History Main / SuperDrowningSkills

* Some accounts of Fredrick I, the Holy Roman Emperor actually have him falling face-down in plate armour into a shallow part of a river and, you guessed it, drowning. Justified in that plate armour is not recommended swim-wear, it's extremely heavy, though it's a myth that armored knights could barely move around in it as it's well distributed. That said, falling off a horse is dangerous, moreso when you've got an extra 60 pounds on you. There are myths of knights drowning in puddles, but if that happened, they were likely concussed first.
** Frederick I would likely not have worn plate in the end of 12th century, plate armor doesn't weigh 60 pounds, and Richard the Lionheart during the same crusade had done a lot more than take a quick rest in a refreshing stream, at Acre he'd jumped from his boat and fought his way to the harbor on foot.
** A more convincing explaination about Frederick I death is hydrocution: he fainted because of shock caused by temperature difference between his body (wearing metal armour while travelling in Turkey) and the cold water, then drowned while inconscious.
** It should be noted that a high quality battle plate armor is more lightweight than the gear of a modern soldier, who arent known to drown when they get into water either. A battle plate armor was a tailor made suit that distributes the weight of about 20 to 30 kg evenly over the body. A decently well trained person can somersault in these things. Or swim. Or mount a horse, very easily. And the armor people thing of when they think of heavy plate armor is actually tournament armor. This armor was really heavy, hindered the movements of the wearer, and was not meant or designed for battle, since it substantially reduced the combat ability of the knight, and would indeed make people drown. However, it also protected the knight from any injury during the tournament.
** The Battle of Lake Peipus in Lithuania in 1242 saw this trope played out on the grand scale. Prince Alexander Nevsky's lightly-armed Russian soldiers drew an army of impetuous German knights out onto a frozen lake where they were at a disadvantage. Not only did the western crusaders find it hard to keep their footing, the Russians lured them to a section of the lake with thinner ice that could not take the weight of Teutonic Knights in full armour.
** And in at least one episode in WW2, light Russian tanks crossed frozen rivers, daring German pursuers to do the same. But a Tiger tank weighed in at fifty tons as opposed to twenty-two...
*** Modern soldiers are known to drown because of the encumbrance by their combat gear. Many soldiers and marines landing on Normandy or various Pacific islands during World War 2 were killed for this reason. Even in 21st century, training for operations in water while wearing full military gear is considered among the toughest exercise for soldiers.

** Another interesting detail: babies can swim the moment they leave the womb. They can even take the longest dive any human can ever do, because they are still connected to the plazenta and thus do not need to breathe (just yet, anyway) for about 10-20 minutes, until the plazenta stops working. Unless you cut the umbilical cord earlier to unnecessarily make birth a lot harder for the newborn.

** It should be noted that a high quality battle plate armor is more lightweight than the gear of a modern soldier, who arent known to drown when they get into water either. A battle plate armor was a tailor made suit that distributes the weight of about 20 to 30 kg evenly over the body. A decently well trained person can sommersault in these things. Or swim. Or mount a horse, very easily. And the armor people thing of when they think of heavy plate armor is actually tornament armor. This armor was really heavy, hindered the movements of the wearer, and was not meant or designed for battle, since it substantly reduced the combat ability of the knight, and would indeed make people drown. However, it also protected the knight from any injury during the tornament.

* The famous 3-breasted cat-woman in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. She leaps onto Kirk's back, is airplane-spun for a half-turn, then just gently tossed face-down onto a table where a variation of billiards is payed, with a quarter-inch of water covering the playing field. She then just lays there, presumably insta-drowned.

** Frederick I would likely not have worn plate in the 13th century, plate armor doesn't weigh 60 pounds, and Richard the Lionheart during the same crusade had done a lot more than take a quick rest in a refreshing stream, at Acre he'd jumped from his boat and fought his way to the harbor on foot.

** Stitch is so dense that he will automatically sink if submerged in water. Of course, he ends up on an island.
** Doesn't stop him entering Hawaiian Surf Competitions mind.
*** [[ArtisticLicensePhysics Because he's super-dense, but only weighs about as much as a small dog. Please try not to think too hard about this; you'll only hurt yourself]].
**** Stitch is mostly muscle, making him denser than the water around him but not necessarily heavy given his size. See gorillas below.
* David in ''{{Unbreakable}}'' learns that along with his superhero-like strength, he has an {{Achilles Heel}} of water.
** Arguably a [[JustifiedTrope]] in that David both has a fear of water due to a childhood incident, and in the context of the movie, his powers are ill-defined. David is vastly healthier than normal (never getting sick, and being vastly stronger than his size indicates), but no limits are recorded (he stops measuring his strength before finding his limit, and while he is the sole survivor of a massive train wreck, he balks at trying to see if he's bulletproof). Since humans can't exactly survive underwater, either, his "weakness" may simply be panicking from his childhood combined with still needing oxygen.

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': Numbuh 4. Need we say any more?

If the character has the ability to breathe water, then WaterIsAir. If they don't but can stay underwater indefinitely anyway, then they have SuperNotDrowningSkills.

Contrast OlympicSwimmer.

* In ''CodeLyoko'', any monsters or heroes falling into the Digital Sea are "permanently virtualized", i.e. dead. Happened to a lot of monsters, and to Yumi and Aelita once each ([[UnexplainedRecovery they got better]]). There are also ordinary bodies of water in some sectors; terrestrial monsters just sink and drown there, but the heroes can swim through them.
* ''SpongebobSquarepants'': Neither Spongebob nor Patrick know how to swim. Ironickly, they both live underwater.

* ''CodenameKidsNextDoor'': Numbuh 4. Need we say any more?

* People who have worked in theater may be familiar with the differences between [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_curtain fire curtains]] and the deluge system. For those who don't, a deluge (or appropriately named "drencher") system involves a huge water basin located above the stage breaking open at the sign of a fire. As fire doors close. Usually in small theaters. With raised seating. And tons of electrical equipment. Believe it or not, the situation could very well go wrong if your backstage dressing area is downstairs in an enclosed area with no immediately accessible means of esca--we mean exit.