To mention some water safety issues we all need to know?

[Northernlurker]

Having read of some awful tragedies over the weekend with open water I thought I would start a thread with a few points and others can add. Because not everybody has had the same exposure to open water risks so what is common sense to one person is utterly unknown to others.

Open water in the UK is cold. Really cold. Even on sunny days. The deeper you go, the colder. This can take even fit and well people by surprise.

Don't jump in to unknown water ever. We are a rocky country populated by messy people. Water hides rocks, logs, metal and all manner of hazards.

Piers and jetty lead out from the shore to deep water so boats can be accessed. Don't regard them as an extension of the shore. The water will be both deep and cold.

Swim parallel to the shore, not out to sea.

No inflatables in the sea ever.

Tides move faster than you can walk, know what your exit route is.

If you can't swim, don't go out of your depth. Don't try and help people in trouble. You help just as much by fetching help or fetching items people in the water can hold on to.

Make sure your teenagers know these principles.

And remember 'float to live'

@Hugoslavia I’m totally gonna give that a go. I also flail around a bit when my feet sink. So I’ll try your technique. Maybe it’s not about skinny legs after all!

Oh my god @Lougle that sounds terrifying. I had no idea minimum weight was so important.

@TheMoth

Dh does open water swimming. He does it at a designated time, with lots of other people. He wears a wetsuit and a float.

He won't swim in the seas near us and would never do it without knowing it was a designated swimming lake.

Good for him. Doesn't mean that other people shouldn't if they know what they are doing. I, like many others, swim very safely in a sea with no lifeguards, no wetsuit, and no float. We don't need any of them.

But every year people die where we swim because they have no idea what they are doing and never took the time to find out.

Glad the thread has been helpful. I certainly don't think we should keep kids away from water and swimming, it's just enabling them to do so safely.

School swimming for my DD...
Yr4... cancelled for Covid
Yr5... cancelled for Covid
Yr6... only the beginners. Children who can swim a length... no lessons.

Watch this video of Duncan Goodhew and Sharron Davies swimming in 10 degree water which is the U.K. average. The last minute is eye opening!

@Qwerty789 Using a swimming pool costs money that many parents on low incomes don't have - and that's assuming they can swim and/ or feel confident teaching their kids. It costs about £25 for a family to go to our local pool. That's money many couldn't find easily or at all. A lot of pools have also closed, so if you live in certain parts of the country your nearest pool might be 30 mins away by car. Assuming you even have a car!

Swimming lessons are expensive and often run at awkward times. Lessons in our area used to be at 4 or 5pm on a weekday, I was still at work then.

I was lucky I could afford to take my kids to a pool, and that they picked up swimming easily. I can barely swim myself and only learnt 2 years ago, prior to that I couldn't even tread water and had a real phobia about pools, hence I really wanted my children to learn young and be confident - which thankfully they are.

I live at Loch Lomond and it's a miracle - an absolute miracle only 1 teenager has died this Summer. That poor family were more an accident than deliberately swimming. It's to start raining tomorrow and I can't wait. Its been madness here with hordes of belligerent intoxicated teenagers arriving from far and wide - as well as local younsters.
People have to know where their kids are and what they are doing.

Excellent advice OP.

This advice needs to be actively spread in schools throughout the summer term. I remember as a teenager sneaking off with my friends and jumping in a reservoir with my mates. I also remember going to the river and building a swing on a tree, my friend got her foot stuck between 2 rocks after jumping off the swing. Luckily my older brother and cousin realised what happened and swam out to pull her free, the rest of us thought she was messing around. A couple of years later my cousins DP died after jumping in the same river to save a couple of young lads.

Sadly it’s not just kids though. I’ve watched several videos over the last week of parents encouraging their DCs to jump off rocks and swings into rivers and other bodies of water.

Even if you can swim, do not get into a body of water you do not know

I'm glad @WiddlinDiddlin added some common sense to the thread.

I swim year round in lakes, often without a wetsuit for short dips. I've never heard of a current that pulls you under, definite myth. Closest thing is very specific points in draining reservoirs but that's rare.

I'd also heard the statement about most water being barely above freezing below the surface. I'd never heard that until this past few weeks. Doesn't sound right in general.

What I expect catches people out and I've done it myself, when you think you're in depth and go to stand up but there is nothing there. You have stopped the act of swimming or treading water and stretched out your legs, you have to very quickly reorientate to a swimming position.

Here is Firkin Point on Loch Lomond. Just one popular spot. It looks like a little beach for campfires and paddling and swimming. Look at the drone picture of the enormous drop not too far out. Like going off a cliff. The temp difference and currents are killer. This is replicates in many popular spots around the Loch.

@Clem4579

Re paddling in lakes, especially non-swimmers, you need to be aware of shelves/ sudden drops. There's a bench next to Ullswater in the Lake District, dedicated to three young lads who drowned. I believe one of them went in the water up to about knee height, unknowingly stepped off a shelf, and the water was nearly 20ft deep after the shelf, his two friends drowned trying to save him.

That’s absolutely horrific. What a tragedy.

I assume they couldn’t swim and weren’t expecting there to be a drop.

I talk to friends all the time about wearing buoyancy aids when they are paddling / on SUPs. I just don’t seem to be able to get through to them. I explain about cold shock, and that you could also hit your head, but still they don’t listen. Very frustrating.

