Yes, there are some notoriuos mires on Dartmoor. Plus the Hound of the Baskervilles!
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Oh very much so. But these types were honestly expecting lightly rolling, groomed hard pack paths etc.
I had one runner’s support team having a go at me up in Exmoor for there not being any phone signal so he couldn’t contact or track his runner properly. Like properly ripping in. Luckily I’d only just started my shift so tolerance was pretty high.
These people are out there!
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Yes, I would have enjoyed paddling out through that Cork ‘surf’ only wishing it lasted a bit longer!
Sadly deaths in triathlon swims happen across all distances for whatever reasons and most of the time it’s down to some athlete problem and not the conditions. So far this season there have been deaths at London Tri (2 I think) and Swansea Tri in relatively calm conditions and I’ve competed at other events when there have been deaths in the swim in calm conditions (London sometime in the mid-00s and IM Florida in 2007). And I know of a swim death for someone who didn’t declare in advance they were epileptic and had a fit in the swim and drowned.
I think on this thread there has been far too much speculation as to what happened in Ireland without knowing the facts and we should just let the inquests come to their conclusion before pointing fingers at anyone - organisers, safety crew or officials. I know one of the TOs who was at the Cork event pretty well and have thought about contacting them but I’m sure they will feel pretty raw about matters at the mo so have not done so.
For everyone’s sake, please let this matter lie for the time being.
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Even I’m not slow enough to still be up there at night but never say never. 
Awful that two people lost their lives.
But to a degree the organisers are damned if they do and damned if they don’t, there is usually just as much criticism if they cancel a swim when people think it looks OK
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Lake placid, most of it has a line under the water!
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That far apart???
Try Outlaw where there are lane ropes 
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There are of course consequences to both options…but one is far greater than the other…
However, the organiser has a responsibility to provide sufficient water safety for the event. If they take money from novices they need to provision for novices…
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can’t believe i’ve never seen this suggested before 
and A Flashing lantern on the main turn sw1m buoys?
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I’m a sh1t sw1mmer but just got on with it, and it was mass lunacy type 1 fun. I’d be a bit more circumspect after this tho, thinking about others.
I dunno if this sounds quite right, but maybe this will INCREASE the appeal of IM!
It’s not easy, and isn’t sposed to be?
It will defo increase the safety, as folks will actually prepare for the sw1m better from now!!
Floating an idea: Mandatory sea sw1m camps for those who cannot prove previous race experience?
A bit like before the first Wales IM and they had a practice sw1m a month or two in advance.
(nb. Side story, that was in the South bay by the Prison Island. (more exposed, but a closer (normal) distance to Transition. It was carnage due to the currents etc. A whisper I heard was that the sw1m safety team refused to sanction it for Race Day. Along came a Storm on race eves. The sw1m was hastily moved to the more sheltered North Bay harbour as an ‘emergency’ measure. The T0.5 custom made boards to hang your transition run shoes magically appeared overnight, and the rest is history, a legend is born, as the NBay is a perfect amphitheatre for an IM Sw1m.
i.e. the Storm gave the organisers the excuse to have an unusually long run to T1. And the sw1m was Always going to be in the more sheltered N Bay harbour. So I dunno what would have happened if there had been no storm to make this ‘emergency’ 
decision easier. . . .
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that was the first Long Course Weekend. the currents on that swim which led to loads of DNFs (I didn’t make Lap 2 - just seemed to stay in one spot due to the current!) were mostly down to tidal flow due to the start time. IF they’d had the swim there on race day, it would have been on a slack tide so no currents of note.
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I’ve missed all this. Was told today by GF 2 deaths in IM cork - presumably in the swim. What were the conditions like?
Personally, I love a choppy sea swim.
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In 2015 at LCW, the first turn buoy had a malfunction and ended up bouncing along and with the current on the 2nd lap, it was just getting further away and when we finally got round it, there was a lot more distance to swim against the current to the LB station.
That was a nightmare swim, just through tiredness, rather than conditions.
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I did catch another video of the conditions. Entry looks pretty rough!
https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/15wbyud/footage_from_this_morning_of_the_sea_conditions/
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That looks … challenging.
Should it have gone ahead… 2 deaths same race same discipline. That’s not just bad luck is it
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Where the crazy wales footage when it looked they the waves were running away from the swimmers it was so wild. Looked like the swimmers were running more along the beach than getting started swimming
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That was the first year at Wales wasn’t it? They didn’t have the immediate left turn buoy that they do now and loads just ran (read cheated) down the beach.
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Thanks for that.
That breaker looks a bit rough but it just looks pretty rolling after that.
Admittedly a short video and yeah, I wasn’t there
I love swims like that though
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That was the one people were pushed 100m off course swimming between two buoys because of the current (i was told a rip but doubt it was a rip tide) , loads fished out trying to swim against it.
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