For several years my wife and I have taken vacations on Anna Maria Island in Florida. The last couple of years I’ve taken a cloth tail for use in ocean swims. The Gulf is usually quite calm, and swimming is easy and relaxing.
This year a strong, persistent on-shore wind turned the ocean into a choppy mess. I tried swimming anyway, and found it quite demanding, getting me out of breath rapidly. The first day I went out three times, trying to figure out how to handle the water, only to return to shore in a few minutes. It was not that the waves were high (just a foot or two), it’s that they hit you once every three seconds, and would suddenly peak and break on top of you. Floating on my back was not possible without getting a face full of water. Even with that, the swimming seemed much harder than it should, and I spent quite a bit of time just standing, catching my breath. Even standing was hard, due to the chop.
In later days I tried again, and tried with a boogie board. (That failed, until I took off the tail. Then I had no issue, and even got some short rides.) On a couple of days, I did not try at all.
On the last day I planned on wearing the cloth tail, I decided to try swimming one last time. I went in through the shore break and got to where the waves were not breaking. Farther out, there was a break on a sand bar. I turned vertical to stand, and found the water was too deep to touch the bottom. That was unusual, as all other times I had gone past the shore break the water was no more than chest deep.
No issue, I’ve treaded water with a tail for many minutes at a time. Except this time, something seemed wrong with my fin. It was much harder work than in the past, and I was getting ever more out of breath. I started backing in toward shore (I did not want to turn by back on the ocean), to little effect. The shore was not getting closer, and I was getting more out of breath. I realized I was in trouble.
Was I in a rip current? I had not seen any in the previous days, and the water around me did not have the foam or sand a rip pulls out from the shore. Also, looking into shore it did not look like I was going out, although I was farther out than I expected. I could see that the current was carrying me along shore to my right (looking in.)
I decided to swim diagonally in and to the right, to get farther away from any rip that might be there. I went slowly, trying to minimize effort. Maybe a minute later my fin touched bottom. A few seconds later, I could stand in the wave troughs.
At that point I could brace against the current during the trough, and jump when a crest came by, letting it carry me farther in. Once the water got waist deep I de-tailed. I got both feet out of the fin, one leg out of the skin, then a wave twisted the skin about the other leg.
I slowly shuffled my way in, dragging the twisted-up tail with my right leg. Once on shore I took off the tail and looked it over. The monofin had broken almost all the way from one side to the other, with just an inch or two holding it together. The neoprene sock was also holding it together, and that gave me a little propulsion.
In retrospect, I think I was in a rip. When I looked toward shore to try and figure out what was happening and what to do, there was foamy water to my left. I think I had already reached the outer limit of the rip, and the current was moving me off to the side. Also, rips dig channels, and that may be why I found myself suddenly, unexpectedly, in deep water. By swimming to the right, I had gotten farther away from it, and helped make sure I would not be dragged back into it.
Other notes:
Over the years, I have lost two wedding rings to the sea while treading water. Because of that, I was clenching my left hand to prevent the loss of a third. A silly action that just helped tire me out faster. I should have left it home (which I have done on past swims), or let the sea have it.
I had thought about taking off the tail earlier, but I was so out of breath, and the water was so choppy, I was not sure I could. Also, it did seem to be working a little. Given what happened when I did take it off, I’m glad I did not try earlier.
At no time did my head go under water, except when I purposely ducked under a wave. I was never very far out, certainly less than 100 feet from shore, and maybe 40 feet from where I could stand. Even so, this was the only time in my life I felt I was in danger while swimming in the ocean. It can take so little.
I think swimming on the previous days was harder than I expected because my fin was close to breaking. It was excessively floppy, reducing its propulsion. Inspect your equipment before swimming!
The tail I was using consisted of a FinFun skin and a home-made fin that used the FinFun insert. To it I had added a reinforcing plate under my feet and a strap to better hold my feet to the fin. I had also heated and bent the fin, making it an angled monofin. My modifications created a high stress area that led to the failure.
Choppy waves. Deep water. Rip current. Broken monofin. No one watching me. Don’t do it.
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Originally Posted by Echidna
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