Thank you for sharing. I wasn't aware these existed and am already looking at getting one. As others in the discussion have noted, it doesn't a lot of depth or distance for bad things to happen.
They're handy to have. I think most of them are technically not life saving devices, but you can use them for a bit of extra flotation if you need them. They're handy to rest your head on if you're taking a break and hopefully they make you more visible to other traffic on the water. If you're swimming with buddies it helps them to see where you are at in the water, especially if you're farther apart or if the water isn't flat.
I'll sometimes swim with a group at sunrise. We swim out about 750m from shore. Having the buoys helps us see where the other swimmers are at and ensure that everyone is safe. Also, if the swimmers ahead of you have good lines and they're sighting on the same thing as you are, you can be a bit lazy and just follow their buoys instead of having to pick out a landmark on the horizon.
You can even put an LED inside of some of them to get a bit of extra visibility depending on conditions. Lots of options!
Yeesh, this for some reason invokes a likely unreasonable bit of fear in me. I completely understand sucking it up and getting over things if money is involved (like working on a crab boat in the Bering Sea), but that far out for leisure activity spooks me.
I was always a pretty good swimmer and had my lifeguard license for a bit as a teen through boyscouts activities. I've always been aware of risks of open water and riptides and how to deal with them... for as long as I can remember.
However, a few years back now at Blacks Beach in La Jolla (reputation of the best yet most dangerous surf in California AFAIK), in a normal beachspot I'd spent a lot of time around away from the surf, I mind bogglingly got hit by an outlier of a wave out of nowhere in otherwise calm waters, close to shore. I had prescription glasses on with no safety, stupid, but I'd had no plans of being in anything higher than my low waist, and only for a short while.
Glasses got knocked off (I'm really near sighted without + severe static vision), wave brought me down under to the sand, and I was pulled out by the most insane force. I'm a mechanical engineer, so well aware of the sheer insanity of the forces involved with bodies of water and currents, but it was just an unreal and out of nowhere rip.
Got myself quickly situated and calm but internally scared as all fuck, was pulled out probably 1.5 miles by the time I swam out of the rip. Swimming back in was hell because I was mostly physically exerted from hiking already.
Nobody noticed what had happened and there wasn't a damn thing anybody could've really done about it either.
Not too sure why I felt the need to write this out... but stay safe. I can only want to get my swimming done in a pool at this point, unless I'm around highly competent lifeguards with boats and rescue equipment (I'm sure there's a chance you are perhaps around boats when doing this?). Just so much that can go wrong so fast.
Oh, that sounds terrible. I'm glad your story has a happy ending.
I should have added that we swim on Lake Ontario and it's usually pretty flat, so no rogue waves or riptide. We don't have any support boats for this swim, but I do swim with a couple of other groups that have more safety measures. On Saturdays there's an excellent group nearby that has kayaks and SUPs to help make sure everyone is safe: https://lostswimming.com/ A couple of folks who come out to swim have crossed the English Channel and done all sorts of longer swims, so you can learn a lot from them. People keep tabs on each other and try to make sure nobody is swimming alone. If I'm being really slow, people wait for me to catch up.
Over here we have to watch out for jet skis, so that's one reason to swim at sunrise -- we get out before the boat traffic gets heavy. Another issue is water temperature. You have to recognize early signs of hypothermia so that you don't get caught out far from shore and find yourself in a bad way. Basically you need to head back to shore before your decision making gets impaired to the point that you're not going to make good choices. Or just know how long you can generally handle being in the water at certain temperatures. If it's too cold for me, I stick close to shore.
So, based on that, it's always good to swim with a buddy, get out if you're shivering, etc.
I totally understand sticking to the pool. I had a mechanical problem on my road bike last summer and it ejected me (softly) onto someone's front lawn out in the country. It could have been much worse if I had hit asphalt or another rider. It took me almost a year before I got back onto a road bike that wasn't in my garage.
I'll sometimes swim with a group at sunrise. We swim out about 750m from shore. Having the buoys helps us see where the other swimmers are at and ensure that everyone is safe. Also, if the swimmers ahead of you have good lines and they're sighting on the same thing as you are, you can be a bit lazy and just follow their buoys instead of having to pick out a landmark on the horizon.
You can even put an LED inside of some of them to get a bit of extra visibility depending on conditions. Lots of options!