21/08/2022
Keep safe on your holidays!
1. Respect the water
2. Know your limits
3. Sea swimming is very different to pool swimming
4. If you get in trouble, float like a starfish on your back
Yesterday my family and I were swimming with turtles in the ocean. Various people getting on and off the boat to sort out snorkels etc and returning.
I‘d just come up from watching a giant turtle swim underneath me and checked on my Son, also swimming. He’d realised that another (adult) family member had got into trouble and was trying to help.
When someone is in trouble in the water they will often grab in to the nearest person for help and inadvertently push them under the water to save themselves. I had to quickly push my Son away from the adult to prevent this occurring (although credit to my Son, he was holding his own very well).
The adult had been offered a life jacket to snorkel with but found it too uncomfortable to swim with so taken it off. Discomfort is not worth taking the risk especially in a weak to avaerage swimmer.
The sea wasn’t overly rough, the children (supervised) were happily swimming around, but the adult in question panicked and when panic sets in all logic tends to go out of the window.
In that state to keep their head above water a person will start to ‘ladder climb’ which is tiring and dangerous.
Popped the adult on to his back, kept his head above water and in a rescue swim headed back to the boat. The boat was slowly moving away from us so I signalled to the skipper to stop. He immediately jumped into help and between us within seconds the adult was recovered to safety aboard the boat. It’s one thing swimming/rescuing in a pool, but in the sea there are so many more factors such as the current, drift, other boats to consider.
