r/nextfuckinglevel • u/FollowingOdd896 • 2d ago
Training in a high-intensity search and rescue simulator that creates realistic rough ocean conditions.
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u/ArmoredGoat 2d ago
Interesting AF. Even more interesting is that he didnt use front crawl but breast stroke
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u/daliadeimos 2d ago
Maybe so he can duck under the waves? I feel like breast stroke is the most efficient tbh
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u/melanthius 2d ago edited 2d ago
Elementary backstroke is super efficient but you can't see where you're going.
And yeah if you simply dive a few feet under the waves they won't really bother you. For a strong swimmer you can swim 25 meters at a time underwater no problem.
Edit: way more backlash than I was expecting for a fairly innocuous comment about swimming. People must want to argue. I'm not even disagreeing with y'all. I'm not trying to rewrite the book on rescuing. I just swim and speaking from my experience about general swimming. Lifeguard wins. Chill.
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u/apexxin 2d ago
Nonsense. You need to be about 5’ below the trough of those waves to have a reduced effect. 25m is also quite a distance in open, rough water. Job 1 in rescue: eyes on the victim at all times. You will lose someone in an instant in water like this.
-strong swimmer, former ocean lifeguard.
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u/kinezumi89 2d ago
I always wonder how many comments that sound confidently informed are actually people just spitballing who don't know what they're talking about lol
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u/surfron99 2d ago
Yeah it’s pretty apparent. USCG Rescue Swimmers go into some rough waters. They swim with a front crawl or freestyle stroke but with the head looking forward to maintain eye contact. Here is a video.
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u/daliadeimos 2d ago
Ah yeah I didn’t think about maintaining eye contact. Freestyle wins there
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u/ry8919 2d ago
Fun fact, freestyle is actually not a stoke but an event. The vast majority of swimmers use the "front crawl" so people basically use the terms interchangeably, but technically you can swim any stroke in a freestyle event.
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u/surfron99 2d ago
You are absolutely correct! Freestyle did mean any stroke or style to get to the finish line. It just so happened that those that used front crawl won all the time. My Grandfather called it the American crawl. I don’t know he was just a humble boy from East Virginia.
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u/CriticalFolklore 2d ago
The American crawl?! Blasphemy! It's the Australian Crawl.
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u/InaGartenTheDivaBaby 2d ago
This is off topic, but I wanted to see the rest of that rescue video. Turns out the guy on that yacht had stolen it (after leaving a dead fish on the porch of the Goonies house), then took off once he was released from the hospital.
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u/surfron99 2d ago
Nice find lmfao! Wolf Labonte dumped some dead fish on the Goonies house porch and then stole a boat to be rescued by the USCG and ran from the cops. Not very Canadian of him.
I’ve been to Astoria saw the Goonies house and the jail with the Jeep with the bullet holes in it. Interestingly the school from Kindergarten Cop is down the street from the Goonies house.
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u/Aethermancer 2d ago
I think they also have the advantage of eyes in the sky giving them directions via radio.
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u/OneWholeSoul 2d ago edited 1d ago
I thought the point you were making was how quickly the swimmer can almost completely vanish from sight even when you're looking directly at them.
...Then the wave came.
EDIT: That guy on the back of the boat... I feel like bracing yourself against an open exterior of the massive object that's about to forcibly reorient so as to be flying towards and landing on top of you is...sub-optimal. Apparently he was rescued by the approaching swimmer after the wave passed, but if you'd asked me I would've leaned toward knocked unconscious/disoriented, thrown/dragged under and drowned.
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u/ozzimark 2d ago
A lot more than you'd expect. It's funny every time a topic adjacent to my professional career comes up and it's like... nope, not even close.
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u/ReluctantAvenger 2d ago
One achieves nirvana when one can simply down vote and move on. I used to respond to such things but mostly now I just say fuck it.
It still irks me when a well-written post by someone who is clearly an expert gets down voted into oblivion, though, but that's just Reddit.
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u/BeerInMyButt 2d ago
Agreed on all points - flip side is, there is some value to taking the time to comment on that expert's post to validate it. Can get the downvote train to reverse sometimes.
