Submitted by lemontreelemur t3_yvg986 in todayilearned
A lifeguard told me that one of the main things they look for is eye contact. “A drowning person calls for help with their eyes”
If we're throwing out one line of helpful information: if you ever think you're drowning KICK YOUR GOD DAMN LEGS.
I used to be a lifeguard and when people are panicky in the water they claw at the water to try and climb out of it. But they don't kick their legs. Your legs are the most powerful muscle groups on your body, drowning people use them as a weight to drown with. Swimming people use them to kick.
One big panic inducing aspect of drowning in an ocean is the wave action - even small ones - splashing water into the victim’s open mouth. They are unable to time the waves and simply aspirate as much air as possible but a small splash of sea water can make them gag and gasp and exacerbate the panic.
When I was in middle school on a guided snorkeling trip, I accidentally inhaled water through the snorkel. I couldn't catch my breath esp with waves crashing into my mouth. I struggled to get to shore, it's hard to do a freestyle stroke when you're in a coughing fit, so I doggy paddled. I was a very coordinated kid and generally felt confident when swimming, but once the coughing started it was just a cascade I couldn't break out of. In one poorly timed breath I went from being perfectly fine to deep trouble.
Yes a pool swimmer can easily be caught off guard in a dynamic environment like the ocean, even close to shore. Currents and waves make swimming a different experience in the ocean. And as you said, choking on an unexpected splash of salty water into your mouth and possibly into your windpipe can be a sudden jarring moment that puts you into a distressed state of mind almost immediately. An untrained ocean swimmer can be quickly overwhelmed even if they know how to swim in pool conditions.
I remember in swim class having a contest of treading with just your legs then just your arms. The arms contest is the only one that had a winner because the legs contest went on for the entire class
The lifeguard test included diving to the bottom of a ten foot pool, recovering a brick, swimming to the surface, holding the brick above your head for some time (2 minutes maybe?) And then treading water without your arms for 10 minutes. It wasn't super easy but in my several years as a lifeguard I don't remember anyone failing
I mean, if we're giving advice, I'm going to go with "Fucking learn how to swim! It might save your life one day!". Think that should about cover it.
That is obviously good advice, but it isn’t attainable for a lot of people. People in lower income areas, and people without economic resources often don’t have regular access to things like swimming pools, or the money to pay for lessons etc. So leaving things at “fucking learn to swim” doesn’t help everyone. Although it is good advice for people able to!
As one of the charity-case-poor never-learned-to-swim people
Another bit of sound advice I keep to is "don't go in the water: you can't swim"
Out of curiosity, is learning to swim something you intend to do, or have you just resigned yourself to staying away from water?
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Thats so interesting to me. I have lived near lakes my whole life, so we learned to swim early, but I can't imagine not knowing it, even if I don't swim more than a few times a year. I think the knowledge is more reassuring than anything.
Congrats on not drowning though! Keep up that streak!
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Lake lemonade. I got the joke, but the idea of lemonade made from lake water...I shudder.
People simply do not think when they panic. As a rescue diver one of the key things you practice is how to save someone who simply forgot to inflate their buoyancy control device on the surface.
In case anyone is wondering, you approach them and tell them to inflate it. If they do not, you submerge yourself before you get too close and come up behind them. Then you inflate your own BCD while wrapping your legs around their tank, reach around and inflate their BCD for them.
As one of the swimming people, your arms pull you through the water much more than the legs do.
Drowning people aren't going for propulsion, they're basically trying to tread water. Your legs are very good at keeping you above water, and have the advantage that even without knowing how to "properly" kick your feet just moving them quickly will usually keep you afloat. Plus, it's not like they're going to stop using their arms.
me face down in the water: 😵
You missed the eye-contact window, try again next time
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