The Strid: The ‘deadliest stretch of water’
Some youtuber tried to sonar it to get the depth and also tried throwing some video camera in it but it's muddy and turbulent so it's hard to get the big picture of how it works.
What would really be cool would be to have the 3d geometry of the river, and run it through water simulation software ; put a rag-doll in and see how the current would pull you down.
Constructing the 3d geometry is probably an interesting engineering challenge. Although there exists some off the shelf underwater lidar solutions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YevvMcc6Zu4 and underwater drones, it's likely to be too turbulent (and with air bubble) for them to stay in place at a known position to work properly out of the box (but maybe not because it seems to be possible to scuba dive the strid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUamSryCUK4).
Interesting story: my parents had a fashion business in Yorkshire, and one of their regular customers asked them to produce a t-shirt with the words "I jumped the strid" on it. We had no idea what the words meant. Turns out, in Yorkshire, jumping the strid was a way to express your love to your girlfriend. We got a few of those t-shirts made, and were surprised by the number of 50+ year old couples that bought them that summer!
On the history page of York Sub-Aqua club, they refer to members having regularly gone diving in the "Stridd" at Bolton Abbey in years gone past [1]. The only other reference I can find to diving in the Strid is in Youtube comments [2], which apparently suggest that the dives stopped some decades ago.
Anyone know differently?
EDIT: More at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUamSryCUK4, but sadly without progess as reported at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDskXBfyNes#t=179.
[1] https://york-diving.co.uk/index.php/history/
[2] https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/scub...
In case you haven't already seen Tom Scott's video about it: https://youtu.be/mCSUmwP02T8 .
It always warms my heart that The Strid is internet famous. My memory is walking by it and my grandad, not one for hyperbole, telling us how dangerous it was. Miss you gramps!
A YouTuber named, "Jack A Snacks" stuck a camera down the Strid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot8lr_5oHE4
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPO7cxHJgvw
Looks absolutely brutal.
I live 15 miles from there, its a beautiful, popular area, that is easily accessible via nearby carparks and riverside paths, so great for family visits. There are more challenging routes on the surrounding hills and moors, so attracts a variety of people there to enjoy the outdoors, its common for the large carparks to be completely full. I can't comment on the mortality rate at the Strid, the photos and videos do not do justice of how dramatic it is and how loud the water is where it escapes from the narrows. You only have to go a short distance downstream (1/4 mile) and there are safe paddling spots after the river widens again.
65 meters deep measured by the person in the second video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJFQXT6PIP8
>He was said to have been swallowed by the Strid in 1152 after trying to leap across.
As an American it's always startling to casually see a date that far back in history, and know a specific event such as the death of a child was recorded, and has been remembered for nearly a thousand years.
To save a click: the "100% mortality" thing is a local legend.
There are videos of people swimming it (not deliberately: it's a rapids, and they've fallen out of boats).
> 100% mortality rate
Not if you count kayaking[1]. In general I doubt that this is more dangerous than other whitewater creeks. They are all death traps that people can't normally survive swimming in, especially if it's hard to get out. The article seems to be based more on local legend than actual facts.
[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MkPUPxPfFHw
edit: different video, there are really lots of them folks
This reminds me of 'mekedatu' ('The Goat Cross') gorge in the path of river Kaveri in India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekedatu. The water here is similarly deceptive making it extremely dangerous. Many lives have been lost.
Is there like a really rough cross-diagram of this feature anywhere?
Mythbusters: looks like a job for "Buster" (the crash dummy).
OT: Am I wrong in thinking the correct word to use here would be "deceptive" instead of "deceiving"? "Deceiving" in this context just sounds wrong to me but I feel like I'm suddenly hearing it a lot these days.
I remember seeing a few videos on this, it's super interesting because there are accounts of how dangerous it is, going back hundreds of years. Fascinating stuff.
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> The most infamous life claimed by the stride is William de Romilly, the son of Lady Alice de Romilly, who owned the land. He was said to have been swallowed by the Strid in 1152 after trying to leap across.
Why was he infamous? I'm not finding much information on him at all.
Doesn't look like 100% mortality rate to me. This guy is pretty shit in a kayak, but his friends knew what to do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_q8KiEfW7k
It would be an epic demonstration to Crash test a fleet of iPhone 14’s and verify their waterproof capabilities.
I’ve seen many demonstrations since iPhone 12 of people just recording video in their fish tank.
This article is from 2021 but this was on HN 5 years ago:
The Strid's calm apperance is what scares me (calm at least from the photos, I imagine it's loud in person). Would admire from afar, avoid any off chance of slipping in.
It would be pretty cool to send an underwater drone down there, with power/video line to the surface, so it would be pretty lightweight and enough illumination to see in the water.
As soon as I saw the headline I thought that it sounds like something Tom Scott would create a video about... and then there is his video right in the article.
That is a genuine Yorkshire accent (i'm not sure which part), for those that are wondering. At least i think it is.
JavaScript Creek
Tom Scott introduced me to the Strid. God I love his content
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Did anyone try throwing an airtag / other location device there? Would it reappear in some river or would it get stuck underground?
Dump barrels of an environmentally friendly surfactant upstream, thus neutralizing the bubbles, foam, and froth temporarily.
An experienced scuba diver should go down there with a bright light and a camera... and a rope leading back to the surface
> Local legend has it that 100 percent of the people who have fallen into the Bolton Strid have died.
Official statics, anyone?
I thought the water itself was so impure that if you drink it then the mortality rate is 100%. That’s what the title suggested to me. But turns out it’s the river thats dangerous.
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Did you mean "deceptive" or "treacherous"?
The appearance of this article on HN strikes an uncanny valley for me. I independently recalled and told a friend about this river just a few hours ago, having not thought of it or done any digital interactions with the idea in probably more than a year. I searched it on DDG to show a picture. Now, suddenly, it’s #3 on HN.
Am I going mad? Is the surveillance state so deep in my subconscious that I fail to notice it’s observations? This article isn’t even tech related, why is it here?