"Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning"

[mrlynn]

And if you don't recognize it, you may be too late: you've got only 30-60 seconds!

My daughter posted this on her Facebook page:

http://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/

Read it!

/Mr Lynn

[the_poochies]

Everyone - no matter what the age - should learn how to swim.

[M A V I C]

the_poochies wrote:
Everyone - no matter what the age - should learn how to swim.

I was just about in my teens before I learned to swim. Only rich people had pools or access to them.

[$tevie]

My husband is a heart patient, and although he takes excellent care of himself and DOES know how to swim, he got in a situation once where he did almost drown, but the alertness of his friend prevented it.

They were swimming off the side of the friend's boat, which the rest of us were still sitting on, it wasn't anchored and was very slowly, kind of imperceptibly drifting away. Our friend climbed back aboard and was drying himself off and looked around for my husband and noticed that he was just quietly floating around. He immediately jumped back in and called for a life ring which one of us threw to him. He swam to my husband and brought him back to the boat.

My husband told me that he had been swimming around when he noticed the boat seemed to be drifting away, so he decided to swim back to it. As he paddled quickly along he began to feel really tired and decided to stop and catch his breath. Well, he barely could catch his breath and was beginning to panic because he really couldn't call out nor wave his arms; it was taking everything he had to keep treading water. He said if our friend hadn't seen him he is sure he would have slipped under the water and drowned.

Very frightening and a real eye opener about watching out for each other when in the water!

[lafinfil]

the_poochies wrote:
Everyone - no matter what the age - should learn how to swim.

My mother insisted that all of my sisters and I learned to swim, and my sisters have insisted that all their kids learn too.
Lessons at our city and school pools cost very little and I believe there are even waivers if you can not afford it.

[Pam]

I was a lifeguard for a number of years. I could spot trouble before it became bad. Once, like that story, I jumped in after a 5 year old who had just gone down the slide but was too tired to swim anymore. His mom was sitting right beside the slide chatting. Her eye practically bugged out of her head when I handed her son to her.

[pinkoos]

Wow, thank you so much for this link.

[prymsnap]

I remember one of the first times I was in an ocean. I was amazed at how easy it was to float in salt water and was enjoying the ride. I wound up way, way out in no time. I'm a decent swimmer but the tide was very strong. Panic. Fortunately a strong young man swam out and got me.

[hal]

$tevie wrote:
My husband is a heart patient, and although he takes excellent care of himself and DOES know how to swim, he got in a situation once where he did almost drown, but the alertness of his friend prevented it.

They were swimming off the side of the friend's boat, which the rest of us were still sitting on, it wasn't anchored and was very slowly, kind of imperceptibly drifting away. Our friend climbed back aboard and was drying himself off and looked around for my husband and noticed that he was just quietly floating around. He immediately jumped back in and called for a life ring which one of us threw to him. He swam to my husband and brought him back to the boat.

My husband told me that he had been swimming around when he noticed the boat seemed to be drifting away, so he decided to swim back to it. As he paddled quickly along he began to feel really tired and decided to stop and catch his breath. Well, he barely could catch his breath and was beginning to panic because he really couldn't call out nor wave his arms; it was taking everything he had to keep treading water. He said if our friend hadn't seen him he is sure he would have slipped under the water and drowned.

Very frightening and a real eye opener about watching out for each other when in the water!

Same thing happened to me once backpacking in the mountains. Last day of the trip and gettingt ready to leave, my two buddies decided to do one last swim to the little island in the lake and back. I'm not the best swimmer, but I've never had a problem before.

The swim took more out of me than I expected and the guys were ready to go back before I have really caught all of my breath back. I went slowly, but my energy started to decline rapidly. I was sure that I'd make it back to the shore, but was concerned that I was going to deplete ALL of my energy that was needed for the hike out.

Pride was not an issue, I yelled at them and told them that I was in a bit of trouble. They waited for me to catch up then each took an arm and helped me back.

No real danger, BUT if the swim was just a little longer and if I was alone... it could have been a real battle to stay alive. I'm quite cautious about these situations now...

[Lew Zealand]

Thanks for the link mrlynn.

Except now I have a stupid Phil Collins song stuck in my head. Grrrr!