Tag: drowning

Why Lifeguarding is the Right Career Path for You

Imagine a career where you can spend your whole day basking in the sun, with clear waters and sandy beaches all around you. Does this sound too good to be true? Whether you are a strong swimmer who loves nature or an individual looking for a dynamic job, lifeguarding may just be what you are searching for.

A lifeguard is responsible for watching over visitors and avoiding and responding to any emergencies that could arise. A typical lifeguard task includes ensuring swimmers’ safety, giving first aid when necessary, and enforcing pool or beach regulations.

By doing this challenging but rewarding work, one can choose either seasonal or year-round employment at community pools or other picturesque locales. Based on a person’s way of seeing it, being a lifeguard may be regarded not only as an occupation but also as a lifestyle. We’ll explore why lifeguarding is the right career path for you.

Job Responsibilities of a Lifeguard

Here are some key responsibilities that lifeguards undertake:

Monitoring Swimmers

Lifeguards constantly monitor swimmers and actively scan the pool or beach areas for signs of distress or potential hazards. Their keen observational skills are crucial in preventing accidents before they occur.

Enforcing Rules and Regulations

Lifeguards are responsible for enforcing the facility’s rules and regulations. It ensures that swimmers adhere to safety protocols and behave in a manner that does not endanger themselves or others.

Responding to Emergencies and Performing Rescues

In the event of an emergency, lifeguards must respond swiftly and efficiently. They are trained to perform various rescue techniques, such as—water entries, tows, and carries, to retrieve individuals from perilous situations.

First Aid and CPR

Lifeguards are equipped with the knowledge and skills to provide immediate medical assistance, including first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), to individuals in distress. While major rescues may not occur daily, lifeguards frequently handle minor injuries and incidents, from scrapped knees to aiding swimmers experiencing cramps.

Providing Swimming Instruction

In some cases, lifeguards may be responsible for teaching swimming lessons or providing guidance to swimmers. They also promote water safety education and skill development among trainees.

Lifeguard Courses And Trainings In Perth, WA

Aquatic safety training is critical because drowning deaths and injuries occur every day in hot tubs and pools at home, on beaches, and in oceans. To become a lifeguard, beach inspector, or hotel personnel, you should attend an aquatic safety training academy and beach skill workshops for schoolchildren. The following are the some of lifeguard courses and trainings offered in Perth, WA:

Pool Lifeguard Training Course Perth

Pool Lifeguard Training Course Perth is an intensive course that equips participants with the necessary qualifications to work as pool lifeguards. 

Ocean Lifeguard Training Course Perth

Ocean Lifeguard Training Course Perth prepares individuals for frontline lifeguard positions. It also emphasizes skills in ocean rescue and life-saving techniques. It’s ideal for those ready to face various dangers and emergencies in aquatic environments.

Aquatic Rescue for Hydrotherapy Course

The Aquatic Rescue for Hydrotherapy Course is designed for physiotherapy students and rehabilitation professionals. It teaches aquatic safety and emergency response skills. Participants learn to prevent accidents, identify emergencies, and provide immediate care.

Understanding Why Becoming a Lifeguard is the Best Career Choice

These are the following reasons why lifeguarding is the right career path for you in the long run:

Stay Fit

Lifeguarding keeps you in top shape. From swimming laps to practicing rescues, you’ll stay physically active and healthy. It’s like getting paid to work out!

Fun Workplace

Who says work can’t be enjoyable? Lifeguarding lets you spend your shifts by the pool or at the beach, soaking up the sun and enjoying the water. Additionally, lifeguards teach kids to swim, is both fun and rewarding.

Job Satisfaction

Making a difference in people’s lives is incredibly fulfilling. Whether they assist, teach water safety, or prevent accidents, lifeguards bring new opportunities to help others every day.

Lifelong Friendships

Lifeguarding is more than a job—it’s a community. You’ll build strong bonds with your teammates through shared experiences and teamwork, creating friendships that last a lifetime.

Earn While Having Fun

Lifeguarding offers the best of both worlds: earning money while doing something you love. You’ll get paid to be outdoors, ensuring others’ safety and sharing your passion for swimming.

Flexible Hours

Lifeguarding offers flexibility to fit your schedule. Whether you’re studying, working another job, or juggling family commitments, part-time shifts and casual hours make it easy to balance work and life. 

Bottom Line

A lifeguard is in charge of the safety of persons in a body of water, typically in a defined area immediately surrounding or adjacent to it, such as a beach next to an ocean or lake. A lifeguard ensures the safety of swimmers by observing their surroundings, communicating with them verbally and by flag signals, and responding rapidly to emergencies utilizing rescue methods. 

