History Main / SuperDrowningSkills

[[caption-width-right:283:[[VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption John Marston]], [[Franchise/{{Halo}} Master Chief]] and [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreed Altaïr]] give a whole new meaning to the [[{{Pun}} Dead Man's Float]].]]

* ''Franchise/TheTransformers'': [[ButtMonkey Nautilator]] has always been depicted as enthusiastic but completely incompetent in the water in all continuities of the 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]] (it's suspected that they might just have been trying to get him as far away from the Decepticons' main forces as they could). He does have a limited saving grace of [[AchievementInIgnorance accidentally finding valuable resources]] just about every time he gets stuck underwater, but that's not nearly enough to stop the rest of the Seacons from detesting being stuck with him.

* ''Literature/TheCityOfBrass'': Dara, a [[OurGeniesAreDifferent daeva]] ElementalEmbodiment of fire, {{implie|dTrope}}s this, telling a human, "Can I ''swim''? Can you burn?" {{Subverted|Trope}} when other daeva are revealed to be perfectly good swimmers; Dara's personal fear of water turns out to have a [[CerebusRetcon tragic origin]].

*** Zig-zagged, ironically, with the Swim-Swim Fruit, wielded by Senõr Pink, which allows a person to swim in basically anything BUT water.

** Misty's Psyduck doesn't know how to swim despite being a Water type. A few attempts have been made, but it ends in failure every time. He seems happier with an inner tube, though. You'd think that maybe not it's so bad if 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.) The problem is that platypi ''naturally float'', anyway, to the point of requiring constant swimming to stay submerged. Otherwise, they just bob right back up to the surface. This means Misty's Psyduck has even ''fewer'' excuses for its incompetence in the water than before.

* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'':
** Akane Tendō's swimming skills, or lack thereof, has earned her the nickname "hammergirl". Akane panics and cannot swim even when her life really does depend on it. Even wearing a ''flotation device'', she manages to sink like a rock. Even when the water is only knee-deep. Until she was explicitly told otherwise near the end of the manga, she honestly believed you were ''supposed to breathe while underwater''. Discovering that you have to hold your breath was nothing short of an epiphany for her. [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] [[KickTheDog in a very nasty way]] when, during the final arc of the manga, the villains kidnap her and ''deliberately'' drown poor Akane in a [[TransformationRay Jusenkyō spring]], creating the [[CloningBlues Spring of Drowned Akane]]. Fortunately, her experience with drowning is so extensive, she survives the ordeal. But it is still [[ContinuityNod a surprisingly cruel reference]] to a character flaw that was always treated for comedy.

[[folder:Asian Animation]]
* ''Animation/DobyAndDisy'': In the Season 5 episode "Diver in Maldives", Nigel wants to be a diver but can't swim. This becomes integral to his dream, where Doby rescues him from drowning in what turns out to be the ''shallow'' end of the water. Nigel gets over this by the end of the episode.
[[/folder]]

** ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} is sometimes written as being unable to float and barely able to swim because of the dense metal covering his skeleton. This especially dangerous because one story revealed that drowning is actually one of the few ways to permanently kill him, as his HealingFactor doesn't guard against lack of oxygen. Colossus in his steel form is also too heavy to swim, though he at least has the advantage of not needing to breathe.

* ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}'': David learns that along with his superhero-like strength, he has an AchillesHeel of water. {{Justified|Trope}} 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.
** ''Film/Glass2019'' [[spoiler:confirms that his Super Drowning Skills are real, and end up taking him out for good]].

-->'''Maui:''' And I'm gonna need that boat/I'm sailing away, away/You're Welcome!/Cause Maui can do anything but float!

* ''Film/{{Waterworld}}'': Enola. Even though the entire Earth was covered with water decades or possibly centuries ago, [[FridgeLogic this ten-year old girl can't swim]]. And people wonder why this movie bombed...

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder:Web Original]]

* In the second season of ''WebVideo/JackAndDeanOfAllTrades'', Jack and Dean lose their job as lifeguards after everyone finds out that Dean has no idea how to swim.

