Swim death at Alcatraz

Water temp was reported in the low 50's.  Don't know about any other wind or weather factors.

Very sad.  RIP.

That's sad. 

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=9014338

According to the report he may have suffered a massive heart attack on entering the water.

Terrbile news. 

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/local/man-dies-during-swim-escape-alcatraz-triathlon/nWf54/

Oh, wow.  I had absolutely no idea that happened.  I will admit I was thinking about it while we were waiting on the boat.  You hear so many stories about swim deaths at events with a MUCH less "shocking" entry than this one.  I mean, for all intents and purposes it's a time trial start (vs mass start).  But the whole jump off the boat and "Zero to GO NOW" it's rather crazy.  I was thinking it was weird that you don't see more swim deaths at Alcatraz.

Anyway, very sad.

I do think the conditions were rough out there today.  Definitely rougher than when I did the race in 2009.  It was 8 degrees colder AND there were big swells (2-3 feet with white caps) slamming you in the face the whole swim.  One of the rougher OWS's I've done.  I wouldn't have been surprised if there were a lot of repos on the swim.

Apparently they pulled triple the number of people out of the water than they usually do....

Article.

Yet, the race organizers say the change to the earlier date and the colder water had nothing to do with it........

The two previous times I've done it in June the water was 54 and 55 respectively and the weather was never in the 70s during the race.  It was 50s when I finished.

I'm surprised this hasn't happened at Alcatraz before, simply because you go from standing on a warm boat to jumping into frigid water, and a lot of the athletes don't get into the water before the race.  It is quite shocking and seems like the "perfect storm" for a cardiac event.

My heart goes out to the family!

Andi

Obviously that's not the case because otherwise this would've (likely) happened before.  I have a severe mitral valve prolapse with regurgitation and I rarely get heart flutters when swimming EXCEPT at Alcatraz.  I have them during the entire swim.

Andi

1.5 miles...however they are reporting it happened once he hit the water

I think this says a ton:

I know the Bay water doesn't get warm ever but it's pretty f'n stupid having a race in San Fran at the beginning of March.  51 degree water with the current they had yesterday.  No thanks!

The TriCal event in August (although it's on hold until 2014) is a much better date.

This is really horrible, my condolences to his family and may he rest in peace.

I have to say, when I saw they moved this race to March my initial reaction was "wow, that is NOT going to be fun at all."  I tried the lottery in the past, but this year I decided not to because of this reason.  That swim is always rough and difficult (from what I'm told), but I thought it would be much worse in March.

Granted, it's been 20+ years since I went through the training for it, but my somewhat foggy memory of what I was taught in Navy Rescue Swimmer School says otherwise.  Cold Shock Response CAN cause cardiac arrest.  I've no idea what sorts of predispositions someone may need to have to experience it, but it CAN happen.

Conflict with the Americas Cup

Anything CAN happen.  But if you have a heart attack the moment you hit the water and it happens to be due to Cold Shock Response, that is the fault of the person, not the race.  The water temperature was within a couple of degrees of when the race is normally run.

Once again, this is a tragedy, but if the athlete failed to do their due diligence by practicing in cold water, how is that the fault of the race?  or, if this was a 1 our of 1,000,000 chance, then it's also not the fault of the race.

Each person has a choice to jump off that ferry (which is quite the rush btw).  So to blame the conditions without blaming the athlete is disingenuous at best.