Sometimes an open water swim can feel like hell. Everything hurts or nothing is going well. You might feel sick, be seasick, getting sore or just plain fatigued.

But you continue to swim. You forge on. You fight through the exhaustion, misery and frustration.

Those swims from hell can be in a variety of places including in the Devil’s Sea in Japan, to or from the Devil’s Teeth in the Farallon Islands, offshore from Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina, or around Devil’s Island in French Guiana.

Copyright © 2014 by World Open Water Swimming Association