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People who drown because they couldn't swim...wtf?

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I can swim but am not a really good swimmer. My stepson was on swim team and that dude can tread for hours. He's actually a big guy (6'1" ~240lbs) and has no problem just hanging out in the middle of the lake. I can go a long distance doing several different strokes if I had to but I'd prob die if I were stuck in the middle of a lake. My daughter learned how to swim when she was 2-3 and she's on swim team now too.
 
destrekor said:
Not necessarily. I was never given proper lessons and I absolutely love the water. Now I've never really had the knack for "proper" swim styles like true freestyle (which isn't actually "free" it's a strict style lol), never got into competitive swimming, but I can hang, and can use multiple methods to keep afloat. When it comes to swimming, good form is a bonus -- having the basics enough that you can splash around, have fun, and not drown... that's what matters most. This is knowledge that nobody should go without - drowning is too damn easy to avoid and while most won't find themselves in a live or die situation having fallen into water somehow, you sure want to know how to at least tread water if that happens.

I learned because my parents taught me the basics. They put floaties on me and taught me basics from very early in life (toddler?).

I understand inner-city kids not learning because access to pools isn't a given, lessons can be expensive, and if they aren't by a large body of water then it's just a rarity to have the opportunity.

We camped a lot and I ended up learning at a campground's pond, I think. Also site of a near drowning on my part after thinking I could reach the buoys without floaties. That.. didn't work out so well. Puked out some water once I got back to shore lol (did more swallowing water than taking water into lungs though because while the water was over my head, once I sank enough I could kick off the bottom and resurface. But I just sank like a rock back then.




Did your parents not know how to swim?
Living near a shore, a very swimmable body of water, I just can't see a situation where adults that knew how to swim didn't impart that knowledge on kids. It's one thing if there are no swimmable bodies of water nearby, but it doesn't take much to give a kid enough experience to at least tread water. Now if parents don't know how to swim either, that's different, but frankly I consider that something that should have been corrected as early as possible.
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My parents were working a ton when I grew up. I didn't go to the beach with my parents. In the summer we worked 2 jobs. I didn't have a lot of free time. I know where you're coming from though. I should had been taught to swim, and it wasn't a high priority.
 
HS kid, 17, just drowned last week. Footballer, fit and could swim. Best guess, he went under and lost his bearings in the Savannah river.

That's some sad shit, right there.
BoomerD said:
Why do people your customers go swimming with both hands tied behind their back...and concrete overshoes on?
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That's the amateurs down the skreet. Mine are simple slip and falls.
 
Actually they say when you are deep enough you really do lose track of which way is up. Even experienced divers can get messed up by that. Same with airline pilots if you can't see the horizon and the avionics happen to fail. There has been crashes because of that.
 
I don't think i had any proper lessons. Mom & Dad taught me... and i assume they taught my older brother & sisters too. We were always fishing & camping growing up so we needed to know.
I haven't swam in years though but i'm sure i could keep afloat & moving if needed.


And then you have guys like Joe Delaney who tried to save 3 kids even though he couldn't swim.
I'm not sure why his story has stuck with me all these years.
 
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I was close to a drowning 2 years ago. A basketball player was on a canoe and fell off. As he fell off he took his life jacket off. I don't know why. I was on the dock and a lady is screaming that a man fell off a canoe. Everyone went to the location where he fell. Some even dove in the water. Divers from law enforcement came and there were also divers in the vicinity. They even brought the helicopter. The water was calm too. Never saw him again until the next day.
 
I just dont understand how people can get on a boat or other flotation device if they cant swim, it boggles my mind. Learning to swim when i grew up was a top priority for me as we live near the ocean and i wanted to be able to go on boats.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Actually they say when you are deep enough you really do lose track of which way is up. Even experienced divers can get messed up by that.
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I think this is only for people who suffer vertigo or are susceptible to it, or if they are experiencing gas narcosis.

I've been down 100ft and it was obvious which direction was up the entire time. You still feel gravity and you still see bubbles which always go up.

Also when you go deep (below 100ft) there is a chance that you can get gas narcosis which will have an effect on your decision making and general mindset, so that can factor into people losing track of which way is up.
 
purbeast0 said:
Not everyone can do that though. I can't float on my back at all and it was actually what made the 10 minute tread the toughest part of my entire open water certification. I am just a sinker.

