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Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

spotthedrowningchild.com

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Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#301

Post by Ma8ee »

keanzu wrote: post #224
killjoywashere wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wouldn't let a small child I am responsible for go into a pool alone You would. Let me give you the scenario: you're home alone with the three kids, you've been chasing them around, doing laundry, cleaning up spilled grape juice, telling Jenny to stop cutting Tommy's hair, etc. Finally, you think everyone is down for a nap. You turn on the game. 5 minutes later, 5 minutes, you think "It's too quiet...". You get u…

I have a pool. I have a fence. A friend's son was visiting, also four years old, vanished for just a second and suddenly I thought Oh god, the pool. Sure enough there he was stuck outside the fence trying to get to the pool but frustrated that the latching mechanism can only be operated by someone at least 5 feet tall. I wouldn't let a small child go into a pool alone. Pool safety is life and death. Get a fence.

A pool needs at least two lines of protection. One day the three year old will drag a garden chair or the box someone left out to the fence and climb over it.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#302

Post by eric_h »

pmarreck wrote: post #159
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 :)

Flippers. Flippers magnify your kick strength, you have NO IDEA by how much (like literally it must be 10x or more). They're inexpensive, and there's no shame in having them. They're easy to put on and take off. I also scuba dive, and flippers are a necessity in that circumstance. There is a MASSIVE difference in propulsion with flippers. Since you can encounter currents in open water scuba diving, they're a lifesave…

> (Scuba is super cool too, btw. But that's like... super advanced swimming. Baby steps.)

I've met more than one scuba diver who were weak swimmers but avid divers. To your previous point, flippers turn a weak swimmer into > an olympian.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#303

Post by alistairSH »

philshem wrote: post #42

Rates of drowning in Europe[0][1] vary by more than an order of magnitude. I'd be curious about compulsory swimming lessons in schools, as is done here in Switzerland[2], and its correlation to the rate of drowning. [0] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/D... [1] http://78.136.22.110/europe/info/switzerland/switzerland-dro... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swimming_lessons#Switzerland

Interestingly, Iceland has compulsory swimming lessons (not to mention, pools are part of the national identity). But, their drowning rate is relatively high, based on the first link. Of course, they also have a fair number of tourist drownings on their beaches - I don't know if there are enough of those to skew results.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#304

Post by eric_h »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #226
ben7799 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is improper training. (Former WSI here) Especially in the ocean. The Salinity in the ocean makes it very easy for a well trained swimmer to float. People who sink on their back haven't been trained to maintain enough air in their lungs and/or use minimal arm/leg effort to assist. Also they are probably not leaning their head back far enough. (Head position being a massive component of the problem for non-swimmer…

And at Scout Camp each year we always had some. It doesn't go away with training. Whether its body fat or lung capacity, whatever, they simply sink to the bottom no matter how big a breath they take or the 'head position' explanation. They can be 'swimmer' and still not be physically capable of floating on their back. The ocean is a different matter I'm sure.

When I was a kid I would sink with a full breath of air (in a pool). I learned the back float and the dead man's float in swim lessons but I still needed to move some water with my hands to stay on the surface. I enjoyed the fact that swimming in the ocean was easier since I didn't have to exert myself at all to float.

Nowadays my BMI is such that I float in all bodies of water ;)

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#305

Post by rideontime »

bane wrote: post #118

There's a youtube channel of these videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnERyC7dwJwTvEyzYz6uxHw For those not deeply familiar with U.S. structural issues regarding race, a random viewing of the video will show the unfortunately, the victim/rescued person is likely to be African-American. The reasons for this are complex and sad. Anecdotally, as a child, my family wasn't well off (and at least once homeless), and…

It's possible that their parents or grandparents would have been beaten for trying to swim at public pools.

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=902136...

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#308

Post by silvestrov »

philshem wrote: post #42

Rates of drowning in Europe[0][1] vary by more than an order of magnitude. I'd be curious about compulsory swimming lessons in schools, as is done here in Switzerland[2], and its correlation to the rate of drowning. [0] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/D... [1] http://78.136.22.110/europe/info/switzerland/switzerland-dro... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swimming_lessons#Switzerland

Denmark: almost everybody lives less than 30 miles from the Sea (or big lakes). More than 80% get swimming lessons in school.

Not being able to swim is viewed as "having a bit of a handicap" that you should fix as soon as possible.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#310

Post by kelnos »

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.

In this video I recognized pretty quickly who the drowning kid was, well before the lifeguard jumped in, but upon further reflection:

1) I was already primed to find someone drowning; I knew based on the video title that there was someone in danger. For a lifeguard, it's probably common that they'll go through entire shifts without having to jump in.

2) Even after identifying the right kid, I had doubt: I wasn't 100% sure until the lifeguard jumped in and confirmed my choice.

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