixed it for you.

Yeah.

Actually I believe that more people die in supervised swimming pools than die swimming in open water too. So be careful down the local pool people.

Joe