History Main / SuperDrowningSkills

** It's justified even further at the climax of the film. When David is [[spoiler:shoved into an above-ground swimming pool]] he ''gets caught in a tarp.'' Even a person without his weakness would be unlikely to survive that.

** [[ViewersAreMorons Enola never needed to learn how to swim]] [[FridgeBrilliance since she was raised on solid ground.]] How she got tattoed, escaped the island, and left behind the [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse skeletons of her parents is another mystery]].
*** Living on dry land or not, they still lived on a relatively small island, and the entire rest of the world was water. You'd have to be a pretty crappy parent to not think your kid is gonna need to learn how to swim.

* David in ''{{Unbreakable}}'' learns that along with his superhero-like strength, he has an {{Achilles Heel}} of water. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] 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.

* 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 played, with a quarter-inch of water covering the playing field. She then just lays there, presumably insta-drowned.

* 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.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': Neither Spongebob nor Patrick know how to swim. Ironically, they both live underwater.

** ...though maybe not so bad when you consider that a Psyduck, despite the name, is probably more of a platypus than a duck (no wings, doesn't learn a single "bird-related" move, can interbreed with mammals and assorted aquatic creatures rather than birds.) Unless platypi ''also'' naturally float, anyway.

* Most Vampires in VampireHunterD cannot swim at all, and being submerged paralyzes them. And even D - a {{Dhampir}}e of extraordinary caliber - can drown if he's in deep enough water to keep him immobile.

* Ledo does this in ''Anime/SuiseiNoGargantia'' when he first tries out one of the Earthling's [[AMechByAnyOtherName yunboroid]]. While his own mecha can indeed maneuver underwater fairly well, the primitive controls on the Earth yunboroid isn't intuitive to him, so he flails around a bit before sinking. Justified however, because he was born and grew up in space, so there was no need for him to learn swimming skills.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Outsiders}}'', the Outsiders manage to stop an attempted invasion by Gorilla Grodd and his army by pushing the gorilla soldiers into the water - gorillas can't swim.

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': Numbuh 4. He later learns how to swim, but he's still not good at it and prefers to avoid it if possible.

* ''WesternAnimation/Avatar:TheLastAirbender'': Toph. Justified in that she's blind.

* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'': Lila, Arnold's crush.

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': Numbuh 4.

* Episode 3 of ''Anime/{{Free}}!'' The newest member of the ream, Ryugazaki Rei, reveals that he can't actually swim. He chooses to reveal this by belly-flopping into the pool and nearly drowning so Nagisa and Haruka have to rescue him.

* In ''WesternAnimation/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.

* Masuzu in ''LightNovel/OreNoKanojoToOsananajimiGaShurabaSugiru'' nearly drowns in episode 5 after climbing slowly into the swimming pool upon hearing rumors from other girls that she was deliberately not swimming to draw attention to herself from the guys. Eita is forced to perform [[CPRCleanPrettyReliable CPR]] on her when he sees the swim teacher giving CPR to another student at the time, causing the other students to {{Squee}} at the "kiss" he's giving her.

* The Bolton Strid in Yorkshire, England, part of the River Wharfe and not [[[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire part of any family]] [[Series/GameOfThrones of murdering Trolls]]. It may look like a gentle brook, but it holds the amount of water one would expect from an enormous, raging river being squeezed like a tube of toothpaste by the local geology. How? The river's ''really'' deep, for all it's not that wide, making the flow ''really'' intense below the calm-looking surface. The result? It has an unusually high lethality rate. Yes, that means falling in is a very, ''very'' bad idea. You'll be lucky if your body even shows up downstream.

* The Bolton Strid in Yorkshire, England, part of the River Wharfe and not [[[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire part of any family]] [[Series/GamrOfThrones of murdering Trolls]]. It may look like a gentle brook, but it holds the amount of water one would expect from an enormous, raging river being squeezed like a tube of toothpaste by the local geology. How? The river's ''really'' deep, for all it's not that wide, making the flow ''really'' intense below the calm-looking surface. The result? It has an unusually high lethality rate. Yes, that means falling in is a very, ''very'' bad idea. You'll be lucky if your body even shows up downstream.

