Courtesy of Wout Hendriks (@vitalicsportnl).

Recently, there have been great white sharks, yellow-bellied sea snakes, hammerhead sharks, and orcas frequenting the shorelines of Orange County, California. But Dutch triathlete Wout Hendriks of the Netherlands experienced a different kind of marine encounter. He shares his story.

Training harder than you would like, analysing your technique in painstaking detail, and endlessly staring at that black line on the bottom of the pool: all of these things can help you become a faster swimmer. But experience has taught me that, when it comes to swimming really fast, nothing beats being chased by a rogue beaver.

I discovered this last summer during a weekend away with friends in Maastricht, the Netherlands. Ironman Estonia was just around the corner, so swimming was non-negotiable.

After a bit of searching, I found a canal where I could enjoy a peaceful swim. Or so I thought…

The first kilometer was wonderfully quiet. There were no boats in sight, just a few hissing swans that I had to give a wide berth. Little did I know that the swans were actually the most accommodating residents of the canal. After about a kilometer, I suddenly spotted a little head swimming above the surface out of the corner of my eye. My first thought was, “A beaver. How cool. Although it’s a bit strange to see one in broad daylight.” My second thought was, “Why does that thing keep swimming towards me?”

That was when I realized this wasn’t the cute, cartoon-style beaver I remembered from childhood. This was a full-blown rogue beaver, apparently not particularly happy about having an unfamiliar visitor near its lodge, and seemingly prepared to do something about it.

What now? Get to the shore as fast as possible. I was swimming in the middle of a canal, I sprinted to shore, but since it was a canal, I could not get out and there it attacked me. I was so full of adrenaline and screaming like a pig. I reckon I must have set a pretty impressive personal best for the 50 meters at that point.

Once I reached the shore, the danger seemed to have passed. I couldn’t see the beaver’s little head above the water anymore, so I assumed my rather clumsy swimming technique had somehow managed to scare it away. But even that wasn’t enough to put this beaver off. Just as I was trying to come up with a plan to climb the high canal wall, I was suddenly bitten right in the hip in an underwater surprise attack.

I tried to push the beaver away and scare it off with a few primal screams, all while attempting to climb out of the water. Easier said than done. The canal wall was considerably higher than the water’s surface.

Caught between the shore and the beaver, I tried to grab it by the scruff of its neck and pull it away, but I also needed both hands to get myself out of the water: not exactly an ideal situation. After a few more bites, scratches and primal screams (also known as hysterical shrieking), I finally managed to roll myself onto the shore and assess the damage.

I had a few bleeding scratches on my hands and hip, and there were several holes in my wetsuit. Fortunately, the suit had absorbed most of the damage. Mr Beaver gave me one final, challenging look before proudly turning around and heading back towards his lodge.

And just like that, my encounter with the rogue beaver came to an end. My walk of shame back to the starting point began, as I was no longer brave enough to get back into the water.

So, if you find ordinary swimming a little boring, or sometimes need some extra motivation to really push yourself, I can highly recommend the rivers and canals of South Limburg in the Netherlands. There is simply no better motivation for setting a new personal best than having a furious beaver on your tail.

Note: My Ironman Estonia race turned out to be considerably slower than I had hoped. Understandable, really: there weren’t any angry beavers there.

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