Lifeguards frequently take on this task as part of their job duties, but there may also be volunteer lifeguards. If you’re interested in lifeguarding jobs, you can explore lifeguarding opportunities today at West Coast Water Safety. Here, you can embark on a fulfilling journey of making a real difference. WCWS is an aquatic safety training academy offering lifeguard, beach inspector, and hotel staff training, as well as beach skill workshops for school children.

Why You Should Discuss Water Safety at Your Child’s Next Wellness Visit?

With the summer approaching, children always look forward to swimming with family and friends at local pools and backyards; however, recent statistics reveal that parents and children must understand the risks involved while swimming in pools and bathtubs. 

Triathlon water safety experts in Western Australia recommend that swimming and water safety knowledge can significantly reduce a child’s drowning risk and provide them with skills that may one day save a life. 

Statistics show children aged 1–4 years have the highest drowning rates. The majority of drownings in children happen in swimming pools. Drowning can happen even when children are not expected to be around water, such as when they gain unsupervised access to pools. 

That’s why you should look for lifeguards for hire in Western Australia if you have a personal pool and your kid is learning to swim. Fatal drowning is the leading cause of death for children 1-4 and the second leading cause of unintentional injury death for children 5-14 after motor vehicle crashes.

Importance of water safety

People drown when excess water gets into their lungs. When that happens, the lungs cannot pump oxygen into the blood, leading to little or no oxygen reaching the brain and the rest of the body.

Drowning can be sudden and happen so quickly that it leaves little time for someone to act. Drowning is typically silent and is not easy to identify. A struggling or distressed swimmer often cannot shout for help as their respiratory system is trying to breathe. The swimmer’s arms are generally underwater, helping to push the body toward the surface. 

Hence, it can be difficult for parents and others to understand if a child is drowning. That’s why a child’s understanding of water safety is very important rather than searching for lifeguards for hire in Western Australia.

Water safety rules that children should be taught to follow

Here are some safety rules by experts that children should follow every time they are near water:

1. First and foremost, important – never swim alone!

2. Always swim within reach of a lifeguard and in areas marked for swimmers to use.

3. School authorities should ensure the premises’ swimming pool has a lifeguard appointed. If not, look for lifeguards for hire in Western Australia.

4. Wear protective gear like a life jacket when playing in open water areas like beaches, ponds, or lakes.

5. Never pretend to be drowning. The lifeguard may not take you seriously when the actual incident happens. 

6. Learn to swim. Schools should ensure kids undergo school water safety WA sessions.

7. Don’t swim or play in the water in the dark.

8. Children must be made aware of the dangers of rip currents and taught how to escape them. 

9. Teach them to swim parallel to the shore to escape the rip currents and then swim at an angle back to shore to escape the currents.

10. Triathlon water safety experts in Western Australia advise parents, teens, and fellow children to know where rescue equipment is kept around the pool and how to use it. 

11. Teaching kids how to throw rescue equipment to a distressed swimmer is important, rather than jumping in to help.

The bottom line

Teaching school water safety to kids in WA should be taken very seriously. It’s good to teach your child about water safety and how to swim from a young age. It will help them understand the dangers in the water and know how to behave. 

Swimming is one of the non-negotiable life skills that parents should look to acquire for their children as soon as possible for home or school water safety in WA. While a range of extra-curricular skills activities are essential for children to develop as rounded individuals, none are as vital and fundamental as learning to swim. 

Furthermore, knowing First aid is another essential skill set for the entire family to learn. If you know how to perform CPR and how to act in case of an emergency, it could save your child’s life. Contact West Coast Water Safety to learn more about Triathlon water safety in Western Australia.

How to Perform CPR on Drowning Victims?

CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, is used to help someone who has stopped breathing or whose heart has stopped beating. When someone has a cardiac arrest, they lose consciousness, and their heart stops beating. Without CPR, they can die within minutes of the incident.

CPR involves two people:

  • The person performing chest compressions
  • The person administering the breath 

The person performing the chest compressions should lean over the victim’s chest at a 45-degree angle. They should press down on the chest at least 2 inches in depth at a rate of 100 times per minute (or about once every second). Between each compression, they should give one rescue breath every 5 to 6 seconds.

The person giving breaths should place their mouth over the victim’s mouth and nose, seal off their airway with their lips and gently blow for one second (two seconds for children).

What Are the Detailed Steps for Performing CPR?

Giving CPR can be fatal if not executed properly. In such cases, getting skilled and educated about the process of delivering CPR is essential, which can be done by taking a life-saving course. 

