Drownings?

[Count Steer]

I read yesterday that a lot of the lake 'swimmers' are drunk. Apparently, parties by lakes are popular under recent rules. Scotland has been particularly bad.
Getting bladdered on the beach may explain a few too.
Lots of the dead may well have been on the Costas under normal circumstances although I don't know what the usual drowning rates are there.
The lake parties are also often remote - so noone to see what's happening.

[Count Steer]

Article currently in the Guardian. Safety people are also pointing out that Lidl have been selling stuff like cheap paddleboards (but not safety/flotation gear). So may also be people doing things like that for the first time in places where nobody sees the problems when they happen and people aren't wearing the right kit when they get into difficulty.

[Yambo]

I haven't seen the same reports but what Count Steer says makes some sense. In addition I'm sure there are lots of people who don't know what someone drowning looks like. If people are waving their arms around and screaming, then they aren't drowning. They might be in a bit of trouble of course but drowning is a very quiet, personal thing. Other people around may well not realise that someone nearby is drowning, especially if they have had a few.

Drowning tends to be a quiet, silent act. Victims do not usually thrash. Instead they expend significant energy trying to keep their head above water and may be too tired to shout for help; moreover, if water comes into contact with the vocal cords, they can go into spasm and prevent the victim from shouting for help

From here: https://www.medicinenet.com/drowning/article.htm

[irie]

Many people can not swim, perhaps have a few drinks, enter the water with friends and family, and drown. They don't have to be out of their depth either, panic can take over.

Long gone are the days when learning to swim was often something encouraged in primary and secondary schools. Parents who can not swim are less likely to encourage their children to learn to swim, and it is probably no coincidence that drownings appear to occur disproportionately in immigrant ethnic groups where learning to swim has never been encouraged.

[Mussels]

Article currently in the Guardian. Safety people are also pointing out that Lidl have been selling stuff like cheap paddleboards (but not safety/flotation gear). So may also be people doing things like that for the first time in places where nobody sees the problems when they happen and people aren't wearing the right kit when they get into difficulty.

I bought one of their inflatable canoes a few years back, when I tried looking for life preservers they were almost nowhere to be found.

Staying afloat in fresh water is a more effort than salt water, as most open fresh water is off limits in the UK a lot of inexperienced people go too far too quickly because they expect it to be as easy as the sea. It's nothing new, the same stories were on the news when I was doing it as a teenager.

[Mr Moofo]

The general public are remarkably ignorant about water safety. Inland water in a lot “easier” but as mentioned above I think drink, cheap paddle boards, drink and no common sense have a big part to play.
Here on the coast , add in rip currents , the perfectly normal flow of tides, sun, drink, parents more interested on their phones, cheap inflatable crap - and then no understanding that off shore winds blow stuff out - and tides flow one- way up the channel, then the other way down the channel twice a day. And the force of that water in quite impressive in restricted channels.
For most people coming down here , they have no comprehension of tides, what they do, when they are and the speed at which water travels.

[cheb]

Cold shock on entering the water also plays it's part. It's not just cold water, you can suffer it in the tropics too.

[Skub]

Hotter than usual = more folk in the water to get cool = a higher number getting into trouble.

Add in alcohol....

[crust]

Down here we have the Thames and this summer I've never seen so many yoofs/kids in the River and jumping off bridges.

There used to be three public swimming baths in Reading, all used extensively by schools and out of school hours, now there's only one and not used by schools, I wonder where these kids are learning to swim and how well there being taught.

Twice now I've seen traffic have to stop because they're alll over the road and because of the size of the group they're all hyped up and brave, blokey two cars in front hooted as the bridge traffic is traffic light controlled and we hadn't reached the apex, the lads just banged on his car, then one walked over it.
I think social media enables more of them to meet up and the various websites enable them to not only see other kids doing crazy stuff it enables them to do and 'film' stuff themselves. Watching them jump off Whitchurch Bridge when I was on a pushbike ride was scary, they just jump without seeing if there's a boat coming or if there's a kid below them, in all the noise and mass of bodies it would be easy for one to get into trouble and no one see.

There's also the copious consumption of booze and a strong smell of weed as you cycle across the riverside meadow.

Looked like great fun

[Rockburner]

- oh, I once rescued an old man that had swam out in a lake in France, but was so unfit that he couldn't swim back.

That happened to me only the other week down in Cornwall - only I was the unfit old codger who was too unfit to swim back.

