What's Your Biggest Open Water Fear? Ask the Community Series

Open water swimming is not an activity without risk. At Odyssey Open Water Swimming, we have swim support available at every swim to paddle along swimmers and ensure a safe crossing. However, not everyone who swims in the open has access to or uses supports.

We recently asked you — the open water swimming community — what you’re most afraid of when swimming in the open for our “Ask the Community” blog series. You showed up and we received over a dozen great responses. Here are the answers we received:

Facebook 

  • “Stupid boats coming into the swim area and hitting us. Seriously, we have some idiots getting so close to shore where we swim sometimes. Speeding too. “Harbor is in the other side of the jetty !” 😠 -- Jeany H. 

    • “When swimming near Coronado Island and Corona Del Mar it's the same problem.” -- Chad M.

  • “Jelly fish.” -- Denise L.

  • “Boats and sharks.” -- Alayna K.

  • “Always seals lol.” -- Aaron Walz

    • Swimming in the SF Bay shark attacks don’t really happen, here in Hawaii it happens often.” -- Melissa P. 

  • “🦈🦈🦈” -- Amanda Campbell

  • “When I start swimming, my heart will rise and my arms and legs want to go follow up and cramping.” -- Claudio H. 

  • “Seal lions, sharks, jelly fish...🦈🐙🐟😱” -- Bianca B.

  • “That I’ll be in trouble when I get home 😊.” -- Charlie E.

  • “That I won’t get to do it again.” -- Chad M.

  • “Jelly fish.” -- Lisa D. 

  • “Sharks (if I’m in the ocean up here), boats if I’m in lakes, and cramps.” -- Lily T. 

  • “Sharks 🦈” -- Briana O.

  • “Cramping and drowning.” -- Renee T. J. 

Instagram 

Boating Close to Swimmers.jpg

  • “Not seeing the bottom kind of freaks me out and makes me panic. Muddy or ditry water where you can’t see.” -- @swimmerguy76

  • “Very low to essentially zero visibility.” -- @cblythe1

  • “Sharks. Sounds irrational, but once you’ve seen them out there, it’s a little harder (for me at any rate) to jump back in. My parents live in Santa Cruz and I spent a lot of my childhood ther, I’ve seen a couple of Great Whites. Although I’ve done the Santa Cruz Triathlon a couple of times and I always get my best swim times ever🤣 Bc I keep looking for eyes looking back at me bahaha.” -- @tri_mama

  • “Hypothermia.” -- @drkimbarose 

  • “Seriously. I fear sharks in oceans. In lakes, I am totally fearless I don’t understand myself.” -- @anastasiaruns 

  • “Having a heart attack in super cold water! It’s so important to listen to your body.” -- @towsongrad

  • “Swimming alone when hypothermia is going to take place.” -- @sandraf_b_ows

  • “Calves cramping.” -- @ta_butch_oy

  • “The current suddenly shifting and coming at my left side. I can’t breathe bilaterally when swimming; I’ve tried to learn to breathe to the right numerous times but it just doesn’t stick.” -- @jddelacruz

  • “Sharks. That’s it.” -- @cgt_tyr

  • “A sudden decrease in the water temperature as a result of a ‘pocket’ of cold water. Or, the moment you touch ‘something foreign’ in the water…..

    • “Yes! The moment when you touch something...agree.” -- @thesidewalkskier

  • “We have warm of the sea and nice panorama but some of our rivers still wild which the crocodile life there.” -- @slamet.setiyono.106

  • “Cold water shock/cramps.” -- @aidandow 

  • “Only sharks.” -- @laurenmiller6398

  • “Sharks.” -- @tribine 

Rustin Rassoli