There are six steps to performing CPR:

  1. Assess the person and environment.

First, assess whether or not the situation requires CPR. If unsure, look for signs of breathing and colour in their face. If they’re unresponsive and the face starts looking purple, grey, or pale, they are likely not breathing. 

  1. If a person is severely injured or in peril, call the emergency number (000) immediately.

Check if there is any bleeding by looking at the victim’s clothing and skin. Look at the victim’s head, face, arms, hands, and legs for blood or wounds that might be serious enough to require immediate medical care. If you see any of these things, call 000 immediately and do not attempt CPR until help arrives or until someone with more aquatic safety training takes over from you.

  1. Check the victim’s airway, breathing, and circulation.

You should always check to see if the person is breathing by looking for chest movements. If they are not breathing, tilt their head back and check for two things: no tongue blocking their airway and no blockage in the back of their throat. If you find a blockage, clear it with your finger. Then check for breathing again.

Start CPR immediately if they aren’t breathing and don’t have a pulse. CPR should be executed only after taking adequate training in a lifeguard training course.

If you’re not able to call 000 right away, move on to another step: clear the victim’s airway and check for breathing. You can do this by placing your ear over their mouth and nose and looking for movement of your chest or stomach—this is called “listening.” If you don’t see movement, check every 15 seconds again until you do see movement (or until help arrives).

  1. Start the CPR process.

After confirming that the victim is not breathing or doesn’t have a pulse, place your hands on the chest at the centre and push down at least 2 inches deep (or 1/3 of an inch per pound of body weight). Keep your hands pressing each other to cover all three areas where blood vessels like the carotid artery in the chest and abdomen are present. Push hard enough so that your hands bounce up off of them as they recoil from pushing down— this will help ensure that you’re compressing deep enough. Do this 30 times in quick succession (about 100 compressions per minute).

  1. Administer rescue breaths.

The first step in giving CPR is to administer two rescue breaths. The first breath is done by placing one hand on the victim’s forehead and tilting the head back while sealing your mouth over their mouth. Pinch the nose shut and blow hard into the victim’s mouth until you see their chest rise. Then, release your mouth from theirs and watch for their chest to fall again before repeating this step.

  1. Keep doing CPR for as long as it takes to revive the victim.

After administering two rescue breaths, you’ll need to continue performing 30 compressions at a rate of 100 per minute, alternating between compressions and breathing. This will allow enough oxygen-rich blood to circulate through their body so that they can begin breathing on their own again!

What Are the Mistakes to Avoid While Giving CPR?

The following are a few common mistakes that people make when giving CPR.  

  • Positioning your arms incorrectly
  • Raising your hands above the chest while giving CPR
  • Compressing the chest too quickly or slowly
  • Giving compressions that are either too light or too hard
  • Giving rescue breaths with your head tilted incorrectly

Wrapping Up

West Coast Water Safety is the only location you should choose if you’re looking for a CPR course in Perth. You’ll get a thorough, hands-on lesson that will leave you feeling prepared and confident in your ability to save lives. We believe in our mission and know it’s possible to bring the best water safety practices to every person on the West Coast.

Best Water-Safety Practices: A Comprehensive Guide To Drowning Prevention

Whenever we think of summer, we are always eager to take refreshing dips at the beach or in the swimming pools around us. It’s always exciting to plan beach trips with friends and family and beat the scorching heat. But amidst all the fun, there is one thing about which we should always be careful and alert: drowning.

Drowning: A major concern

According to the report by Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 4,000 fatal unintentional drownings, that is an average of 11 drowning deaths per day and around 8000 nonfatal drownings, that is an average of 22 nonfatal drownings per day, occur every year in the United States.

This crucial data is surely calling for some attention. So let’s look at some best ways to prevent and control drowning accidents.

Pool Lifeguard Training Course Perth
  • Know the basics – The most common and important way is to learn the basics of swimming. Even beginner-level swimming training can be beneficial against drowning. Hence it’s important to ensure that you take basic lessons before hitting the beach. 
  • Life jacket – Life jackets are a must even for someone who’s an excellent swimmer and especially for children. The jackets are a great tool to prevent and reduce the chance of drowning accidents to a large extent.
  • Learn CPR – Knowing how to give CPR can save lives while the paramedic’s team takes charge. You can learn online or in-person CPR lessons conducted by various organisations. Also, we at the West Coast Water Safety provide a variety of basic water rescue courses to train our participants to respond to any situation and avoid accidents quickly.
  • Avoid Toys – It’s always wise to avoid having air-filled or foamed toys in the pool. According to the Florida Department of Health report, the state leads the US in annual fatal child drownings for children younger than five years. The majority of accidents are due to the toys used.
  • Supervision – The saddening data revealed by the reports indicates a lack of supervision of children and new swimmers. It’s our responsibility to be alert and attentive with children around swimming pools, ponds or lakes.