* Fry from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', especially at the beginning.

* PlayedForDrama in ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse''-episode "Thanks to Them". [[spoiler:When [[DemonicPossession a Belos-possessed Hunter]] wrenches control over his body back long enough to throw the vial of Titan's Blood into a lake, Belos panics and dives in after it. However, either because the PossessionBurnout has caught up to them, or because neither of them actually know how to swim (a logical assumption given they've spent most of their lives on an island where the ocean ''boils''), they sink like a rock without even trying to swim to the surface. Luckily, Camila dives in after them and drags them back onto the shore.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer'', Yukon Cornelius reveals the Bumble[[note]]Abominable Snow Monster[[/note]] has only one weakness: he's a notorious sinker.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': Neither [=SpongeBob=] nor Patrick know how to swim in Goo Lagoon. At first, this sounds like a winking nod to the show's liberal use of the WaterIsAir trope, until you remember [[FridgeBrilliance sponges and starfish can't swim in real life, either. They crawl]].

* 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. The whole incident may also be a simple myth that never actually happened. There have, however, been instances where Knights fell into mud and were trampled by others in the charge, causing them to drown ''that'' way.
** It should also be pointed out that Fredrick's fatal drowning occurred just immediately AFTER a hard battle with Turks and he was so severely dehydrated that he was scrambling the area around for water. In fact, when he did drown, he was recklessly paddling into the water without even observing its depth first. Some accounts even describe him as going deeper and deeper into the water while attempting to kneel to get some with his hands to drink until he unknowingly went so deep that he simply fell in. Even accounts of death in a relatively shallow parts of the river admit the king's frenzied state, worn physical body, and accidental tripping in the drowning. So it's not the water itself alone that killed him, but an exhausted state of mind and body was the main catalyst.
** Some historians even state that he was suffering from symptoms of cardiovascular disease and other conditions associated with old age during this campaign and the drowning may not even have killed him but a sudden fatal stroke or heart attack.

** And in Normandy, field marshal Rommel's plan to secure the area against an invasion included deliberately flooding vast parts of the hinterland as a defense against airborne troops. For paratroopers, who have to carry all their equipment themselves and would often get entangled in their parachutes when landing, those artificial marshes were formidable deathtraps -- and in fact a large number of them drowned.
** Additionally, in the Battle of Passchendaele (WWI), the ground was so soggy due to heavy rains that many soldiers literally drowned in soft mud (and in rain-filled shell craters, which provided unexpected large pockets of water, virtually undetectable underneath the overall coverage of ankle-deep sludge). Creator/SiegfriedSassoon -- who spent most of the war on the front lines, and knew exactly how bad conditions could get -- summarised it succinctly in one of his poems: "I died in hell -- they called it Passchendaele."

'''[[[[SpeakInUnison Brittnay & Mackenzie]]:''' ''[immediately)'' Stay in the shallow end!\\

* The Battle of Lake Peipus in Lithuania in 1242 saw this trope played out on the grand scale. Prince Alexander Nevsky's lightly-armed Novgorodian 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 Novgorodians lured them to a section of the lake with thinner ice that could not take the weight of Teutonic Knights in full armour.

* Ami Nekota in ''Manga/KamisamaKiss" admits that she can't swim.
* Hitoha in ''Manga/Mitsudomoe'' doesn't know how to swim and hates swimming because of this.

* Most Vampires in ''LightNovel/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.

Swimming isn't easy to animate in a video game. First of all there's the complexity of underwater effects. Then there's the freedom of movement in three dimensions, which is neat for the player, but a real pain to achieve in third-person games in terms of achieving an intuitive interface and a fluid camera. Then there's the problem of water meeting land -- it's easy enough to have your character jump or fall into water, but to get them out again you'd need ladders, shores, so forth, so you're going to have to do your art direction with that in mind. And to be even slightly realistic you'll need to think about the character's [[OxygenMeter oxygen supplies]]. Basically, having your character be able to swim means adding an entirely new form of gameplay that's usually [[AtlantisIsBoring boring]], [[ScrappyLevel annoying]] and [[DownTheDrain nowhere near worth it]].