@lalafafa

someone mentioned ethnicity up thread, another poster said it was in bad taste. It is a problem and needs to be addressed. Not one child of colour could swim from DS's class in year 4, 12 kids. Most had never been in a pool or the sea.

5% of black adults and 80% of black children do not swim in England.
1 in 4 children who complete their primary education are unable to swim. According to the WHO, the risk of drowning is higher amongst minority ethnic communities.

thebsa.co.uk

If 5% of black adults don’t swim or can’t swim (not sure which one you mean) then that means 95% of them do swim or can swim - which is a huge number.

I’m pretty sure the percentage of people that can/do swim in Britain is no where near the 95% mark. If it was that would be great.

This is a great thread.
I always remind my kids (who are great swimmers) that the water is always stronger than any person & must be respected.

We river swim a bit & the rule is that you walk the bank much further down than you intend to swim so you know where there is a good place to get out. Makes it easier to relax & float if you know where you'll end up!

There's a large river we often swim in that has a burn feeding into it & at that point the current is just so strong & pushes you away from the bank. We see so many people trying to fight against the current there not realising that if they let themselves drift 20m further they will be taken into a gentle shallow bend

Other things to think about UK TIDE TIMES ONLINE I picked Newquay as an example location There are loads of other destinations available around the UK on site :-

www.tidetimes.org.uk/newquay-tide-times

Also good to watch for sewage alerts before going into sea especially in unfamiliar area. Two complete tide change cycles ( IN OUT, IN OUT ) approx 24 hours before entering a previously polluted zone :-

www.sas.org.uk/safer-seas-service/

RNLI beach safety advice and flag explanations. :-

rnli.org/-/media/rnli/downloads/on-the-beach-rnli-beach-safety-advice-english-version.pdf

@Happylittlethoughts stupid question perhaps but is the danger in that particular photo that you’d go to put your feet down and panic because there’s nothing there or is it the fact that the water is colder where it’s much deeper and then you get the shock?

We’ve had a fantastic week swimming outside this week and actually looking back now I’m worried that I’ve made some silly mistakes and perhaps been very lucky at times however I am an over anxious parent so am constantly keeping track of my children so maybe not, I don’t know. We would like to start SUP as a family but honestly after this last weekend or so I think is it worth it?

We were at a reservoir recently (good walking spot) and there was a big sign saying basically no matter how hot it is this water is freezing cold, and warning people against swimming. I never swim in natural water anyway as in just not a strong swimmer so prefer to be in a pool where I feel safer and there’s more people around/more predictable. Have drummed it into our kids as we live by the sea, they know never to walk out, and always to be aware that the water can catch you by surprise.

@NotMyCat Is that in Gwynedd? Some of DS' daft mates have been quarry swimming, but he doesn't know where and I won't let him go. Want to find a specific article to warn him about the spot, but need to identify it first.

Tableflowerss sorry, I missed the 9 off when I copy and pasted, its 95% for adults

thebsa.co.uk/

Quite a few places now have throw ropes as well as rings to throw if someone is in trouble. I did a water safety course and we practised using them - good skill to have. A significant percentage of those who drown are walking / jogging / cycling next to a river and have no intention of going in the water so if you can throw something quickly to them it might just give them a chance. We had someone recently who was walking by the river on a narrow towpath, stepped out to give someone space to walk by, and their buggy just slipped in. Luckily it ended well but it’s so scary.

@Lougle

I'd definitely say that buoyancy aids need to be used with care. Years ago we took DDs swimming and we wanted DD1 (SN) to be very safe. She was lighter than the lowest weight limit for the smallest float vest, but we thought it was better than nothing and we could just tighten the straps. As soon as she got beyond thigh high in the water, her bum tipped in the air and her face tipped into the water and she couldn't right herself at all, as the polystyrene bars in the vest floated on top of the water and she wasn't heavy enough to push them down. We were next to her, so DH pulled her up by the shoulders and the vest came straight off. We bought some arm bands instead, but she could have drowned.

This is a really good example of why when you buy or borrow a buoyancy aid, you should try it out in a pool or similar before you rely on it on open water - so you know what it feels like and because if they are badly fitting or not adjusted properly (or done up - don't get me started on people who wear them unzipped), they are worse than useless if you do fall in. You should be able to lift someone out of the water by the shoulder straps of a buoyancy aid, and it shouldn't slide off them - the person should come with it. Glad you were there and supervising your DD!

[quote lalafafa]Tableflowerss sorry, I missed the 9 off when I copy and pasted, its 95% for adults

thebsa.co.uk/[/quote]
Ah well that changes things significantly. I thought, god, 95% is pretty much everyone 🤣

I was taught that is you open water swim, when you first get in the water, while you are in a safe place, dunk your head completely under the water. It reduces the risk of cold water shock.

I used to go to a supervised open water swim when I was training for a triathlon. They recommended it. It seemed to work for me.

I did Tough Mudder before I learned about this tip. One obstacle was a skip filled with ice and water. You needed to get across it but submerge half way along. I got cold water shock and it was petrifying. My chest closed up and I could hardly move. A lovely man pulled me out the other side. Very frightening.