ocean vs lake
msathlete
Victoria, British Colubia, CanadaMember
Apologies if this has already been asked and answered. I did a quick search and could not find the answer.
I am often asked by no-swim people what the differences are between swimming in oceans and lakes and am wondering how I might go about answering. Salt and tide are the obvious, but what does that really mean and are there other differences?
Thanks in advance
I am often asked by no-swim people what the differences are between swimming in oceans and lakes and am wondering how I might go about answering. Salt and tide are the obvious, but what does that really mean and are there other differences?
Thanks in advance
Comments
Fresh water is less buoyant. You won't notice any difference for the first couple of hours, then gradually your shoulders will feel increasingly more heavy. Four hours in a lake to me is like six hours in the sea. By the time you are finished your arms & shoulders are like lead. Which makes swims such as @emkhowley's 20 hour Lake Pend Oreille all the more impressive.
loneswimmer.com
These folks might have something to say about that...
http://www.ssefo.com/
To @loneswimmer’s point though, fresh water is less buoyant than the ocean. Also, it’s been said that fresh water feels colder than salt water. I know people have issues with cramping in fresh water that they don’t have in salt water. Also, swallowing a little lake water doesn’t have the nasty effects that swallowing salt water does- no raisin tongue or sore throats to deal with in the lake.
I suppose all of that makes lake swimming more enjoyable, and in the messed up world of marathon swimming, more enjoyable means more boring. I won’t argue with @loneswimmer there! :-D
Also, I only have lakes to train in, so I suppose I better enjoy every moment of it!
It's always a bad hair day when you work at a pool.
Lakes (and rivers!) are great. Usually fewer waves. No salt unless you swim in certain lakes. Some can be warm (my dream swim now is Lake Issyk Kul, which in Kyrgyz means Hot Lake because of the warm springs that feed it. It never freezes, despite the weather here in Central Asia.). Some lakes have creatures you can't see but can make you extremely sick.
So, it really depends upon what you like. And your risk calculation.
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
+ dead flat calm & warmer in the summer time(!)
- if a murky forest lake its boring as hell as there is nothing to look at.
Ocean
+ more action! waves, currents & stuff to look at.
- jellyfish
Salt Water swimming is essentially assisted Fresh Water swimming... Wink Wink ;-)
There are a few SCAR swimmers/crew that may disagree that lakes are boring. @ssthomas, @david_barra, @foreverswim, @jbird, @gregoc, @ned, @neileugene . . . ?
Their advantage though are as @Andiss says temperature and often glorious scenery such as
But the sea? I love the sea. I love that something might eat me, cut me, sting me or freak me out. I love that it's never the same, that it feels alive, that it's dangerous. I love that before every time I set foot in it, I have to check it, to respect it, because its always capable of surprising me. It feels like being held in a hand but one that could turn to a fist. I never need permission to enter it (unlike the depressing US example in the USMS thread) and when I'm in it, despite everything I know about its dangers and lethality, it's the only place I feel "right". I utterly fail to explain what it is, even to myself. It feels like more than the world, it feels like the whole universe. Wind luffing on a sail, swell over a reef, salt in the air, a herring gull's cry.
I have the "sea-longing" and I have it bad. But I've never heard of anyone having "lake-longing"! Maybe because as Conrad said, "the sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness".
loneswimmer.com
I don’t dwell on the differences but revel in the similarities. Oceans and lakes are both wet, swimmable bodies of water. As long as there is a spot where you can step in and hopefully a spot you can step out then I don’t care about the differences.
What lurks below in a salty venue can be spooky and jittery (play "Jaws" theme). My worst problem in fresh water was swimming into the wreck of an old house that was once a farm before the valley was dammed up. Just as many drunk/poor boaters in either type of water. Lakes
I'm scared of creatures, my mind plays tricks on me, sharks, jellyfish, giant squid and lampreys are all out there in the sea. I don't have that worry in lakes.
I'm also very buoyant. My body position seems to be about right in lakes and I feel quite comfortable swimming out there. In the sea though I fear that I could be harpooned one day.....
news.discovery.com/animals/sharks/boy-attacked-by-shark-in-a-lake-140815.htm
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
Except for the context: Lake Pontchartrain isn't strictly a lake -- it's an estuary, a coastal body of brackish water connected by rivers or streams to the open ocean.
That's all I know.
http://animals.pawnation.com/unusual-lake-nicaragua-shark-7782.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-09/great-white-shark-sightings-prompt-lake-council-warnings/5953332
http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/shark-week/bios/freshwater-sharks/
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
Thus far, with the exception of float factor from salt and the impact of tide and how it can help or hinder I have found little difference. Temperatures can be comparable as can waves (depending on fetch).
But then again there is marine life and local dwellers who venture into the water with us. English Bay and the Strait of Georgia offer Gray Whales while Cowichan and Sasamat Lakes offer Cougars, bears and elk
It's always a bad hair day when you work at a pool.
I prefer lake swimming because like Zoe, I've gotten pretty seasick in the ocean. But I don't think I want to give up either.
"While the temperature of Lake Erie is relatively constant, the temperature of Lake Ontario may vary widely depending upon location in the lake and the wind directions in the preceding days. Environment Canada notes:
Northwest winds after the passage of a cold front can quickly push the surface water on Lake Ontario towards the southeast shore and bring much colder water from deeper layers to the surface along the northwest (Toronto) shore.
This effect can result in a surface temperature of 22°C dropping to 10°C in a matter of hours, with the resulting effect that Lake Ontario water at Niagara-on-the-Lake is 22°C and water up to 5 km from Toronto is 10°C."
Last year, a swimmer attempting Lake Ontario along the traditional route made it 47.5km across the lake (holding 3.2km/hr) before abandoning due to 48°F water. She had just 3.5 km to go. :-( Sounds like a source of non-boring swim drama to me! :-)
I don't think many bodies of water in the world can drop their water temperature 12°C (22°F) in mere hours. Lake Ontario can be a brutal swim. Why aren't more of you masochists going after it? ;-)
It's always a bad hair day when you work at a pool.
It's always a bad hair day when you work at a pool.