* Creator/HirohikoAraki mentions in an author's note for Volume 2 of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind'' that he's come dangerously close to drowning multiple times ''[[UpToEleven while drinking a glass of water]]''.

* In ''Film/{{Superstar}}'', [[spoiler:Slater]] can't swim, and still doesn't bother to learn after he almost drowns and Mary Katherine saves him the first time.
* After being knocked off his boat, the killer in ''Terror at Tenkiller'' quickly drowns, despite being a marina worker. The FinalGirl has no trouble swimming to shore.

* ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}'': David learns that along with his superhero-like strength, he has an AchillesHeel 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.
** ''Film/{{Glass}}'' [[spoiler:confirms his Super Drowning Skills are real, and end up taking him out for good.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Toph mostly compensates for being blind [[DisabilityNegatingSuperpower by sensing vibrations through the ground]]. This doesn't work in water, so she never learned to swim.

* ''Literature/TheCityOfBrass'': Dara, a [[OurGeniesAreDifferent daeva]] ElementalEmbodiment of fire, {{implie|dTrope}}s this, telling a human, "Can I ''swim''? Can you burn?" {{Subverted|Trope}} when other daeva are revealed to be perfectly good swimmers; Dara's personal fear of water turns out to have a [[FunnyAneurysmMoment tragic origin]].

** A good example of the toll this can take is with Buggy. He "accidentally" swallowed a Devil Fruit he was planning to steal and sell when he was startled by Shanks. He still holds a grudge to this day. Why? [[CursedWithAwesome Because he was an excellent swimmer before he ate it and planned to swim to a very large amount of treasure hidden in the sea]].

** Additionally, in the battle of Passhendale (WWI), the ground was so soggy due to heavy rains that many soldiers literally drowned in soft mud (and in rain-filled shell craters, which provided unexpected large pockets of water, virtually undetectable underneath the overall coverage of ankle-deep sludge).

* Creator/HirohikoAraki mentions in an author's note for Volume 2 of ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo'' that he's come dangerously close to drowning multiple times ''[[UpToEleven while drinking a glass of water]]''.

Swimming isn't easy to animate in a video game. First of all there's the complexity of underwater effects. Then there's the freedom of movement in three dimensions, which is neat for the player, but a real pain to achieve in third-person games in terms of achieving an intuitive interface and a fluid camera. Then there's the problem of water meeting land — it's easy enough to have your character jump or fall into water, but to get them out again you'd need ladders, shores, so forth, so you're going to have to do your art direction with that in mind. And to be even slightly realistic you'll need to think about the character's [[OxygenMeter oxygen supplies]]. Basically, having your character be able to swim means adding an entirely new form of gameplay that's usually [[AtlantisIsBoring boring]], [[ScrappyLevel annoying]] and [[DownTheDrain nowhere near worth it]].

Some games have decided that it ''is'' worth it, and thus attempt more realistic solutions, with varying degrees of effectiveness. ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'', an early example, would deal damage to your health if you were underwater too long. However, armor protects against this damage — meaning you can stay underwater longer if you wear full body armor. Earlier still, the ''VideoGame/UltimaUnderworld'' or ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena'' games didn't let you go underwater--swimming was essentially the same as walking except you bobbed up and down more and couldn't use a weapon, but after some amount of time your health would start taking a battering. The ''Tomb Raider'' games and the later ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' have {{Oxygen Meter}}s that would deplete as you swam, with running out causing lots of damage to be dealt, resulting in swift death. Other techniques have also been used to increase realism and decrease the prevalence of this trope.

[[http://kotaku.com/5306343/sink-or-swim-the-game-designers-conundrum Interviews with developers]] note that this trope exists to avoid a few other tropes, such as InsurmountableWaistHeightFence or BorderPatrol as water is a more "logical" method than a fence or invisible wall. Additionally it removes the need for extra assets taking up inventory slots that don't get used a lot. Sometimes, an item that allows one to swim will be presented — usually to keep the player from [[SequenceBreaking going places they shouldn't be able to yet]].