On the positive side though, because of that, I really don't need much weight at all, even with a wetsuit on. With my new setup, I actually don't need any weight at all, which is really nice.

I am also not the greatest swimmer by any means but I know how to swim. But, I will snorkel for hours and hours on end, and I was in a pool yesterday underwater for about 90 minutes straight doing SCUBA stuff.
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Weird, you sound exactly like me... My legs go down first when I try to float on my back haha... I can't say I can tread water for 10 mins though!
 
Here along the Florida coadt, I think rip currents/panic is the cause of a lot of drownings. The current starts pulling them out and their natural inclination is to fight it by swimming the opposite direction. This results in exhaustion and them quickly going under. That and drunkenness.
 
I'd like to say that I know I would immediately know to start swimming parallel to the shore or otherwise perpendicular to the current. Because these are things I know. But I have never even witnessed a rip current. I vacationed often in Myrtle Beach growing up and experienced some strong lateral currents but I was eating up the waves with my body board - but otherwise just haven't been to the ocean that often. And these days, you just don't swim in the Western basin of Lake Erie - the algae is terrible. So that's my experience with large bodies of water, apparently not enough to have experienced one yet. If I saw signs of one I'd probably try my hand at it under semi-controlled circumstances (knowing it's there and purposefully entering it) which would help ease the concern of panic.

With the ocean, I suspect a lot of the panic that sets in is also because of depth and the unknown. As you get further out, I bet some start getting a bit nervous about sharks and desperately want to get closer to shore first and foremost, but damn this rip current is making that hard. Such people have priority #1 as getting closer to shore as opposed to escaping the current and as panic and/or fear sets in, this just gets exasperated.
 
Mayne, I'm not gonna lie: if you're in a dream, and you're drowning...I'm not going to dive in to save you, buddy.
 
On floating on your back, and the common "my legs go down"
Do you have a huge lungful of air?
I found that adding buoyancy with full lungs will fix it most of the time. Fill up, and then shallow breathe normally. It's a weird technique but it works as expected. You're not floating high, but your face is out in calm seas.
My legs never get close to the surface but I don't breathe through my kneecaps. 😀
 
My parents never had me do it anywhere. First real test was in HS where I just got a doctor's note and skipped it. I signed up for a class in college and while I can do the freestyle, I absolutely hate the feeling of my nose in the water. I can dead-man float and can do a lap with my head above water but obviously gets tiring. Still won't put my head in the water even if wading in a pool... can't stand the feeling.

I know the importance of it and we threw our kids in early. Much less to worry about.
 
rh71 said:
My parents never had me do it anywhere. First real test was in HS where I just got a doctor's note and skipped it. I signed up for a class in college and while I can do the motion, I absolutely hate the feeling of my nose in the water. I can do a lap with my head above water but obviously gets tiring. Still won't put my head in the water even if wading in a pool... can't stand the feeling.

I know the importance of it and we threw our kids in early. Much less to worry about.
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Glad I'm not the only one who hates going under. When I do go I usually block my nose and go under just so I can get my hair wet but to actually swim and not block my nose, I just can't do it. It's even worse in a pool, the chlorine burns.
 
Rifter said:
I just dont understand how people can get on a boat or other flotation device if they cant swim, it boggles my mind. Learning to swim when i grew up was a top priority for me as we live near the ocean and i wanted to be able to go on boats.
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As above, I can't properly swim, but I have no fear going into a lake/ocean as long as there are safety vests. Even on a boat I just assume they have them somewhere and the chances of something happening are very slim. We just went to a class 3 whitewater rafting trip as a family, vests make it completely fine. My kid fell in after we bumped a rock and was picked up by another raft beside us. He can swim but that tide makes swimming pretty useless while the vest takes over anyway.
 
When I was in college, I was on the rowing team. One of the mandatory skill tests was treading water for 5 minutes. There were a few guys under 5% body fat that simply did not float. They could swim, but didn't have the knack for staying up in one spot.
 
I miss swimming. It took me a few tries to figure out how to float on my back. The key for me was to relax.

I can hold my breath well so I enjoyed swimming with a mask on. I would swim like a fish in my neighbour's pool and chase the odd frog that got into it.
 
Scarpozzi said:
When I was in college, I was on the rowing team. One of the mandatory skill tests was treading water for 5 minutes. There were a few guys under 5% body fat that simply did not float. They could swim, but didn't have the knack for staying up in one spot.
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thank you I could not float
 
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