If someone gets into difficulty swimming...

[hermyweasley]

What does that actually mean?

I'm a terrible swimmer so have never been swimming in lakes or similar, but a teacher from my primary school recently died when swimming, it just said 'she got into difficulties'

How can that happen to a really strong swimmer? I'm thinking about the glee actress too.

A woman I went to school with and her husband died. He jumped in to save their dogs and got into difficulty because it had been terrible weather, the river was swelling and had a fast current. She then went in to help him but both got taken by the fast current.

I work in a role that requires us to have water safety training because we are working around/over water when we do site investigations. Our trainer was very blunt about the risks around water. He also worked as a rescue diver and he said that unless he is there when you get into difficulties, his job is 'recovery' not 'rescue'. If you get into difficulties in the water and someone has to phone for help to come, you are highly unlikely to survive.

People think they can swim a set distance because they can do it in a swimming pool but in cold water it is entirely different. You swim out, your muscles go, you can't keep swimming, you drown. If someone jumps in to try to help you, the same is likely going to happen to them.

His takeaway guidance was:
~ don't swim in open water
~ don't go in after someone in difficulties
~ throw something from the land for them to grab
~ just stay away from open water!

Water is unpredictable. I live near a very "safe" beach and earlier this year 5 very experienced surfers drowned in one incident. The scary thing is there were a number of other people surfing a bit further down the beach and they didnt encounter any problems. Its thought that the specific weather/tidal conditions generated a large volume of sea foam in that one spot which contributed (I admit I dont fully understand the technicalities)

I'm a cross channel swimmer and have also scuba dived for over 20 years, so experienced in cold, open water swimming. I have always been a very strong swimmer but when I started my cold water training in Dover Harbour for my Channel crossing, I could only manage 20 mins before showing symptoms of hypothermia, shaking, confused, loss of co-ordination. After an hour or so in cold water my hands became like claws, so trying to swim without being able to push water past my hands if that makes sense?

It took me two years of cold water training to make my crossing, if I'd just jumped in and tried to spend much more than an hour in cold water I wouldn't have been able to keep my head above water.

I knew a professional windsurfer who drowned - cold water shock when he fell off a jet ski.

Open water swimming is great fun as long as nothing goes wrong, because when it does there is very little that can be done to help.