* In episode 3 of ''Anime/{{Free}}'' the newest member of the team, 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. Rei eventually learns how to swim.

** Anyone who has eaten a Devil Fruit gains a special power, at the cost of losing the ability to swim in the ocean. In fact, having at least half of their body submerged will not only prevent them from using any abilities granted by the fruit, but will drain all strength out of them to the point of near paralyzation, causing them to sink. This is inconvenient, since most of the characters are ''[[OceanPunk sea-faring pirates on a planet with even less landmass than the Earth]]''. Note that only actual submersion ''and'' seawater counts; rain is harmless and DF users can still take showers according to Word of God. A few people (mostly winners of the SuperpowerLottery) have Devil Fruit powers that at least partially negate this weakness. Aokiji for example, AnIcePerson, freezes the water just by coming into contact with it, giving him a ''massive'' advantage over other Devil Fruit users; also, Protagonist Monkey D. Luffy still has an [[RubberMan elastic body]] regardless of whether he's in water or not, so he can have somebody else stretch his head outside of the water (he'll still be paralyzed, but he will then be able to breathe, at least).
*** Zig-zagged, ironically, with the Swim-Swim fruit, wielded by Senõr Pink, which allows a person to swim in basically anything BUT water.

** The worst part: at times, Tony Tony Chopper would jump in after Luffy if the latter ended up in trouble in the sea, ''forgetting he can't swim either''. Upon which Brook would jump in after Chopper, ''ALSO'' forgetting he can't swim. Then they get saved by Franky [[InvertedTrope who swims perfectly despite being mostly made out of metal]].

** Fishmen, Mermain and Mermaids who ate Devil Fruits won't be able to move when they are in the sea, but they won't drown. There are special bubbles that allow you to move in water as long you are inside the bubbles. Known Fishmen with Devil Fruit abilities are Van der Decken IX. and [[spoiler:Captain Jack, one of Kaido's top 3 subordinates]].
* Masuzu in ''LightNovel/{{Oreshura}}'' 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.

* Most Vampires in ''LightNovel/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.

* 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.
* Invoked and Exaggerated in ''Manga/FutabaKunChange''. Misaki, the main character's love interest and a member of her school's swim team, has such a sweet tooth that the school pool has a high sugar water content from her sweat making it immensely dense. When the swim team swims in any other bodies of water with less density, the find themselves unable to swim in it.
* ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': Upon learning the Carmia Island has a Dragon Hourglass, and a Wave is due to come in a little over two days, Ren tries to bow out. When questioned why by the others, he shouts that [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial of course he can swim, why would you even ask that]]? Completely deadpan, Motoyasu and Itsuki proceed to grab him, frogmarch him outside and toss him into shallow water to test the obvious conclusion. He's drowning in less than waist high waters.

%% * ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
%% ** ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' 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.
%% ** In ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'', Sonic plays this trope straight. Towards the end of the comic's run, though, Sonic is shown to have overcome this weakness by taking swimming lessons off-panel.

* ''ComicBook/{{Fray}}'': Melaka realizes by the end of the series that this is [[spoiler: her TreacherousAdvisor Urkonn]]'s biggest weakness, and uses it to kill him. [[spoiler: Possibly justified, since he ''is'' a demon.]]

* Franchise/TheDCU:
** ''ComicBook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders'': 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.
** ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'': In ''ComicBook/TheDominusEffect'', the Superman of 2999 cannot survive in water, as he nearly drowns to death when a torrent of water washes through Metropolis to put out the fire caused by the incendiary bomb used to take down the robots that have TurnedAgainstTheirMasters.
** ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: 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''.

