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How a baker survived the Titanic by getting drunk (2022)

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Re: How a baker survived the Titanic by getting drunk (2022)

#71

Post by 1024core »

bloomingeek wrote: post #54

When I was about eight years old, I went to look for something I left near a motel swimming pool. I slipped into the deep end of the pool, I didn't know how to swim. At first I flailed as fast as I could, instinctively I suppose. This didn't help and I realized two things, I was still sinking and was getting tired. So I stopped and just stared ahead. I can't say I knew I was going to die, I just knew I was in trouble…

Recently I was in Hawaii, snorkeling in an area where I could walk around. I don't now how to swim, but I have been in shallow pools before. Unbeknownst to me, I was slowly drifting into a deeper area as I was busy just looking down at the fishies. Suddenly I realized my feet no longer could touch the bottom, and an initial panic set in. Then I quickly reasoned that I would just sink to the bottom (which was, about, 8 feet or so) and push myself off of it to reach the surface, then take a deep breath and do a doggie paddle-sort of a motion to get closer to the rocks nearby. If I had panicked, I would not have been able to hold my breath long enough. Luckily I did not at the moment and managed to reach the rocks (which were about 3 feet deep).

After that day, I swore to be more careful next time!

Re: How a baker survived the Titanic by getting drunk (2022)

#72

Post by throwaway63467 »

1024core wrote: post #71
bloomingeek wrote: post #54

When I was about eight years old, I went to look for something I left near a motel swimming pool. I slipped into the deep end of the pool, I didn't know how to swim. At first I flailed as fast as I could, instinctively I suppose. This didn't help and I realized two things, I was still sinking and was getting tired. So I stopped and just stared ahead. I can't say I knew I was going to die, I just knew I was in trouble…

Recently I was in Hawaii, snorkeling in an area where I could walk around. I don't now how to swim, but I have been in shallow pools before. Unbeknownst to me, I was slowly drifting into a deeper area as I was busy just looking down at the fishies. Suddenly I realized my feet no longer could touch the bottom, and an initial panic set in. Then I quickly reasoned that I would just sink to the bottom (which was, about,…

Snorkeling without knowing how to swim seems like a pretty bad idea in the first place…

Re: How a baker survived the Titanic by getting drunk (2022)

#73

Post by mb_72 »

1024core wrote: post #71
bloomingeek wrote: post #54

When I was about eight years old, I went to look for something I left near a motel swimming pool. I slipped into the deep end of the pool, I didn't know how to swim. At first I flailed as fast as I could, instinctively I suppose. This didn't help and I realized two things, I was still sinking and was getting tired. So I stopped and just stared ahead. I can't say I knew I was going to die, I just knew I was in trouble…

Recently I was in Hawaii, snorkeling in an area where I could walk around. I don't now how to swim, but I have been in shallow pools before. Unbeknownst to me, I was slowly drifting into a deeper area as I was busy just looking down at the fishies. Suddenly I realized my feet no longer could touch the bottom, and an initial panic set in. Then I quickly reasoned that I would just sink to the bottom (which was, about,…

Might I suggest that swearing to learn to improve your swimming skills may be more beneficial to your long-term survival? Plus a lot more fun once you have more confidence in the water.

Re: How a baker survived the Titanic by getting drunk (2022)

#75

Post by filleduchaos »

marcosdumay wrote: post #70
DougN7 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you exhale you’ll probably find you sink quite well. And ‘jumping’, even just using your feet/ankles will be enough to move you up 5-8 feet. Give it a try (assuming you can swim!)

> If you exhale you’ll probably find you sink quite well. That depends on how fat you are. And if there's any salt on the water.

Unless you are extremely obese, most of your buoyancy will come from your lungs, no?

Re: How a baker survived the Titanic by getting drunk (2022)

#76

Post by Thiez »

marcosdumay wrote: post #70
DougN7 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you exhale you’ll probably find you sink quite well. And ‘jumping’, even just using your feet/ankles will be enough to move you up 5-8 feet. Give it a try (assuming you can swim!)

> If you exhale you’ll probably find you sink quite well. That depends on how fat you are. And if there's any salt on the water.

Generally (assuming a healthy weight) women float and men sink, due to women having a few percentage points more body fat. I imagine children sink as well as men though.

Re: How a baker survived the Titanic by getting drunk (2022)

#77

Post by rhapsodic »

wkjagt wrote: post #50
tzs wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people do have quite a bit more innate cold tolerance than normal. See for example Wim Hof. Hof claims his high cold tolerance is due to exercise and lifestyle, but his identical twin brother has similar cold tolerance without having done the things Wim attributes his to suggesting its genetic. That fits what scientists who have studied Hof found. They found that (1) he really does have very high cold tolerance,…

There are some really wild stories about Wim Hof. I read that he would sometimes sit on a fountain in a park in Amsterdam, using it to flush his bowel. Then one day, the fountain nozzle was changed without him knowing, and next time he did this he had to go to hospital because of perforated intestines. I googled around a bit and did find some evidence that this actually happened but not that he did this regularly. I…

[dead]

Re: How a baker survived the Titanic by getting drunk (2022)

#80

Post by temporarara »

ghaff wrote: post #67
rightbyte wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then my feet slowing hit the bottom of the pool, this startled me and it occurred to me I could jump and maybe catch the edge of the pool. A really startling story. That is one of my nightmares as a parent. I really need to learn my kids to swim soon. I wonder if you could actually stand on the bottom with your head over water if you tried? Like it is really hard to "jump" under water. And you don't really sink unt…

In general, at least some ability to swim is a pretty basic skill. It should happen much earlier (and it did in my case) but my undergrad required passing a swim test or at least taking the Phys Ed course.

While it's beneficial to learn swimming as young as you possible can people should be encouraged to learn it later too if they are at least mildy interested in water. I learned to swim very young pretty much on my own and thought I was decent, but it was only after taking some technique classes later on that made swimming longer distances actually enjoyable to me.

Swimming as competitive sports never interested me at all, and unfortunately the training aspect of swimming is way too often hardlinked with it. And many other sports hobbies suffer from the same "this is a pipeline to create professional athletes from children" mentality.

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