Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

spotthedrowningchild.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 424 posts

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#181

Post by pmarreck »

Ajedi32 wrote: post #170
robohoe wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does one learn to swim with small feet? I tried to learn how to swim multiple times when I was a youth (grade school, middle school, high school). I could never grasp it and would always end up flailing my legs or slowly sinking. It was quite traumatic :)

You don't really need your feet to swim. In my personal experience when swimming most propulsion comes from my hands, not my feet. Once you can tread water with just your arms you'll have plenty of time to figure out how to swim with your feet without having to worry about sinking.

I've found the same (I think most of my propulsion is from my hands) but I always assumed I was doing it less efficiently (but didn't care)

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#182

Post by keanzu »

pmarreck wrote: post #157
keanzu wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow people don't realize the danger that pools possess. Swimming is one of the few activities that children engage in which can go so wrong as to end up in their death. I would suggest that it is borderline negligence for a parent to put a child in such a dangerous situation without proper precautions (supervision). I wouldn't let a small child I am responsible for go into a pool alone regardless of the presence…

> Swimming is one of the few activities that children engage in which can go so wrong as to end up in their death Climbing trees (fall risk) Climbing tall playground equipment (I broke my arm falling from a height of just 3 feet once, on one of those). Broken neck, etc. Playing in the street (cars) Bicycling (can get hit by a car, sigh) Trampoline (don't get me started) Exploring (falling down deep wells, etc.) The G…

So none of those activities resulted in your death? Or are you posting on HN from beyond the grave?

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#183

Post by saagarjha »

robohoe wrote: post #156
pmarreck wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please learn to swim. It's never too late. Plus, it's fun. Plus, it's classy. Plus, you won't be caught "in over your head" (sorry) in situations like this. Humans are meant to learn to swim IMHO. The instinctive response is just a "stub" that is expected to be built upon, similar to language ability and crawling->walking and other human things. (Humans don't naturally walk unless they are taught to, did you know tha…

How does one learn to swim with small feet? I tried to learn how to swim multiple times when I was a youth (grade school, middle school, high school). I could never grasp it and would always end up flailing my legs or slowly sinking. It was quite traumatic :)

Are you talking about small feet now? In general, I don’t really think foot size is all that important for swimming. Especially if you’re kicking.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#184

Post by dangerbird2 »

inanutshellus wrote: post #149
falcolas wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal opinion, based off my own experience and teaching other children how to swim: Flotation devices have no part to play in teaching how to swim. Parents (or teachers) holding their children and teaching them how to float is step 1. Only after the child can handle themselves in water (float, know when to breathe) should they be playing with flotation devices.

Arm floaties are a crutch that ought never be used. If your kid isn't strong enough to swim on their own, don't give yourself the false sense of security that comes with floaties. As an anecdote, they almost killed a friend's daughter a few years ago. She had jumped and fallen forward, and her arm floaties moved her buoyancy to her stomach-area, forcing her face into the water. Scary stuff. She was even in a swimming…

A real life jacket approved by the USCG or similar agency may be more expensive than water wings, but unlike cheap water wings, they are designed to keep the wearer's face out of the water. A type I or II jacket can turn some or most unconsious wearers rightside up.

https://www.boatus.org/life-jackets/types/

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#185

Post by pmarreck »

keanzu wrote: post #182
pmarreck wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Swimming is one of the few activities that children engage in which can go so wrong as to end up in their death Climbing trees (fall risk) Climbing tall playground equipment (I broke my arm falling from a height of just 3 feet once, on one of those). Broken neck, etc. Playing in the street (cars) Bicycling (can get hit by a car, sigh) Trampoline (don't get me started) Exploring (falling down deep wells, etc.) The G…

So none of those activities resulted in your death? Or are you posting on HN from beyond the grave?

None did, this was a counterargument to the claim that swimming was "one of the few" ways for kids to die.

There are unfortunately many many ways for kids to die.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#186

Post by jakemal »

frobozz wrote: post #171
young_unixer wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1%-2% doesn't seem "very rare" to me.

Drownings are rare, I would say that 1-2% of something rare is very rare.

Sure. But given someone has drowned, a 1-2% of something happening should result in serious precautions being taken.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#187

Post by lexapro »

robohoe wrote: post #156
pmarreck wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please learn to swim. It's never too late. Plus, it's fun. Plus, it's classy. Plus, you won't be caught "in over your head" (sorry) in situations like this. Humans are meant to learn to swim IMHO. The instinctive response is just a "stub" that is expected to be built upon, similar to language ability and crawling->walking and other human things. (Humans don't naturally walk unless they are taught to, did you know tha…

How does one learn to swim with small feet? I tried to learn how to swim multiple times when I was a youth (grade school, middle school, high school). I could never grasp it and would always end up flailing my legs or slowly sinking. It was quite traumatic :)

People that can swim can do so without using their feet or legs.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#188

Post by stanski »

chrismeller wrote: post #5

All in all after watching several of their videos I feel like I do a good job of recognizing the drowning person, but I’m amazed at how quickly the lifeguards spot it and dive into action. Even knowing that in this short clip there is absolutely someone drowning I still have doubt, but the lifeguard who doesn’t have that context is already half way to the person by the time I’m sure.

To be fair, I think the lifeguards also have a better view than the low camera in the corner of the pool.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#189

Post by AstralStorm »

keanzu wrote: post #141
alistairSH wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should clarify that PFDs (life-jackets) are probably good for young children and new swimmers. It's the floating toys that might actually be harmful. And one skill that swimmers need, but cannot really get with an float-assist device, is putting their face in the water. I watched an adult friend learn to swim, and this was REALLY hard for him. Crazy enough - he was ex-Royal Navy submariner, so he had passed basic…

> cannot really get with an float-assist device, is putting their face in the water. We used kickboards for this exact purpose. So you can float face down with arms outstretched holding the board. You can transition to freestyle swimming taking one hand off the board at a time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM3z1eDDcGE

So it was practised for teaching swimming here in Poland at schools, but these are always in a very shallow pool and supervised too.

They lack the failure mode of floating face down in water, but instead are unsafe to others who can be hit with them. And kids will collide.

The newer foam ones are much softer and safer.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#190

Post by hutzlibu »

pmarreck wrote: post #157
keanzu wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow people don't realize the danger that pools possess. Swimming is one of the few activities that children engage in which can go so wrong as to end up in their death. I would suggest that it is borderline negligence for a parent to put a child in such a dangerous situation without proper precautions (supervision). I wouldn't let a small child I am responsible for go into a pool alone regardless of the presence…

> Swimming is one of the few activities that children engage in which can go so wrong as to end up in their death Climbing trees (fall risk) Climbing tall playground equipment (I broke my arm falling from a height of just 3 feet once, on one of those). Broken neck, etc. Playing in the street (cars) Bicycling (can get hit by a car, sigh) Trampoline (don't get me started) Exploring (falling down deep wells, etc.) The G…

Household:

- various kitchentools, knives, fork

- other tools, axe, hammer

- (poison) cleaning stuff

- climbing on the tish and falling on their neck

- ...

Yes, life is dangerous, yet sadly most parents today take the approach of avoiding all dangers at all cost.

And of course you should not leave dangerous things around and make it as safe as possible, but how can one learn, how to deal with dangers, when all the slightest dangers are removed? That will only hurt later on.

One have to play with fire, to learn how to deal with it. If parents forbid it completely, kids will just burn stuff on their own. I did ... and luckily I never burned anything down. But friends of mine ... allmost burned down a village.

Post reply on HN