* In ''Film/{{Superstar}}'', [[spoiler:Slater]] can't swim, and still doesn't bother to learn after he almost drowns and Mary Katherine saves him the first time.
* After being knocked off his boat, the killer in ''Terror at Tenkiller'' quickly drowns, despite being a marina worker. The FinalGirl has no trouble swimming to shore.
* The famous three-breasted cat-woman in ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier''. 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.
* Played with in ''Film/RobinHoodMenInTights''. Robin Hood and Little John duel on a log bridge and are down to just slapping what's left of their shattered staves as if they were pencils. Robin gets the upper hand and boots Little John... into an itsy-bitsy stream, causing the man to flail and panic as if he's drowning. Robin can't help but [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall look at the camera in disbelief]] before "helping" the man.
* The above is a parody of a scene in ''Film/RobinHoodPrinceOfThieves'' which plays the trope straighter; Robin and Little John have a more dramatic stave fight which ends with Robin knocking John into an actual river... at which point he discovers John can't swim. Robin rescuing John earns John's gratitude and loyalty, and ends their battle.
* ''Film/BillionDollarBrain'': 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".
* ''Film/TheLastLeprechaun'': Tommy has to save Finn from drowning in a tub of water.
* ''Film/FourteenOhEight'': While Mr. Olin elaborates to Mike about the gruesome death record of room 1408, he remarks that one person who stayed in the room died by drowning ''in his chicken soup''. Even Mike is momentarily befuddled at how he managed that.
* It's revealed in ''Film/AQuietPlacePartII'' that [[spoiler: the aliens don't know how to swim.]]

* Dwarves in the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' series are noted for swimming like stones.
* It becomes a running joke in ''Literature/AubreyMaturin'' that Doctor Stephen Maturin would always nearly drown when trying to board a ship. Considering how often he needs to go on and off ships as the Naval Surgeon...

* In the ''Literature/GuardiansOfTheFlame'' series, dwarves are noticeably denser than humans, with the result that they sink like a stone in water. This leads to a panic-inducing incident in one book when the dwarven member of the cast is tossed off a ship in the middle of a battle, with no one available to rescue him. Fortunately the ship is anchored, and he manages to get to the anchor chain and climb up it before drowning.
* In Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs Martian books, very few Martians know how to swim, because Mars has very few deep bodies of water.
* This figures into Augustus Gloop's undoing in ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' -- according to his mother "He can't swim a yard", so when he tumbles into the chocolate river he can only flail and call for help before getting sucked into a pipe, which saves him from drowning but turns out to be a case of OutOfTheFryingPan.
* Jalan of ''Literature/TheRedQueensWar'' never learned how to swim and is described as vaguely flailing in the direction he wants to go whenever he's in the water. So of course [[ButtMonkey he]] winds up magically bound to a Viking and spends the majority of the books on a boat.

* ''WebAnimation/TheMostPopularGirlsInSchool'': Trisha nearly drowns in the season 5 premier... in the shallow end of the pool... while wearing water wings... despite being a rather tall teenage girl. Mackenzie has to try to fish her out of the water with a hook, before Trisha realizes she can StopDrowningAndStandUp. And apparently, this isn't the first time this has happened.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': Neither [=SpongeBob=] nor Patrick know how to swim in Goo Lagoon. At first, this sounds like a winking nod to the show's 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}}'' is a ''master'' of this ''technique''.
* Fry from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', especially at the beginning.

* ''WesternAnimation/DragonHunters'': Gwizdo being unable to swim comes up a few times. If he's plunged into a body of water he'll sink straight to the bottom. Lian-Chu actually has to revive him with chest compressions in "The Stuff of Dreams".
%%* Hawk in A.T.O.M. (at least in the first season).
* Adolescent Shimiwe, from ''Inami'', French cartoon about Amazonian tribes. This case results in a lot of problems, because the river is always near.

