Quicksand Fans

Pure sticky tidal mud...bottomless as well.

looks like a great location,. great pics,. thanks

Thanks for sharing!

Is it really that deep? Or did you have to force yourselves under?

did you manage to achieve submersion? would have looked great on video i bet

Why no videos ?

freaking hot bear too, would love to see him go under

Here’s a few more pictures that go along with the others...

There’s also a YouTube video called “Sinking down in really deep mud...” by Mudman Fan. That was taken after these pictures. The pictures themselves came from a failed attempt at the first video, but that video kept pausing, making it really choppy. For some reason my GoPro was acting up. I’ve bought a new black edition GoPro this year, so I intend to make more videos when it starts to cool off. The mud is no longer cool, so it doesn’t provide any relief from the miserably HOT Florida sun that we get this time of the year. And it’s much too hot to be outside stuck in a mud bank.

To answer a few of your questions...no, you don’t have to force yourself under as long as you’re in a thicker area. You don’t even need to use your arms at all. You can do a nice slow sink by simply pushing each foot just a bit deeper down into the mud until you go completely under. That’s because this mud has been supercharged with salt. Salt makes the clay part of quicksand much more viscous and sticky. That in turn, DRASTICALLY INCREASES THE AMOUNT OF SUCTION THAT THE QUICKSAND CAN CREATE. Once the suction is enough to overcome your upward buoyancy, you can sink right under. So saying that it’s “IMPOSSIBLE” to sink under in quicksand is actually false. It’s just unlikely. Normally, the quicksand that can hold you under becomes so thick that you can’t move enough anymore to even push your feet further down, even if you’re panicking. Thus, you stop sinking. But this mud is rather unique. In this video, I’m out about dead center of the lake at the mud’s thinnest point. The mud simply doesn’t get thick enough to stop your ability to keep on sinking. And being that the suction is more powerful than your upwards buoyancy, you’ll continue to sink UNTIL you stop moving around. Thus, YES, YOU CAN DROWN IN QUICKSAND. BUT...only if you’re panicking and the quicksand is just the right consistency. Further out in the middle where the posted YouTube video takes place, you have to pull yourself under. The mud just isn’t thick enough to hold you completely under. Thus, the suction is also slightly less. But you’ll still sink down to your chin before you finally stop. At that point you start floating. You can see that in the video. I was trying to go completely under, but kept popping back up as soon as I would stop pulling myself under. Getting out was much easier as well, as I was able to just float my legs back up to the surface. That certainly wasn’t the case with the pictures. They too were taken in the same muddy lake, but closer to the shore where the mud was thicker.

There are many areas along the tidal Estuary where a panicked person can actually drown in quicksand. Those places have just the right consistency, so they create enough suction to hold you down while they’re not quite thick enough to stop someone from sinking IF they keep moving around. But such spots generally have to be searched for. Its more of the norm to find spots that are not thick enough to hold you down or are too thick to continue sinking. You have to find an area where the mud is just right. Then you can simply continue to sink until you drown...IF you continue to panic. Your chances of drowning in such a spot are virtually nonexistent, because such spots are usually further out from the shore, which obviously means that if you “accidentally” fell into quicksand, you would’ve fallen in quicksand next to the shore where it’s just a bit too thick to actually sink under. For the unfamiliar, it’s far more dangerous to end up sinking in a thicker area and then not being able to extract yourself before the tide comes back in. And again, you drown. Just not from the mud, but from the tide covering you over. That actually happened a few years ago up in Jacksonville, which sits at the northern end of NE Florida’s tidal estuary. A female had ventured out onto a mud flat at low tide and found herself sinking. She panicked and as a result of her numerous attempts at escaping, ended up sinking down to her neck. Despite her yelling for help (which brought a person to her aid, but he was completely unable to free her), she drowned when the tide came back in. So don’t think it can’t happen because it can. Fortunately, nearly everyone in this community knows NOT TO PANIC because it’ll only cause you to sink down deeper (which is exactly what most of us hope for to begin with, but...we know how to actually and successfully escape).

That pit looks damned amazing. I usually have to travel to New England for my tidal fix. If I'm ever in Jacksonville (probably to visit the NAS), I'd definitely be up for a sink with you!