* The Bolton Strid in Yorkshire, England. It may look like a gentle brook, but it holds the amount of water one would expect from an enormous, raging river being squeezed like a tube of toothpaste. How? The river's ''really'' deep, for all it's not that wide, making the flow ''really'' intense below the calm-looking surface. The result? It has an unusually high lethality rate. Yes, that means falling in is a very, ''very'' bad idea. You'll be lucky if your body even shows up downstream.

* The Bolton Strid in Yorkshire, England. It may look like a gentle brook, but it holds the amount of water one would expect from an enormous, raging river. How? The river's ''really'' deep, and the flow's similarly intense below the surface. The result? It has an unusually high lethality rate. Yes, that means falling inside is a very bad idea. You'll be lucky if the body even shows up downstream.

--> --'''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd''' reviewing ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest Castlevania II: Simon's Quest]]''

* Episode 2 of ''AngelBeats'' saw a DwindlingParty scenario deep underground (it's the afterlife, so DeathIsCheap and PlayedForLaughs). Right before the commerical break, the group is down to four members. Fujimaki predicts newcomer Otonashi will be the next to die. Right after the break, the group find themselves in the aftermath of a water trap. Guess who's floating like a dead goldfish?

* Gentoku Ryuubi from ''IkkiTousen''. Usually played for laughs since she's a {{Dojikko}} as well. It's played more seriously in when [[spoiler: she jumps into a huge pond to rescue a drowning Koumei while fully knowing the risks. They survive, but barely.]]

* In ''SwordArtOnline'', Suguha / Leafa, in spite of being the most athletically gifted player in reality, can't swim, so during a trip to the pool with other players, Asuna volunteers to teach her to swim. While she gets a hang of it in the real world, she needs help from the others to get to an underwater dungeon in Alfheim Online.

* Nobita Nobi from ''{{Doraemon}}'' can drown in ''puddles''.

* In ''SonicTheComic'' this is played straight with Sonic then subverted. Handwaved by Sonic as him having taken swimming lessons.

* {{Wolverine}} can't float and can barely swim because of the dense metal covering his skeleton. Same goes for Colossus in his steel form.

* [[ButtMonkey Nautilator]] has always been depicted as enthusiastic but completely incompetent in the water in all continuities of ''TheTransformers'' comics. He rusts like a '67 Fiat, has the [[NoSenseOfDirection navigational skills]] of [[Manga/OnePiece Roronoa Zoro]], and in spite of being a giant living robot with an alternate mode made to traverse the ocean, he's been defeated by ''the tides changing.'' [[TheLoad The Decepticons are hampered by just having him around]]. Inexplicably, [[WTHCastingAgency the Decepticons made him part of their main underwater strike team]].

* The Bolton Strid in Yorkshire, England. It may look like a gentle brook, but it holds the amount of water one would expect from an enormous, raging river. How? The river's ''really'' deep, and the flow's similarly intense below the surface. The result? It has a 100% lethality rate. Yes, that means falling inside is sure to kill you. You'll be lucky if the body even shows up downstream.

** This applies to pretty much all of the great ape species aside from humans. In addition to a more tall, thin body design (granting a more efficient stroke), humans have a higher percentage of body fat and larger lungs in proportion to mass than other large primates, giving them greater buoyancy. Humans are ''still'' poorly equipped for swimming in comparison to many mammals, and very skinny humans often have trouble swimming efficiently because their legs and feet tend to sink.

* In the GreenSkyTrilogy, Raamo slipped and fell into the Bottomless Lake and made no effort to try and swim or even let go of the "tool of violence" he was carrying. Snyder, realizing she really screwed up with this ending, authorized what was likely the first canonical video-game sequel to another medium's story...and even in that game, so much as touching the water would send the player back to their home with an ominous "You were found unconscious" message.