** It should also be pointed out that Fredrick's fatal drowning occurred just immediately AFTER a hard battle with Turks and he was so severely dehydrated that he was scrambing the area around for water. In fact when he did drown, he was recklessly paddling into the water without even observing it depth first. Some accounts even describe him as going deeper and deeper into the water while attempting to kneel to get some with his hands to drink until he unknowingly went so deep that he simply fell in. Even accounts of death in a relatively shallow parts of the river admit the king's frenzied state, worn physical body, and accidental tripping in the drowning. So its not the water itself alone that killed him but an exhausted state of mind and body was the main catalyst.

* 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.

* Before actual swimming techniques were developed, a lot of people could easily commit suicide by wading into a lake until the water level went over their heads. Pirates avoided learning how to swim to avoid a drawn out death, [[http://pirates.hegewisch.net/Pestilence_Pain.html#Drowning not that you could expect other sailors]] to know how to either.

* Giraffes are one of the few non-primate mammals that have no ability to swim, thanks to their high center of gravity and extremely long legs. However this isn't much of a hindrance for them as their height means they have an easy time finding places shallow enough for them to walk across a river.

* Creator/HirohikoAraki mentions in an author's note for volume 2 of ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo'' that he's come dangerously close to drowning multiple times ''[[UpToEleven while drinking a glass of water]]''.

!!Example Subpages

!!Other Examples

** Akane Tendō panics and cannot swim even when her life really does depend on it. Even wearing a ''flotation device'', she manages to sink like a rock. Even when the water is only knee-deep. Until she was explicitly told otherwise near the end of the manga, she honestly believed you were ''supposed to breathe while underwater''. Discovering that you have to hold your breath was nothing short of an epiphany for her.
** [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] [[KickTheDog in a very nasty way]] when, during the final arc of the manga, the villains kidnap her and ''deliberately'' drown poor Akane in a [[TransformationRay Jusenkyo spring]], creating the [[CloningBlues Spring of Drowned Akane]]. Fortunately, her experience with drowning is so extensive, she survived the ordeal. But it was still [[ContinuityNod a surprisingly cruel reference]] to a character flaw that was always treated for comedy.
** Akane's swimming skills, or lack thereof, has earned her the nickname "hammergirl."

* ''Anime/SonicX'':
** In the first episode, Sonic falls into a swimming pool and tried to get out for several seconds to no avail.
** Even better, in the episode "Sonic vs Knuckles", Sonic gets knocked into water by Knuckles. He instantly has a panic attack, splashing wildly and yelling. It takes him a few seconds to realise [[StopDrowningAndStandUp he's barely ankle deep]], with Knuckles looking on at him with an annoyed look.

* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':

* ''Franchise/TheDCU'':

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

* The famous 3-breasted cat-woman in ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier''. 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.

* ''Film/TheLastLeprechaun'': Tommy has to save Finn from drowing in a tub of water.

--> "Mercy, Maud," Mother sputtered. "Mercy, mercy, Maud. Do you think I like it down there in Davey Jones' locker?"
--> "Davey Jones' locker," scoffed Dad. "Why, you weren't even four feet underwater. You weren't even in his attic."

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', Harry’s inability to swim well comes up a few times. He almost drowned in both the fourth and seventh books when he’s forced to swim. In the sixth, Dumbledore (who’s 115) has to do the swimming in the Horcrux lake because Harry can’t.

[[folder:Multiple Media]]
* All ''{{Toys/Bionicle}}'' stone characters sink like, well, '' stones'' and being [[{{Cyborg}} mostly mechanical]] won't save them from drowning, as nearly everyone in the setting has lungs and requires oxygen.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E7TheUnicornAndTheWasp "The Unicorn and the Wasp"]], the Vespiform, a giant alien wasp, drowns after being lured into a perfectly still lake.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/TheBoyWhoFell'': While everyone is hanging around a pool while waiting to arrive at the next region, Sorian literally chucks Quartz into the water in a fit of rage. Unfortunately, being a rock demon, he can't float and immediately begins drowning. Later, Quartz is seen yelling at Sorian for nearly killing him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]

