AIBU to remind everyone about water safety as beaches get busier?

[Whysnothingsimple]

To remind everyone of water safety and ask you to share far and wide. Speak to your children about the dangers of cold water, rip tides, what to do if you get into difficulty.

We live in Devon, the beaches have been packed these past few days, every year we see deaths and near drownings. The water is still cold. Rip tides look the safest place to swim to the unaware. The sea is powerful, rivers hide unseen powerful currents. Water safety inc learning to swim to a good level is a vital life skill - education is key
rnli.org/safety/float

Absolutely agree. We live near the coast too and I feel like the dangers of water have been something we have drummed into our DC. (Thats not to say that the people who have died weren't aware either) .

Its so so tragic when you hear the reports of people losing their lives in the hot weather, when they should have been having fun.

6 children/teens have lost their lives over the last few days. There will have been many more near misses

We need to teach our children abou Floating, cold water shock and the dangers of jumping off structures.

Ditto to all that. Plus according to the RNLI, the number of people getting into difficulties with paddleboards has soared in recent years.

Also remember that drowning is silent. If you can’t hear your kid, they are in danger

Everyone who has children should read this one. I first saw it about ten years ago and it's always relevant. https://gcaptain.com/drowning/

Yanbu, except to point out that inland drownings now outnumber coastal ones. We live 60 miles from the nearest beach but I had this exact conversion with my 15yo son as he went out to meet friends yesterday. We live in an area built on old brick pits which are now lakes. A boy drowned here last Spring. My son knows all about cold water shock, and not knowing what's beneath the surface in unsupervised bodies of water. He also knows that drowning doesn't involve arms waving and hands flapping. It is fast, and it is silent.

Yes you’re absolutely right, because we’re coastal that’s what we see but there seems to be an uptick in people entering rivers/lakes, disused quarries and each of those carries very specific dangers too. Thanks for addressing this point on the thread

Yes you see it all the time, people paddling out from the beach, suddenly too tired to paddle against the tide to come back and not aware how to navigate that or understanding the effect of deep v shallow waters etc

Bring back those 70s/80s water safety ads
https://www.google.com/search?q=water+safety+ads+80s&rlz=1CAVKAU_enGB1107&oq=water+safety+ads+80s&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDUwODhqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:774f900d,vid:xZWD2sDRESk,st:0

We also live on the coast in a part where the beach is very flat and the sea goes in and out for miles. People don't realise how fast it comes in and how quickly it can cut them off, lifeboat crew and coastguard are out regularly to save people

Iwas going to say it’s not just the sea, it’s any bodies of water.

Its so easy to buy paddleboards, inflatable canoes etc. And they come with no instruction on using them safely.

When I was a kid I almost always went swimming with my mum in the sea. She told me if I was too far out. But we swam a lot as kids got quite good, every weekend so eg at 9 or so could be trusted to go to a local pool with friends. We would never have jumped into water or gone in a lake. I recall going to Bradford on Avon on holiday where there was a tempting river but also a weir and we were told sternly to stay away from it. We went to their swimming pool in town (BOA) instead. Even when we were invited to a friends house with a pool we weren’t allowed to swim as it was too deep.

And stop using toys as flotation devices again they are toys

I’m reminded of what a Barbadian friend’s old granny used to tell him:
‘The sea have no back door.’

Not to mention my DF, but then he was ex RN - ‘The old grey widow maker’
(quote from Kipling IIRC. )

I love the sea, but you do have to respect it.

Thanks for this thread op, a friend has just lost her son due to drowning in the sea. His funeral is Friday, he was 19 and just got caught out.

A few years ago in Italy we were at a water park, I was stood at the bottom pool waiting for dh and the dc to come down to the bottom of the lazy river. Another family were also waiting for someone. All of a sudden the lifeguard whips his vest of and dived into the pool right by where 6 of us were standing. Their little son had toddled up the disembarking steps to the pool and down the other side and was stood fully submerged under water, hat had floated to the surface of the water, very much drowning right in front of us without making a single sound. Absolutely horrifying.