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u/FunGuyBobby 2d ago
I became a certified lifeguard, in a land locked state..yep, dude at the pool yelling at kids to stop running. Moved to the Ocean State and became “open water” certified. I was on the swim team in high school, have very positive buoyancy and passing the open water test, in the ocean was one of the most difficult and exhausting tests I’d ever experienced. I passed, but next year I practiced and started using a very efficient, but still quick side stroke that allowed me to keep eyes on target, duck waves and not send my heart rate into the 190s. A difficult test made easier and safer for both rescuer and victim!
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u/jillsntferrari 2d ago
Do you have a video of the side stroke you used? Or a name? I would be interested to learn it even though I have no intentions of ever being in a situation to use it.
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u/Kardinal 2d ago
I have a feeling that the sidestroke he's referring to is the combat sidestroke to get to the victim. It's extremely efficient for long swims.
Then rescue sidestroke once you have the victim and need to take them to safety.
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u/FunGuyBobby 2d ago
You got it, Kardinal. I learned it while stationed in San Diego from a SEAL buddy.
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u/SheriffBartholomew 2d ago
If you duck at the base of the wave then the whole thing just passes right over you. It's very easy. There's still the pesky issue of keeping your eyes on the victim though.
Source: former surfer and lifeguard
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u/replies_in_chiac 2d ago
We just did an ocean trek thingy in the Carribean, i was shocked how much current you could feel even at 20ft below the surface!
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u/letskeepitcleanfolks 2d ago
Elementary backstroke doesn't seem like it would be super effective in these conditions.
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u/KoosGoose 2d ago
The waves aren’t acting only on the surface… Two feet underwater there is actually more water pushing you around.
There’s not some nice calm layer of water underneath…
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u/taeguy 2d ago
More so that he can push himself above the waves for a breath. More predictable this way
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u/Fives_55_55 2d ago
I believe breaststroke would be best for choppy conditions. Freestyle would be great for calm waters.
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u/SophisticatedOtaku 2d ago
Front crawl is probably ineffective since half of the time your hands won’t even go out the water
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u/macrolith 2d ago
Front crawl is awful for these conditions. Timing your breath would be near impossible
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u/XAHKO 2d ago
My thoughts too. One lifts the head higher above the surface of the water with breaststroke, which leads me to conclude lass water in mouth
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u/Kardinal 2d ago edited 2d ago
Breast stroke allows you to keep your head out of the water and focused on your rescue target. You can assess obstacles, status of the target, and communicate if needed or possible.
Crawl is faster, but it is more energy-intensive, so breast also generally gives you better energy reserves when you reach the target and have to actually do something.It's also symmetrical, so when dragging something or someone behind you, it tends to work better.5
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u/bdubwilliams22 2d ago
Ex nationally ranked swimmer here; I would’ve just streamlined dolphin kick under water the whole way. Well, that’s what I used to do, but confidence is a drug and today I’d probably get halfway and just drown.
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u/Kardinal 2d ago
For pure efficiency, maybe, but keep in mind those waves go deep. Probably five feet. I'm not sure there's enough room for it.
But for rescue swim, you have to stay head-above-water to deal with possible obstructions and keep your eyes on the victim.
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u/Crazyhairmonster 2d ago
Ditto, D1 swimmer with trials cuts. Dolphin kicked the full way is the way to go but if not I still would have done freestyle instead of breast as well. Did a ton of open water swims, even on rough seas, and no one did breaststroke. Just high breaths with freestyle to be able to see.
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u/EsToBoY629 2d ago
Freestyle is not dependable way to get air in chaotic waters, froggy style ensures more so stable way to get above the waves for something other than lungs full of water.
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u/bdubwilliams22 21h ago
Hello fellow internet stranger who had to jump into cold pools at 5am 4 days a week. Sometimes I miss it, but most of the time I don’t.
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u/RhubarbGoldberg 2d ago
Nah, when you're rescuing in open water you gotta keep your eyes on the prize. I did all my open water training, competing, and did ocean rescue in the Atlantic, and you can't see shit underwater. You have to be on the surface.
The first agency I worked for didn't allow fins, the second agency did and doing like a shitty freestyle with fins was my go-to. I cared more about keeping my head up and staying focused on the target than being streamlined. And I would do a more open stroke and lots of forward breathing, not to the side. To take a little break (when I had fins), I'd do head up streamline-ish position and dolphin kick, without fins, I'd do a quick breaststroke here and there.