Bottom line

Keeping these things in mind, West Coast Water Safety is dedicated to ensuring your safety with its highly trained and professional staff of lifeguards, paramedics, beach inspectors and many more.

Summer the Season for Child Drowning

Summer is fast approaching and so is the season for drowning deaths and child drowning incidents of West Australian children.

Homeowners need to check now to make ensure that the pool barrier complies with Australian Standards and current state regulations. Make sure fences are secure and gates self-close and securely latch. Very importantly ensure there is nothing leaning up against the fence or able to be dragged over to the fence and used as a step ladder. These are your kids, they are just like you, cunning and smart!

Make sure this summer (and every summer actually) that all children, your own and those of visitors to your home are supervised when in and around water. If you are holding a party and your home has a pool ensure it is securely locked, or, if you plan to use your pool ensure a qualified/competent adult that knows CPR is on duty in the pool area at all times. If you prefer, West Coast Water Safety can provide nationally qualified lifeguards, with Working with Children (WWC) and National Police Clearance, that will not only watch your pool for you but actually get in the water with the kids and entertain them. Imagine that a pool party where all you have to do is entertain the adult guests and relax. Leave the kids and water safety to us!

Children under 5 years of age are the most at risk of drowning. Between 1995 and 1999, 50 children under the age of 14 years drowned in Western Australia, about half of these were under 5 years of age. For the same period, 247 children were admitted to WA hospitals after an immersion incident or near-drowning.

Maybe you need to think about hiring a professional Lifeguard for the duration of your party. Crazy? Not really, imagine the medical bills, $900+ for the ambulance alone. How much is a life worth?

Need a lifeguard? Let me know and I will arrange it all for you.

Minimise the risk, make sure no one drowns in your pool and make this a good summer for all of us.

Kev Emery

Professional Lifeguard
West Coast Water Safety
www.wcws.com.au

What You Need To Know About Surviving Rip Currents.

WHAT IS A RIP CURRENT?

A great article by National Geo and RIP current Heros
https://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/nature/everything-you-need-to-know-about-rip-currents.aspx

Rips can be identified by deeper, dark-coloured water, fewer breaking waves and a rippled surface surrounded by smooth water. The most common type is a channelised rip. These rips occupy deep channels between sand bars and they can stay in the same place for days, weeks and even months. Then there are boundary rips – which can also be channelised and are found against headlands and other structures reaching out into the ocean like piers and jetties. Sometimes these can be almost permanent. But one of the most dangerous and unpredictable rips is the Flash Rip.

To be able to form, rip currents need breaking waves. It’s the spatial variation in the breaking waves, normally caused by undulations in the sand bars that commonly begins the process of a rip current forming. A flow develops, that moves from the region of intense wave breaking toward the region of reduced or no wave breaking, inside the surf zone This flow is the pathway of least resistance for outgoing water – often a perfect channel – just like a river of the sea.

Typically rip currents are about 10 to 50 metres wide and they can flow anywhere from 50 to 100 metres offshore normally. But Dr Rob Brander has measured rip currents that have flowed 400 metres offshore

To study how rip currents Doctor Rob brander places mobile devices called drifters directly into the currents. These drifters have onboard GPS units that record rip current data such as flow speeds and flow direction both inside and outside the surf zone.

The average rip current flows offshore at speeds of about half a metre to one metre per second. But they all have a tendency to pulse and what that means is that suddenly the rip current can just dramatically double in speed in a matter of thirty seconds and then you’re talking speeds of two meters per second which is literally Olympic swimming speeds.FollowVIDEOTHE FATAL RIPLOADING…

HOW TO SURVIVE A RIP CURRENT 

Not all rip currents flow straight out to the breaking waves. Some rip currents flow in a circular movement within the surf zone. These are referred to as rotating eddies. Rip currents are very dynamic – they can change direction quickly.

Rob Brander’s research has revealed that there is no single escape strategy that is guaranteed to get you out of a rip current. Instead, you have options based on the conditions and the behaviour of the rip.

The golden rule is to never attempt to swim against the current – they’re just too powerful. Remember to stay calm and focus on floating. Just go with the current and raise your hand for help. Depending on the flow of the rip, floating will normally deliver two scenarios: 

A circulating rip current should float you back around to either a sandbank or put you close to breaking waves which will help you get back to shore.

