DANGERS
By Rob Fryer [Rob is the author of Rob's Directory of Cool Places - A wild swimmers guide to watering holes]
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On TV you may have seen Tarzan types taking high dives into pools below waterfalls. They never film Tarzan checking the depth of water beforehand, because it would spoil his image, but I bet the TV Health & Safety officer makes sure this is done. Anyway is foolhardiness really a good image? Check the depth before jumping or yet alone diving in. The water may only be as deep for as far as you can see. Every year lots of people dive into shallow water and break their neck. You don't run the same risk by jumping in feet first. Better still, walk in and check the depth first, if you must jump or dive.
Beware of swimming below weirs as the surface water often runs back upstream (the "Back tow") thus trapping the swimmer under the fall of water. This is usually only true of large weirs where there is a strong flow of water running over it. Look at the surface of the water to find out if this is the case. Give large weirs a miss anyway - just the force of the water is dangerous.
Never get into the box of a box weir, you may never get out. Look out especially for a new type of weir called the anti scour weir. This has a sloping downstream side with a lip at the bottom. it rotates horizontally with tremendous force. It is almost impossible to escape from this vortex. The canoeists are pleading with the Environment Agency to stop building any more of these. Lets hope they succeed. On the other hand, some small conventional weirs create very good plunge pools below them, and many of the swims listed here are just that.
Many undercurrents are not apparent from the surface. I've heard some horrific stories about undercurrents. All you can do is to make certain that you follow a local swimmer. If your legs do get caught in an undercurrent, you will need to raise them up, so that your whole body is in the surface layer of water. Swimming faster or perhaps backstroke may achieve this.
Flowing water eats away at anything in its path, slowly maybe, but then rivers have time, all the time in the world. The scouring action of rivers will undercut earth or rock wherever it chooses. Undercut earth will soon collapse, but large areas of rock can be undercut creating underwater chambers. Cliffs banks can be undercut, but a greater risk is usually found in narrow gorges. Here the current is more likely to be strong, if not in dry seasons, certainly in wet seasons. A faster current can undercut the banks more quickly and of course it can more easily drag you to your doom in some underwater chasm. Examples of such dangers can be found at The Strid, Randolph's Leap & Le Sautadet. Rather disturbingly the latter was until recently a popular swimming place. This proves that the "Follow the locals" rule is not infallible.
Weirs & waterfalls can be undercut, and the force of the water can be very powerful in these places. An example of an undercut weir can be found at Pwll Cored on the Afon Mellte.
Beware of swimming downstream of a reservoir. When the sluices are opened, often without warning, the river may rise very quickly, and the water temperature drop, just as quickly.
Weeds can trap you. Weeds need sunlight which usually means fairly shallow water. If it is shallow & you can stand up, then you can walk out of trouble. However, weeds will flow into a deep hole in a shallow river. I have experienced this myself! Luckily I was pulled out by Harry, my Newfoundland dog. Margaret Cluett says you can escape by keeping your legs still & doing breast stroke arms only. Swimming downstream may be a better way to disentangle. Grahame has had no trouble with weeds when swimming down the Dorset Stour. He was using a snorkel so he could pilot his route.
There is a quarry near Poole, used by the marines, where many people have drowned. The top 6ft or so is clear of weeds, and in the middle there is a pontoon, which you can swim out to. However if you do so, and then dive deeply off it, you get entangled in a dense mass of weeds growing at the bottom. Nasty. Fear & panic must play a part, as you must surely move forward when you swim, even if ever so slightly.
Cold shock is a risk, especially to those unaccustomed to cold water. You can just pass into
unconsciousness, as I have witnessed, & drown (luckily we pulled him out). Enter by the
shallows first. If you insist on jumping in, it is a good idea to hold your nose. Cold water
rushing up your nose can be another cause of cold shock. I am told that the Royal Navy, recommends that sailors jumping off sinking battleships should hold their noses.
For a river you could try this. Walk into the river up to waist high. Duck to your shoulders and come out for 2 minutes. Then return for a swim. This method gives your blood time to start racing round your body.
Better still, accustom your body to the cold before the swimming season. If you swim or shower in cold water for about 2 weeks you will become accustomed to it. Alison, a nutritionist, says this is because your fat turns into brown fat, and brown fat keeps you warm. It also gives you a better figure, so she says.
If, after swimming, you are cold, the best way to get warm again is to take a short run. Shivering under a towel is a waste of time. Even sitting in a car with the heater on does little.
Watch your children. Clear shallow pools are the safest for children. If the water isn't clear it'll be difficult to find them if they go under. Can they get swept downstream? Safest to find a pool which is very shallow downstream.
Cramp: You either swim within your depth, or with buoyancy (perhaps a wet suit might do.), or with a lifesaving friend, or you drown.
Pike. You can get a good bite from a pike. Roger Deakin describes (in Waterlog) how Stephen Rees got bitten while waving his arm in a fast current in the Cherwell. (His arm may have looked like a fish.) Mary tells me that a woman got a foot bitten by a pike in Highgate Pond. She was standing on the bank, near a tree, (the roots of which could have been the pike's haunt), waggling her foot in the water. In both these instances the victims had unwittingly been simulating the movements of a fish. They both survived.
Fish hooks & rubbish are hazards. Obviously there is a risk from sharp objects in rubbish. Arthur tells a chilling story of the time he got his hand hooked in two places by a large bait hook. This was in the Thames at Oxford. The hook was among debris that had been washed down river.
Whirlpools are the last place you'd want to swim. If you get caught in one of these vortices you'll get dragged down, usually to the bottom. I can't offer any advice about how to save yourself, but at least I can tell you what you will experience if you do get sucked into one. Kikutu, a Japanese fisherman fell into one in the Naruto Straits, but luckily, very very luckily, he got thrown out before he drowned. He says that his arms were forced up above his head, and that his ears popped as he went down. Nice to know how it could be. He was in the sea where most of the big whirlpools are, but there are still whirlpools in some of our rivers. You may just get whirled down to the river bed and then released to come up again, or you may just stay down and drown.
Boats, especially powered craft can approach quickly & quietly and run you down. Snorkelling puts you at greater risk of being run down. The boat may not see you, and you may not see or hear the boat. A lookout from the shore might be helpful.
Lastly you should consider the risks created by unusual or unforseen circumstances or combinations of circumstances. Many accidents happen when your luck runs out and unusual circumstances coincide, appearing to work against you.
Bridge jumping. I've heard of people breaking their legs or back by jumping from a bridge into shallow water, or smashing themselves on the deck of a boat passing under a bridge. Check out the depth of the river before you jump. Don't jump from above a bridge pier as the river is likely to be shallower there. It should (but may not) be deeper below the centre of the arches. You might expect that all rope swings would swish you safely into deep water, but this is not always the case. Wear shoes the first time. Some swings only take you to shallow water, while for others you need a good full swing to reach deep water. The problem is that any Tom, Dick or Harry can tie a rope to a tree. Regulations may pervade our everyday life, but not rope swings. No authority has as yet thought fit to issue a set of regulations to cover them. Well not quite, you've usually got to be very good at tree climbing or rope throwing or both. If you happen to be a rope swing erector, please do not take this comment as derogatory.