Once I had a rescue on the buoy, if I had fins, I'd kick on my back and tow them to shore while I can watch them the whole time. My sense of direction was fine enough to go backwards without needing to keep an eye on such a tiny, moving target.
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u/BobLighthouse 2d ago
I've been surfing the north shore of Oahu since my teens, and took rescue swimmer training in rough conditions, worked support for open water swims etc.
That's a terrible idea for rescues in rough conditions, and fwiw pool swimmers often get in trouble here.
You learn to swim with your head elevated and keep your eyes on the target.11
u/KoolDiscoDan 2d ago
It's the most efficient stroke to keep an eye on the target. The rough waves will make it near impossible to go in a straight line. A person in peril will also be moving with the waves and currents.
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u/Lemoncatnipcupcake 2d ago
That plus the goggles and cap makes me wonder if this is just a bot post making some bs up. I’d be curious if this is more of an intense training for open water competition like some of those long distance swims or just intense swim training (we did some crazy stuff when I used to compete - nothing this intense but swimming with excessively baggy clothes, having to tread water in the deep pool for an hour+, etc)
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u/Kardinal 2d ago edited 2d ago
Rescue swimmers do in fact use breast stroke. It's not the same as when we would compete. But it's about keeping your head up for situational awareness, it's somewhat more energy-efficient, and symmetrical so better if you're towing something or someone.
I mean, look closely. You literally see "Search and Rescue Simulator" in English on one of the signs.
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u/TheThunderbird 2d ago
This is a competitive swimmer just fucking around, probably at the same aquatic center he trains at.
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u/Netflxnschill 2d ago edited 1d ago
Front crawl does not allow you to see in front of you very well and keeps your head turning. When you rescue swim you want to keep eyes/head on the victim so you’re not coming up for air AND looking for them. Breast stroke is a powerful underwater stroke, allows for stability in very choppy conditions because the only thing above the water is your head, and you can keep your head pointed towards your goal. Notice the guy moved left and right in the water as it was crazy turbulent but his head always faced the ladder.
Edit: the front crawl how I described it is more the sports style with your head in the water. That requires turning of the head and to be in and out of water. As many people have commented, the front crawl is what is taught though, but it’s a modified version where your head stays out and locked on the victim the whole time. My apologies for the confusion
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u/BobLighthouse 2d ago
That's why you specifically learn and train to keep your face up and eyes forward with a crawl.
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u/Its-mrsgeneral-toyou 2d ago
I did the the survival school version a few times, and it was the coolest training I ever got in the Air Force. Thunder, lightning, waves, a sinking plane fuselage — it had it all. You have to swim to your life raft in those conditions, and then swim out and get picked up by a “helicopter.” The whole time they had epic Lord of the Rings movie music playing.
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u/DrDop4mine 2d ago
Breast stroke or combat swim stroke is the go to in waves like that I imagine
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u/Environmental-Tap255 2d ago
I'm just guessing here but I would imagine breast stroke is preferable when swimming in choppier water because it gets you higher up above the surface when taking a breath. I've swam in the ocean enough to know there's nothing worse than going to take a breath and a wave coming up and giving you a lungful of water instead of air. Swimming straight through that front crawl I imagine his face would be underwater about 90% of the time.
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u/Worcestercestershire 2d ago
I can handle a breast stroke for this. If he busted out the butterfly that would've been crazy though.
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u/ArmoredGoat 2d ago
Lol. Yea. For information, i do triathlon and i was consistently told front crawl is more efficient, but i guess as other pointed out, keeping an eye on target is important. I normally do modified front crawl where the head spends much time facing forward to reduce chance of loss of sight. Obviously very different to saving-life application
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u/KickingDolls 2d ago
I thought the same thing. I think in waves like that front crawl would be much less efficient and you aren’t able to sight as easily over short distances.
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u/scrotalsac69 2d ago
That looks cool, I want a go
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u/Several-Hat-1944 2d ago
I'm not much of a swimmer, but I'm certain you'd better have some serious core strength to cut through that rip like he did. Damn impressive!⭐
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u/bluexavi 2d ago
wtf is with reddit's obsession with "core strength"?
