[oalders]

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.