Posted on 07/16/2011 8:10:03 AM PDT by libertarian27
The saddest thing I ever witnessed was the drowning of a seven year old girl at a local lake. There was no struggling, no splashing, no yelling help me- nothing that would attract attention. Just a girl, jumping of the dock going straight down and never surfacing.
Drowning is deceptive. People can get easily trapped underwater in "ye olde swimming hole" ~ or even in a backyard rubber pool ~ AS WELL! Wave Pools drown their share too.
If you are responsible for your own kids ~ you must keep track of them. Don't depend on others.
Ever had both calves cramp up on you in the water?
I can offer one answer. It's called "hypoxia," and it's when swimmers hold their breath too long. It happens with even with -- and perhaps especially with -- competitive swimmers. Swimmers know that even when their brains tell them "You've got to stop holding your breath and get some air," physiologically their bodies can go further; it's a mental game. Swimmers who get hypoxia miscalculate, and black out in the water. They don't splash, they don't gurgle, nothing -- they just stop moving. And unless a fellow swimmer nearby or someone sharp-eyed sees it in time to pull them out of the water, they drown.
It happens more often than one might expect. It's why some public swimming pools where competitived swimmers train and work out have rules about how far and how long people can swim without taking a breath, and the lifeguard will come down hard on swimmers they see who are pushing themselves too hard in breath-holds.
I grew up on the beach here in So Cal. A few years ago, I was ‘rescued’ by a lifeguard from a rip tide. I didn’t even realize I was caught, and thought I was moving forward towards the shore, but I was not. When he pulled me free from the tide, then I recognized what was happening. I was not going down, but I was getting tired and going nowhere.
I used to, all the time. For about 20 years, swimming laps has been my main workout. If you get calf cramps, try this: before getting in the water, do a few seconds of stretching where you stand on the ledge of something -- a step, or the bench in the shower room, on your toes, with your heels and most of your feet hanging over the edge of the step or bench. Raise up on your tippy toes, and then lower down as far as you can on your toes, so that your heels are below the level of your toes, to gently stretch the calf muscle. Do it gently, slowly, about five times. A sports therapist taught me that trick, and it works. I swim quite a lot with a variety of fins (hence my screenname!), and as you know, fins will give you calf cramps but quick if you're not conditioned, and even sometimes if you are!
I still occasionally get calf cramps in the water (when I'm not getting enough potassium in my diet, I figure), and when that happens, I concentrate on RELAXING the muscles in both my ankles and calves. It takes real focus, but it also works.
Thank you for scaring me. My little one needs more swimming lessons.
You're welcome:)
But, as people's experience on this thread and the article states, even the best of swimmers can be caught in a life threatening situation.
I read this article last year here and it scared me to pay attention to "the quiet and still times" of swimming - making sure people are attentive....even if it's to shout out "Marco" - if not everyone shouts back "Polo" - why? (and that game drives me batty - lol)
Such a shame that Casey Anthony didn’t see this in time. /s
Good article.
The first guy my son pulled in,his kid came running up and said thank for saving my daddy!
I was more worried about lightning than anything else, we have some bad storms once in a while and those LG shacks are high on the beach,anyway he went back to college in the fall so I was kinda of relieved.
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