History Main / SuperDrowningSkills

Contrast SuperNotDrowningSkills for characters who can stay underwater indefinitely with no apparent means of breathing, as well as OlympicSwimmer for those with more realistic submersion behavior but unrealistic swimming abilities.

*** in an ironic subversion there is also the swim swim fruit, wielded by Senõr Pink, which allows one to swim in basically anything BUT water.

** ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} is sometimes written as being unable to float and barely able to swim because of the dense metal covering his skeleton. Same goes for Colossus in his steel form, though he at least has the advantage of not needing to breathe.

* ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'': This is one of [[spoiler:Koro-sensei]]'s greatest weakness. [[spoiler:His body will bloat and become immovable when he's underwater due to being highly absorbent. Ironic, for a creature that looks like and often compared to an octopus.]]

** Even before he ate the Devil Fruit, Luffy couldn't swim and was given the nickname "Anchor" by Shanks' crew, so he'd have SuperDrowningSkills regardless.

%% ** ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'' did this in reverse. This was mostly because the early comics was done with RuleOfFunny in full effect and a lot of the game canon wasn't put in until later on.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'': A line from Maui's IAmSong suggests that he is this trope. Since he is a demi-god of the ''sea'' and he was stuck on an island for a thousand years, he's likely not joking.

* ''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. This actually ends up being a plot point in an episode: [[spoiler: Numbuh 1 realizes the utopian island he crashed into is a simulation because [[AGlitchInTheMatrix Numbuh 4 is swimming]] at a pool party]]

* Adolescent Shimiwe, from Inami, french cartoon about Amazonian tribes. This case resulted in a lot of problems, because the river was always near.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': Neither Spongebob nor Patrick know how to swim in Goo Lagoon. At first this sounds like a winking nod to the shows liberal use of the WaterIsAir trope, until you remember [[FridgeBrilliance sponges and starfish can't swim in real life either. They crawl]].
* Panthro from ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Thundercats 2011}} [=ThunderCats (2011)=]]]'' is a ''master'' of this ''technique''.

* Hawk in A.T.O.M. (at least, in first season).

* ''Billion Dollar Brain'': Thinking that his agents in the Soviet Union have successfully spread a debilitating virus, General Midwinter leads his private army in a charge across the frozen Gulf of Finland, intending to invade (and "liberate") Latvia; however, his "agents" never existed: and a Soviet Airforce bomber drops a massive "Blockbuster" bomb on the ice; and the entire army, including the General, die horribly, in an "hommage" to Sergei Eisenstein's "Alexander Nevsky".

[[quoteright:284:[[Webcomic/RoosterTeethComics https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SuperDrowning_2595.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:284:[[VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption John Marston]], [[Franchise/{{Halo}} Master Chief]] and [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreed Altaïr]] give a whole new meaning to the [[{{Pun}} Dead Man's Float]].]]

** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Diana actually has to stop her fight with Villainy, Inc. to save Eviless when she realizes the villain isn't coming back up after going into the ocean. Eviless does have the excuse of coming from a planet without large bodies of water, but she picked a fight on ''an island''.

** Chimpanzees and orangutans can swim. They do so for fun.

* Creator/HirohikoAraki mentions in an author's note for volume 50 of [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo]] that he's come dangerously close to drowning multiple times ''[[UpToEleven while drinking a glass of water]]''.

** ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} can't float and can barely swim because of the dense metal covering his skeleton. Same goes for Colossus in his steel form, though he at least has the advantage of not needing to breath.

** Gorillas cannot swim. This was even referenced in the remake of ''Film/PlanetOfTheApes''.

* In episode 4 of VideoGame/YoakeMaeYoriRuriIroNa, Feena jumps into a river to save a drowning puppy. However, since she grew up on the moon, and water is a scarce resource up there, she never learned how to swim, so Tatsuya ends up having to save her and the puppy shortly afterwards.

* ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'''s Osaka is able to swim just fine, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBgkK2JaRpQ&feature=channel she just can't float]].