Open Lake Swimming

I was on Tahoe for Labor Day weekend, nothing short of majestic as usual. Unfortunately, I will forever have flashbacks of motoring the boat home for the evening and nearly chumming an open water swimmer near South Shore/Tahoe Keys. It's 6pm and I'm cruising about 25 mph, light wind and rolling chop. Holding course at least 500ft from shore, all of a sudden some dude is breast-stroking right across my line of sight. I immediately put the throttle in neutral and killed the engine thinking there were more swimmers. I flipped out....for god sake I accidentally chum this guy and now I'm doing 10 years up-state for manslaughter. I told him to wear a neon cap, he proceeded to yell at me. We proceed on......the following evening I'm pulling the boat out around sunset on Monday and see another swimmer at least 600 ft. from shore free styling into the abyss. I will forever have nightmares and flashbacks, as any boat Captain would concur...chumming a human being is our biggest fear. Who's at fault here? I swim for exercise too, but I never venture farther then 200 ft. of the shoreline. Anyone out there experience this on Tahoe? We all share the lake, but swimming out with no markings during dusk on a holiday weekend is certainly questionable. Maybe next time I should be more aware, but they really surprised me........let's just say I saw them before they saw me.

it took me a couple read throughs to get it, i thought you actually did hit him lol

haha I thought the same thing at first. This happened to us at Lake shasta were a swimmer was swimming across the lake approx 300yrds. It was crazy cause its difficult to see them and once you see one like you said you assume theres more. No use giving them constructive criticism, there the brightest people on the lake. Its our fault we choose to ride on there private lakes. Ive given up trying.

If the law requires that you have an orange flag up when you are swimming off of your boat (at least here in CA), wouldn't it be logical for swimmers to have to wear a bright orange piece of clothing while swimming more than a certain distance from shore? Seems like a bit of a double standard. In busy lakes like Tahoe and Shasta you would think it would be illegal for swimmers to venture more than a few hundred feet from shore.

We have them everywhere on our lake. Black suits and dark swim caps. They feel as if it's safe to swim outside the buoys as well.

Crazy!

I almost hit a jet skier after dark a few weeks ago. Freaking morons!

I spend many a day on Tahoe and see a lot of swimmers, but none that far off the shore. They usually stick inside the buoy fields and that is when you need to be careful...

My wife, son, brother, sister nlaw, and friends do triathlons and naturally practice in the open water, but they ALWAYS have a boat/PWC idling near them so other boaters can see them and also to provide emergency relief in case of a cramp. I am not an attorney, but if I was on a jurry, the boater would not be held (criminal or civil) accountable if the swimmers did not have a boat escort or an orange or diver down flag. In the ocean you have to have a diver down flag if you are in the open water but not sure what the requirements are on inland lakes, but common sense would tell you that is is foolish to swim in open water without some sort of means to identify yourself.

I can speak from experience on this one. See my story in this sting:

http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/65919/452243.html

IMO it's primarily the swimmer's fault. I'm very careful about where I swim now and always have a boat accompanying me. Those Tahoe swimmers are flirting with disaster.

Tell them to come to Florida, me and Billy can see if they can out swim the gators...

At my lake if you are swimming outside the bouys you are required to be next to a boat. People are always going to be stupid though...

It is illegal in California to swim in open water on a lake. A few years back, on Shasta, I almost hit an open water swimmer. we called the Sheriff, and he shut them down. A year or two before that, an open water swimmer was hit and killed while we were on the lake at Shasta. It's not a smart thing to do, especially when the sun is low in the sky, and the boat driver may have a very difficult time seeing you.

I don’t want to start a pissing match but there are a couple items on this post that are misinforming people here.

Mark D (murrayair) Here in Ca. it is against the law to fly an orange flag off your boat for swimmers.


Peter T (deltawake) It is not against the law to swim in open water. Law enforcement can stop the swimmer if they feel he is in danger but no laws broken.

Hope this clears things up.

micale - they may still be right, i know there are rules on my lake that supercede (sp?) the state rules.

i know on the CA delta you can and will get a ticket for a orange flag being up for anyone not being towed or in the process of.

.........its hard to imagine what anyones thought process would be to think that you can just swim out into the lake without a boat or something beside you .......I wouldn't trust any of us to not hit me........people just do some plain stupid things and that is what it is ...stupid!
Might as well start jogging back and forth across an eight lane highway!!!!......at least there you have a chance as people can see you.

ya i just cant believe how little common sense people have...... That would be a scary situation to come across.

Michale- I misspoke that it is against CA State law, however it is illegal on Shasta. Shasta County Ordinance SCO 12.24.16 prohibits "channel swimming." So, open water swimming is illegal on the body of water that I was talking about.

Peter, Thank you for the info on Shasta. I didn’t know that but then again we only go there for 2 weeks a year. You are lucky to have that lake as your home lake if it is. I do know the sheriffs at Shasta are mostly pricks. We have obeyed every law (that we knew of) and still get hustled every time. And this is with a family environment in the boat. I don’t understand some of these laws. An orange flag up would protect swimmers around the boat. God forbid we do something to protect our kids from getting prop chopped.
What if we flew a red diver down flag? Tell the kids to go under once in a while. I am sure there is a law against that to. The law reads if there is a ski rope in the water you need the orange flag. Swim with a rope around the boat.

I had to save a swimmer the other day when she swam out 200 yards DRUNK and could not make it back. She fell off my boat 3 times she was so drunk. As we where coming into the dock she thought i was going to run my boat into the dock so she jumped over the windsheild and fell between the boat and dock. It almost crushed her.

Some people can be so stupid.

I just did the 1 mile swim across my lake...on a weekend when boats were flying around. The difference is that I had my fiance trolling next to me in the boat so as not to become fish food. I will say (go ahead and dissagree, I don't care) that anyone who open swims away from shore like that w/o a safety boat is a complete dumbA$$! There are so many things that could happen. It also wouldn't suprise me if someone might hope to get hit for a potential lawsuit..in case they lived to file suit. DumbA$$'s.