A current that flows directly offshore will normally float you just beyond the breaking waves where the rip will cease to operate. At this point, you can either continue to float and wait for rescue or you can swim around the rip and back to shore.

The other option you have – and this applies only to good swimmers – is you can try swimming parallel to the beach in either direction as you float with the current. In some situations, this may free you from the rip.

It’s really panic that is the biggest killer when it comes to rips. Rips don’t drown you that don’t pull you under. Panicking will drown you. People panic because they find themselves being taken quickly offshore, the situation is outside of their control, and it’s a scary experience.

And what you need to do when you’re caught in a rip is try and take control of the situation yourself. You can float and you can assess what’s going on – do you want to swim this way, do you think that will work. If it’s not working, float a bit and swim the other way or just float. If you’re constantly thinking about the situation and the options you have you’re in control of the situation, provided you haven’t exhausted yourself, but you do not want to panic. Anything that will eliminate panic is the best approach. FollowVIDEOBLACK SUNDAYLOADING…

INTERESTING FACTS 

  • Each year (on average) rip currents claim more lives in Australia than bushfires, floods, cyclones and sharks combined.
  • Rip currents are responsible for an estimated 90% of the over 10,000 beach rescues made in Australia each year.
  • Australia has over 11,000 beaches and scientists estimate that up to 17,000 rips could be operating across Australia’s beaches at any given time
  • Almost all of Australia’s rip currents fatalities occur on unpatrolled beaches or outside of the red and yellow flags
  • Less than 4% of Australia’s 11,000 beaches are patrolled by Lifesavers or Lifeguards. This means that there are a lot of beaches and a lot of rips where any beachgoer could find themselves in serious trouble.
  • Many coastal tourist parks in NSW are situated closest to unpatrolled beaches that are rated as hazardous in terms of rips.
  • Many of Australia’s rip current drownings take place on isolated stretches of coastline where the nearest patrolled beach is neither close nor convenient.
  • The simplest way to describe rip currents is that they’re like rivers of the sea: strong, narrow, seaward flowing currents that extend from the shoreline out beyond the breaking waves. They exist to bring all that extra water that’s coming in with the breaking waves back offshore.
  • The majority of rip current drownings take place underneath bright blue skies, moderate waves and what appear to be perfect beach conditions.
  • Young males between the ages of 15 and 39 are the most likely to die in rip currents.
  • Rips are not undertow, they won’t pull you under because there’s no such thing as an undertow. They’re not ripping tides because they’re not a tide, they’re current and they flow pretty steady and they won’t take you to New Zealand. 

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning

By Mario May 3, 2010 Boating Safety, Water Safety

Translations: – العربية – Norsk 汉语 – tiếng Việt – Español – Italiano –  Français – Magyar –  Português – română – Deutsch – Suomi – Svenska –  Čeština – Русско –Íslenska – Nederlands – ελληνικά – עברית‬ –   Audio Version

The new captain jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the couple swimming between their anchored sport fisher and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine, what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. ”Move!” he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not ten feet away, their nine-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, “Daddy!”

How did this captain know – from fifty feet away – what the father couldn’t recognize from just ten? Drowning is not the violent, splashing, call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. The father, on the other hand, had learned what drowning looks like by watching television. If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that’s all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew know what to look for whenever people enter the water. Until she cried a tearful, “Daddy,” she hadn’t made a sound. As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn’t surprised at all by this story. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for, is rarely seen in real life.

The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening. Drowning does not look like drowning – Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard’s On Scene Magazine, described the instinctive drowning response like this:

  1. Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.
  2. Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
  3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
  4. Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
  5. From the beginning to the end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.

(Source: On Scene Magazine: Fall 2006 (page 14))

This doesn’t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble – they are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the instinctive drowning response, aquatic distress doesn’t last long – but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.

Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are in the water:

  • Head low in the water, mouth at water level
  • Head tilted back with mouth open
  • Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
  • Eyes closed
  • Hair over forehead or eyes
  • Not using legs – Vertical
  • Hyperventilating or gasping
  • Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
  • Trying to roll over on the back
  • Appear to be climbing an invisible ladder.

So if a crew member falls overboard and everything looks OK – don’t be too sure. Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck. One way to be sure? Ask them, “Are you alright?” If they can answer at all – they probably are. If they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them. And parents – children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.

(See a video of the Instinctive Drowning Response)

Next – READ THIS

(Download an interview on the instinctive drowning response with myself and Francesco Pia)

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