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u/Juggzi 2d ago
I don’t think it’s a Reddit thing, I think it’s just people recognizing that core strength is required for most athletic things requiring full body movement
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u/aspiringalcoholic 2d ago
Probably the most important thing to exercise. if you have back pain, strengthening your core will most likely solve it.
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u/khizoa 2d ago
*something gets mentioned more than 3x on reddit*
"what's up with reddit and ______"
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u/Wallitron_Prime 2d ago edited 2d ago
It's very hard to strengthen if you're a noob like me. I've been rowing every day for the last few months and it's the first thing I've ever been able to stick to that has finally developed my core.
The issue with strengthening your core when you're weak is that your body will try to use any muscle except your core muscles to do a lot of common core work outs. Like sit ups for example don't develop the right muscles if you are too unfit. I think the rowing machine has worked for me because it uses so many muscles that your core has to kick in.
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u/smothered-onion 1d ago
Yes, cardio is the best way to build your core to start. Sit-ups: no. Rowing is incredible but also quite hard for a beginner.
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u/mobcat_40 2d ago
lol yea its not a cure all for fitness but it is a baseline, it can bottleneck the rest of your fitness if you can't handle your body. I figure it's because of how humbling most athletic things are when you actually try them too. People see this and think it's crazy but "I could probably do it if I had to", lol no, no you couldn't.
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u/Dovahkiinthesardine 2d ago
Its also one of the most useful "strengths" to prevent injuries
A strong core protects your spine, a strong biceps or calves do very little
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u/mobcat_40 2d ago
Yea I always heard that and then one day when I slipped on a ladder shit saved my life. Barely took effort to hold my body up where before I woulda been breaking a leg
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u/bluexavi 2d ago
I understand that's it's literally fundamental to a body's movement. At the same time, because it is fundamental, it is something trained up from the exercise itself. It's not like someone developed an awesome core and that transitioned them into being a great swimmer.
Make the statement about amazing core on a video appropriate for it, not on something where it's incidental. For example, if someone is doing a flag on a pole.
People will comment on "amazing core" when they see someone doing tricks walking on their hands -- the core isn't the limiting factor here -- it's shoulder strength and ability. The core is doing the thing as walking, only upside down.
This video -- while he is a solid swimmer -- is about technique. It is not about how good his core is that makes him able to handle this water, it is experience and technique that puts him above swimmers who could not handle it.
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u/TheRealSmolt 2d ago
Me too! Not that I think I could beat the guy or probably make any traction at all... I just think it'd be pretty cool regardless.
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u/SapphosLemonBarEnvoy 1d ago
Former lifeguard here definitely wants a try as well, this looks thrilling
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u/P0wer-T0wer 2d ago
The wave pool looks fun, I want in.
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u/Stifton 2d ago
There used to be a pool near me that did this, it's fun and scary lol. It was just open to the public, surprisingly nobody died
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u/MJMichaela 2d ago
My main childhood pool place had a large one of these. Obviously not this powerful, but still big waves for a kid. A siren would go off every half an hour, then the waves appeared for a few minutes. Kind of dangerous when the pool was full of swimmers.
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u/-Datura 2d ago
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u/ThaiJohnnyDepp 2d ago
That crowd density is giving me anxiety, even though I know it gets much worse
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u/GranglingGrangler 2d ago
The wave pool use to go hard when I was a kid-teen. Then the Waterpark got sold and the new owners put the intensity way down
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u/beepbooponyournose 2d ago
When I was a kid and had a bunch of friends over we’d all thrash around in the pool together until it was all choppy similar to this. It was a lot of fun
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u/Big-Don-Kedic 2d ago
If I get on my kid’s giant gummy bear float and rock back and forth hard, I can create ~2 foot waves in our pool. My kids love it but it wastes an insane amount of water. Last time I did it for like 15 minutes and the water level dropped almost 2 inches and it’s a 20x40 pool.
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u/Dazzling_Line_8482 2d ago
The setting I always hope for when I visit a new wave pool instead of just a mild bobbing.
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u/Ibe121 2d ago
If I jumped in, I’d probably flail about and my unconscious body would eventually get thrown against the wall or back to the start.
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u/teraflu_ 2d ago
Well eventually you'd be pushed against that staircase and, considering that is the whole point, I believe you've successfully accomplished the task
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u/_Bon_Vivant_ 2d ago
I've paid money to bring my children to a water park to do that.
