What does sinking feel like (and additional question)

[miketallica]

I've been sinking for a long time now (although I haven't gone in several years). It started in shallow mud, ankle then to knee. Eventually I found a local pit that actually use to be a part of an old mill so it was a nice hole and was fed by a local creek and swampy area (original mill goes back to late 1700's - 1800's). That pit got me up to my chest, I poked at it with long sticks first to test the depth. As curiosity goes, I wanted to go deeper and so I would continue to sink at that location but go on an angle to get up to my neck. That spot lasted me a long time (started when I was about 15 years old and now, I’m in my late 40’s).
From sinking at that first location I learned some good things, the first of which was by accident. I use to bike and run about the woods, one early winters day I was mountain biking back by the swamp and decided to go for a run through it as there was think ice already. I broke through at one spot and sank up to my thighs. I was able to quickly get out due me wearing spandex biking tights, the mud wasn’t able to for a sloppy suction around my legs. From that point on I have always sank with something tight on my body vs. something baggy that could have air forced out due to the compression of the mud and thus making it harder to get out. (I know because once I sank in old army pants). Footwear. No boots, rubber boots, waders, bulky sneakers and so on. Again, suction. I started using tight fitting footwear and eventually settled on men’s Irish dance ghillies. They are form fitting and lace around your foot and ankle, making in near impossible to come off. Good footwear is important because you don’t know what is down there. And the last thing you want is a deep cut on your foot deep in the mud with decades of mud and grime getting in.
Test the mud, have a plan on how you are getting out before you get in. Start somewhere shallow then as your confidence builds, work your way in deeper. Remember the last thing you want is to be on the news as fire fighters rescue you and you’re trying to explain to family and friends why you are on the evening news. “So…Yeah…I have this fetish with quicksand and deep mud and I like sinking in it…”
I’ve only been scared once when I tried some river mud in south NJ, got up to my thighs and it was so thick I knew that was my limit and got out right away. Also have a clean-up plan, clean clothing plan and how to clean up and get changed in a place where you won’t be seen and if people might be around how you’ll handle yourself and what your story will be.
Good luck, stay safe and have fun. And take at least some of my advice.

Hey, I also live in South Jersey, and I was curious of where some of these good spots you found would be, and whether or not you could safely assume privacy. That being said, I’m also very curious what your “story” would be if spotted. Personally, if I was going to sink, I’d want to do it naked, so that part could be especially troublesome.

[Sinkman61]

I live in NE Florida. This area is a heaven for everything that’s sinking, as theirs over 30,000 acres of tidal mud within a half hour drive of my home. Or, for days when I’m less picky, there’s the option of having mud that’s literally a 30 second walk from the backside of my house. But unfortunately, for me, it’s not even worth the cleanup effort. Especially when all the other mud is so damned amazing. I prefer tidal mud over any other kind because of its so incredibly sticky. Thus, it makes an unrelenting amount of suction that can really hold you down in place. I faced the longest escape effort I’ve ever dealt with a few weeks back. Getting myself free of that mud actually started getting a bit nerve wrecking. I had sunk down to the tops of shoulders which was probably deeper than a really should’ve gone considering the thickness of the mud and just how sticky it felt. In this particular spot, the consistency was roughly 50/50. 50% sand to 50% tidal mud. There was more sand than usual, so it had a lot of extra holding power (suction) that I wasn’t fully expecting. Additionally, I was wearing a set of heavy leather work boots. They helped to give the quicksand a bit of extra grip. When it came time to make my escape, I found that I was literally locked in place, barely able to move. Even pulling my arms out proved to be very difficult. So working my way back up was going to take far, far longer than I had before the next high tide was due to arrive. So I started digging. I dug for nearly a full hour just to free up and break the suction around my waist. But my legs still weren’t about to budge free. They were both still being firmly locked in place. I needed to get the quicksand off and away from the sides and front of my knees. Keep in mind, I’m STILL shoulder deep in this mud, but now there’s also a growing pile of mud up on top of the mud bank to one side as well. But it was enough, as I was FINALLY able to budge my left knee. At this point a full hour had passed, yet I recognized that I STILL had at least another full hour to go. It took every bit of that and then some. The problem was, every time I would attempt to free one leg, the other would become entrapped again. And it didn’t take much mud to get restock in. Three to four inches was more than enough to get my foot completely stuck again.

So how does it feel to actually find yourself hopelessly sinking down deep into quicksand? Simply put, AMAZING. Especially if you enjoy having your body squeezed tightly. You start to notice the tightness of the mud when you’re about knee deep. You would think that with the ground squeezing in around your calves that you would stop sinking, but nope, that’s not about to happen. Despite the mud feeling tighter and tighter as you slowly descend, you STILL descend nonetheless. When you get down to your upper thighs they begin to feel as though they’re being squeezed in against each other. And you’ll think, as my body becomes wider I should no longer sink because the hole I’m stuck in just isn’t that wide. And yet, you keep right on sinking. But if you’re very careful, you shouldn’t go down much further. However, once your buttocks slip beneath the surface, getting yourself free has just become much, MUCH harder. And unless you’re very careful, it’s very easy to sink down even further. Especially if you happen to be in tidal mud. That’s because the buoyancy point if basically irrelevant. The suction created by tidal mud is more than enough to easily overcome the upward force of “buoyancy” that typically allows us to float on top of quicksand. It’s simple physics. The fact that our bodies are slightly less dense that quicksand means that we SHOULD stop sinking down around your belly button. That’s because your body is roughly 20 pounds LIGHTER than the quicksand it would displace. So you stop sinking when equalibrium is achieved. But any further movement can cause you to sink a bit deeper. Unfortunately for you, the downward pull created by the sand’s suction is FAR, FAR GREATER than the upward pull from your lighter body. So instead of floating, your movements will only drive you down deeper and deeper. You will stop sinking before you drown. But that’s got far more to do with the friction and relentless pressure of the mud that’s sealing up tightly against the sides of your body that’s creating that massive amount of suction than the fact that your body wants to float back up. That only happens when you’re sinking in thinner fresh water clay or in a bog (which isn’t very sticky at all). You WON’T FLOAT BACK UP IN TIDAL MUD. Simply put, you stop sinking because you’ve finally sank down so deep that you simply can’t move hardly at all anymore. And you’re really stuck at this point, so you better know how to free yourself or you’re going to be there for a LONG, LONG time. But the feeling when being stuck so deep is absolutely incredible. There’s nothing else like it. Your body is going through sensory overload, especially if all that quicksand is actually in direct contact with your skin. I find that my maximum enjoyment is just when I’m about to slip completely beneath the surface. At that point I’m actually submerged, but I’m still able to breathe, as the mud is just closing in over my face. It’s as though you’re getting an intense “full body” blow job. It’s incredibly erotic, extremely intense. There’s times when I’ll just allow myself to be suspended in that position for an hour or more before I make any effort whatsoever to free myself. At this point, escape typically takes about 20-30 minutes.