Went out in the surf on Widemouth bay (I think I was the only swimmer, but there was about 50 - 60 bodyboarders and a couple of surfers crammed into about 20 yards of 'watched-by-the-RNLI' water*. I was trying to avoid all the kids so went out a bit further than I should have done (looking for calmer water tbh) and by the time I'd realised it, I was being pushed about a bit too much and pushed up the beach towards the rocks. Luckily there was a couple of likely lads in red wetsuits and an inflatable tazzing about offering free rides back to the sand, so I swallowed my pride and got a lift before things got silly.



* yes, only about 20 yards, with the 'swimming' area (red and yellow flags) right next to the 'boarding' area (black and white flags) and both utterly full of body-boarding or surfing kids.

[Count Steer]

I think it's harder to swim in the ocean because you have waves, it interrupts your flow of breathing and strokes. On a flat lake it's a lot easier.

Yes, I'm a reasonably handy swimmer but doing a decent freestyle in choppy water is a different job cf pool/flat water swimming. I do the bilateral breathing thing in the pool but, watching the triathlon men yesterday in the middle of the pack, it looked like swimming in a jacuzzi. Most of them were breathing on on side only and lifting on the stroke to get their mouth up a bit - which must be more tiring.

I do wonder whether I should redo my lifesaving qualifications. Watching the pool attendants training session things have changed a lot in the last xx years! One of the things we were told was that if the person you're trying to save panics and tries to grab you, slug 'em and knock them out. Easier said than done unless you happen to be carrying a brick!

The only 'rescue' I ever had to do was the wife in the Red Sea. She looked down in 30ft of clear water and got vertigo! So, got her to lie back, head on my chest, my hand under her chin and towed her back to the boat.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Easier said than done unless you happen to be carrying a brick!

So that was the point of getting a brick from the bottom of a swimming pool (not that I could do it, I'm crap at swimming)

[irie]

. Most of them were breathing on on side only and lifting on the stroke to get their mouth up a bit - which must be more tiring.

Back in another age I was competitive freestyler. Some used bilateral breathing and some used single side breathing, just what's most comfortable to use. I was and still am a single sided breather (LHS) which I've always found easier with the left arm up stroke, but then I'm very right handed so perhaps that's something to do with it.

[Count Steer]

. Most of them were breathing on on side only and lifting on the stroke to get their mouth up a bit - which must be more tiring.

Back in another age I was competitive freestyler. Some used bilateral breathing and some used single side breathing, just what's most comfortable to use. I was and still am a single sided breather (LHS) which I've always found easier with the left arm up stroke, but then I'm very right handed so perhaps that's something to do with it.

I was more of an Adam Peaty type but I ground my knees to powder and had to have 'em flushed with an arthroscopy so started from scratch with freestyle a few years ago using Swim Smooth as a guide. Before that I was single sided...and not very good. Now not bad for an old, casual swimmer and looking forward to getting back in the local uni pool. (Which is a v nice 50m, low chlorine job).

[Yorick]

Saved my wife on our honeymoon. Had to drag her about 100m to the beach.
But I'd just been snorkeling so has massive fins on.
Don't think I'd have saved her without them.

[Cousin Jack]

From what I have seen this year half the 'swimmers' in Cornwall can only mangage a few dozen strokes and then need to stand up. If the water at that point is a bit deeper it is panic stations. Then there are the inflatable kayak things. I went in one a week or so ago, and they really are hard work even with baby waves. Tipping over and falling out is a real possibility.
I can swim, my daughter who was with me is a strong swimmer who thinks 2k is a short swim, and 10k is do-able, and we both had lifejackets. Lots of others didn't.

[wheelnut]

Saved my wife on our honeymoon. Had to drag her about 100m to the beach.
But I'd just been snorkeling so has massive fins on.
Don't think I'd have saved her without them.

Was she trying to escape?

[Yorick]

Saved my wife on our honeymoon. Had to drag her about 100m to the beach.
But I'd just been snorkeling so has massive fins on.
Don't think I'd have saved her without them.

Was she trying to escape?

Why is nearly dying funny?


Just fuck off.

[JackyJoll]

Was she trying to escape?

They used to talk about a woman meeting a fate worse than death.

[irie]

Saved my wife on our honeymoon. Had to drag her about 100m to the beach.
But I'd just been snorkeling so has massive fins on.
Don't think I'd have saved her without them.

Was she trying to escape?

Why is nearly dying funny?

Just fuck off.

You're happy to take the p*ss out of others but become a humourless dick when others take even the good natured p*ss out of you.