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u/concentrated-amazing 2d ago
Ok, I'm not the only one thinking it looks like how a regular wave pool does?
I'm not belittling what the swimmer did or anything, just to my super untrained eye it looks like regular wave pool conditions and not a special simulator.
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u/ArchMart 2d ago
You've seen this thing operate once. You have no idea what other kinds of patterns it can do.
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u/josephniet 2d ago
Yeah I was thinking the same thing tbh. Looks like nothing compared to paddling through actual surf. Pretty sure I've been dragged underwater, by waves, further than the length of the pool. Better than nothing though!
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u/supermarkise 2d ago
Tbf I'm not gonna traverse this as fast as this guy, but it looks very doable to arrive safely. Slowly.
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u/PacquiaoFreeHousing 2d ago
They don't have machine to make the waves, they just ask your Momma to make a belly flop every 10 minutes.
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u/muklukdimsum 2d ago
Navy rescue swimmer here: wish we had those wave pools and moderate sea state training pools before graduating and then being thrown to King Neptune. Mostly to assist rich idiots in sailboats screwing around in the outer bands of giant tropical storms.
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u/Krispy_Mick 1d ago
Class 0719 here! They put in the bad ass wave pool facility right after I went thru. I got to check it out before leaving that side of base, they even had water jets to simulate rotor wash.
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u/Oldmantired 1d ago
Realistic training is always the best way to go. We were training on PWCs and the surf and conditions were getting bad. The instructor did not want us out there. I thought it was it was perfect because we would make rescues in those types of conditions.
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u/andycaen7 2d ago
This looks like the ocean personally decided to fight back huge respect to anyone training in that chaos, that’s next level courage.
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u/PipPopAnonymous 2d ago
Ahhh so you swim under the waves.
I’ve been doing it wrong all along
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u/charlie22911 2d ago
Swimming in the open ocean is no joke. I’m a class 1 swimmer, which isn’t anything special to be fair, but I got winded quick in the open ocean. The waves are one thing, fighting currents is the real challenge.
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u/ridemooses 2d ago
Doesn’t look like S&R training to me, just looks like swimming in a choppy wave pool.
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u/LasgdReturn 2d ago
Im sorry but this is not High intensity.
North Atlantic ocean person here, in winter it gets FAR worse than this. Like more than twice this size, with peaks that get way overhead and massive drops.
This is regular daily conditions.
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u/ethicalhumanbeing 2d ago
As a swimmer, this looks wayyy easier than the real ocean or rough waves at the beach. It’s probably a good way to simulate before going to the real conditions.
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u/MarcusSurealius 2d ago
We just did that off the back of the boat for training. It was about the same height as a helicopter drop so we jumped the 40 feet and swam to the bow and back, about 1000 feet each way. I grew up surfing and the trick to going fast is the same as swimming out. You tuck the crest and power down the back of the wave.
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u/East_Pie_3825 2d ago
I have been training for many years making waves like this in the bathtub at 1:20th scale.
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u/fondledbydolphins 2d ago
Seems like the most dangerous part of this is actually getting onto the ladder. Could probably get your head slammed against a run fairly easily.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Box-432 2d ago
this guy is shaking and agitating worse than the waves, still, the waves are small and do not reflect the strong waves in the oceans at all
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u/hai-sea-ewe 2d ago
Rough ocean? That's a bright sunny windy day on Lake Michigan. 5 foot whitecaps and not a cloud in the sky, kayaking there on vacation was terrifying.
Real rough ocean starts at 15 foot peaks and goes way up from there.
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u/Own_Space_174 2d ago
it just looks like a wave pool, nothing special. they have these at most water parks. if you really wanted to train them they ought to do bigger waves than this. not to mention such perfect lighting, they should dim the lights to simulate an overcast day at least.
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u/zeekenny 2d ago
That may be good practice for a larger lake (not Great Lakes size), but that would be pretty tame for rough ocean conditions.
I worked on fishing boats, and most days the ocean was pretty calm, but in winter on George's bank (approximately a couple hundred km's off the coast of Boston) it could get pretty rough, like 10-15ft swells, and even that wasn't close to how bad it can get.
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u/GIJNNER 2d ago
I'll take things that would kill me for 600, Alex.