Anxious about 18 year old son going abroad with friends

[Notagain1981]

18 year old son wants to go away with the boys on holiday abroad but im anxious as he can't swim very well and doesnt really like water. Trying to get him to come swimming with me to practice but he doesnt want to. I told him he probably be doing boat parties etc and needs to get better at swimming. Anyone else has this?

If he doesn't like the water, is it really very likely that he'll be going in it? In the unlikely event that he falls off a boat I imagine there will be liferings etc available.

FWIW I'm 39 and can't swim very well. I can more or less keep afloat and do a very slow front crawl, but that's it.

I'd be very worried if he couldn't swim. Young men (and pissed up young men in particular) do the silliest things and egg each other on. Water and boats feature heavily in all of that. I live in Bristol and there's usually 2 or three young blokes that "fall" into the Harbour and drown every year. It also happens in nearby Bath. I suppose the only saving grace might be his aversion to water, so long as he doesn't succumb to peer pressure.

The pushing would depend on the friends. He doesn't have to join in the water sports, though they'd be wearing lifejackets for that anyway. As for a boat cruise, I still think it's very unlikely he'd fall off.