* In ''Website/{{Cracked}}'':
** [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19705_the-5-most-spectacular-landscapes-earth-that-murder-you.html Landscapes That Murder You]] all but names this trope when describing the Bolton Strid (see Real Life below):
--->''It's exactly how water works in a video game: It looks all stupid and harmless, but the second your foot touches the surface, you get some bullshit drowning animation and die instantly.''
** The #16 [[http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_388_27-science-lessons-as-taught-by-famous-video-games/ Science Lesson As Taught by Famous Video Games]] is that Altair + [=H2O=] = death.
* ''WebAnimation/TheMostPopularGirlsInSchool'': Trisha nearly drowns in the season 5 premier... in the shallow end of the pool... while wearing water wings... despite being a rather tall teenage girl. Mackenzie has to try to fish her out of the water with a hook, before Trisha realizes she can StopDrowningAndStandUp. And apparently, this isn't the first time this has happened.
-->'''Trisha:''' Well, I'm going to go for a dip in the pool.\\
'''Brittnay and Mackenzie:''' ''(immediately)'' [[SpeakInUnison Stay in the shallow end!]]\\
'''Trisha:''' ''(exasperated)'' I ''KNOW''!
* ''WebAnimation/DSBTInsaniT'': Water doesn't put Fire Guy out, he just can't swim!
** Robo won't short-out in water, he just can't swim.

* 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 ([[DeathIsCheap 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.

* Panthro from ''WesternAnimation/Thundercats2011'' is a ''master'' of this ''technique''.

* ''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 [[LotusEaterMachine a simulation]] because [[AGlitchInTheMatrix Numbuh 4 is swimming]] at a pool party.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'': Lila.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Toph mostly compensates for being blind [[DisabilityNegatingSuperpower by sensing vibrations through the ground]]. This doesn't work in water, so she never learned to swim.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'', Jake meets a mermaid named Silver who can't swim because she's [[IronicFear hydrophobic]]. She gets better, though.

* Hawk in A.T.O.M. (at least in the first season).
* Adolescent Shimiwe, from ''Inami'', French cartoon about Amazonian tribes. This case resulted in a lot of problems, because the river was always near.

* 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. The whole incident may also be a simple myth that never actually happened.
** There have, however, been instances where Knights fell into mud and were trampled by others in the charge, causing them to drown ''that'' way.

*** Some historians even state that he was suffering from symptoms of cardiovascular disease and other conditions associated with old age during this campaign and the drowning may not even have killed him but a sudden fatal stroke or heart attack.

* In at least one episode in [=WW2=], light Russian tanks crossed frozen rivers, [[TryAndFollow daring German pursuers to do the same]]. But a Tiger tank weighed in at fifty tons as opposed to twenty-two...

** And in Normandy, field marshal Rommel's plan to secure the area against an invasion included deliberately flooding vast parts of the hinterland as a defense against airborne troops. For paratroopers, who have to carry all their equipment themselves and would often get entangled in their parachutes when landing, those artificial marshes were formidable deathtraps - and in fact a large number of them drowned.

** Gorillas cannot swim. This was even referenced in ''Film/PlanetOfTheApes2001''.
** This applies to 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. Humans still have remnants of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammalian_diving_reflex mammalian diving reflex]], but it isn't very helpful most of the time. Another reason is gait: most mammals are quadrupedal, and even with no prior swimming experience a mammal that falls into a body of water will attempt to mimic the gait it uses on land. That's why quadrupeds like horses, elephants, tigers, bears, and rats are able to swim, and why dogs are able to "doggy paddle." Great apes are not quadrupedal, so their response is less "a walking motion that translates to paddling" and more "flailing and drowning."
** Chimpanzees and orangutans, however, can learn to swim in a similar manner as humans.

* Creator/HirohikoAraki mentions in an author's note for volume 2 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]]''.

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* ''WesternAnimation/DragonHunters'': Gwizdo. As a pilot among the flying islands, he doesn't remember about this skill until it suddenly becomes a matter of life and death. And even after, he prefers to not care about it, while his lifestyle of traveller gives a lot of chances to improve the situation with Lian-Chu's support.