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Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

spotthedrowningchild.com

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Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#351

Post by dingaling »

jkoschei wrote: post #51

Lifeguards and programmers have something in common – though it looks like both spend their day sitting and staring at a rectangle, there's a lot going on mentally, and the risk of cognitive and visual fatigue is high. I was a lifeguard for five summers, Water Safety Instructor, and American Red Cross lifeguard instructor for several years. The training to be a lifeguard is surprisingly intensive -- it includes secti…

> rotating between the lifeguard chairs at fifteen-minute intervals

My local pool removed the high chairs because of injuries sustained when the guards were scrambling down to perform a rescue; a chair six feet above a wet deck is quite dangerous.

Now the lifeguards stand on poolside and can dive-in immediately.

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#352

Post by McElroy »

The first video was sort of easy -- I saw the person who fell off their floatation device and I kept looking just at that person until the lifeguard blew their whistle and jumped in and saved them. The real question, though, is not did I spot them. As the text mentioned, half of children drown while someone is watching. I do not have children but if I were responsible for that child (either as a parent or otherwise), would I have jumped in and saved them? Maybe not, maybe I would have just been standing there wondering "do they need my help or not". I haven't thought much about this before but after being confronted with the facts by this site, I have decided that it is better to act immediately when there's a possibility that a person is drowning and save them even when they don't need saving than it is to hesitate and wonder whether they need help.

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#353

Post by noja »

TheAnimus wrote: post #245
TheGRS wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A summer camp I went to when I was younger was very heavily focused on swimming and water craft. We had 3 different colored bands to indicate your swimming ability. Red if you couldn't swim well, yellow if you were OK, but not enough for the deep end and green for the deep end. The counselors tested and trained the kids to go up the color bands, which was pretty neat, but I realize now that it was also a way to keep…

I would have been a blue band in your system. My parents moved to Cornwall when I was child, surrounded on 3 sides by water, I gained my surf lifesaving certificate, I was a good swimmer. Almost two decades passes. I'm in Bali, on a deserted beach with my ex because we "don't want the average experience" or whatever. A small argument and I decide I want a swim. I walk out through the surf, my mind overcome with thoug…

Why did you swim against a rip current?

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#354

Post by omegaworks »

jff wrote: post #39
X-Istence wrote: post #11

I clicked on the kid as soon as he kicked off from the wall, as he was already panicking while trying to hold on to the rope and it didn't give me points. The next one in the tidal wave pool I clicked and all it did was pause the video, and when I continued the video the kid was being rescued. I like this though, good training, for everyone.

I actually spotted that kid as the first possible point of trouble... but you have to wait until the "moments later" card to see him start doing something risky, and then like you said, even when he's tangled in the rope it won't let you click him.

For that guy I waited until he started actually showing IDR signs - no lateral movement, dipping up and down. Even though he's struggling in the rope he's still managing to move around using a bad freestyle.

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#355

Post by omegaworks »

corndoge wrote: post #164

I clicked on the drowning boy about 6 seconds after he slipped out from his tube, and the site's response was "Just splashing around, keep looking." Then I tried it a few more times. There seems to be a 2-3 second window just before the lifeguard jumps in. Kind of lame since it was obvious sooner than that.

Hm.. I'll recheck the bounding boxes. I try to keep them pretty tight around the swimmer. If you can remember specific details about the scenario that would help.

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#356

Post by noja »

ihsw wrote: post #342
nemo44x wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real shame is you went on a beautiful vacation and ended up in an argument with your spouse. I hope you don't resent your spouse for getting up and leaving, especially since you put yourself in the position to swim while not mindful of your environment. Also, a back-float is always generally a good strategy in salt water conditions when you've lost control or strength to swim. You carry over common waves and it t…

Yeah, I'm having a hard time seeing how laying on your back to catch your breath is a bad idea. I thought everybody did that when swimming for extended periods of time. The parent does mention swimming against a rip current, which would explain the need to swim at maximum physical exertion for an extended period of time. In that case I don't think he panicked.

> which would explain the need to swim at maximum physical exertion for an extended period of time

Huh? Why are people writing this? You don't swim against a rip current.

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#357

Post by ycombobreaker »

dimino wrote: post #302
grkvlt wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think it's a terrible practice, wholly ineffective, and neighboring on pathological to instill terror into your staff The point of drills that simulate reality effectively is to get you comfortable enough with taking the necessary actions at the required times that you will not have terror instilled in you. This is why armies around the world all do 'live fire' exeercise and so on, and why companies run BAU or DR…

I know why a drill happens. I also know why they don't actually burn down buildings during fire drills.

Fire departments actually do burn down buildings as drills.

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#358

Post by INTPenis »

irishcoffee wrote: post #30

I would like to point out that any flotation device in a pool besides a life jacket is just asking for problems. I life-guarded for almost 10 years, the only way I would ever let anything that supported a human floating __besides__ an approved life jacket was if the pool was almost empty (such that the one person got my undivided attention) and if I knew the child to already be a strong swimmer. I highly encourage ev…

I don't know anything about your old profession but I know that every adventure bath place I've been to in Sweden with a wave maker have always asked everyone to take all toys out of the water before the wave maker starts.

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#359

Post by dvirsky »

tyho wrote: post #261
dvirsky wrote: post #214

Oh great, my son who's 7 years old and can barely swim, is going to a water park tomorrow as part of his summer camp, and I won't be there to watch over him. Just what I needed to see right now :) Of course there are lifeguards out there and there's the camp staff watching over the kids, but it's my child, I can't help being a little stressed about it. It's time for proper swimming lessons I guess.

I am from the UK, and here everybody learns to swim at school around 6, it is simply part of the curriculum. It is treated like reading or writing, if you can't do it you get put in special classes till you can. I would guess more people can swim here than can ride a bike. Lots of people in these videos look like they can't swim at all! Is this the norm in the USA? Edit: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1521238…

I'm not from the US, I'm from Israel. When I was a child swimming was part of our school curriculum, and I learned to swim at around 7 I guess (I already knew basic breast stroke my mom taught me at 4). But that was in a small community that had its own swimming pool, I'm not sure what's the norm in big cities that don't have many public pools. Also, the public education system here as been degraded quite substantially in the past 30 years.

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#360

Post by lazyant »

trhway wrote: post #74
rdoherty wrote: post #23

A few weeks ago I was sitting 6 feet from the edge of a community pool while many parents and their children were swimming. Out of nowhere one of the lifeguards on the opposite end blows her whistle, jumps in and swims frantically across the pool to rescue a drowning boy 3 feet away from his mother . She was literally looking at him and didn't recognize he was drowning. The mother and child were only about 10 feet fr…

can't we have something like those fitness bands to be worn by children while in the pool - once a person starts drowning the heartbeat and other lifesigns are changing very characteristically and that can just turn the red light on lifeguards console on.

perhaps a band with a panic button that flashes and makes sound? although I'm very skeptical of any device due to false positives etc
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