May is National Water Safety Month!

The World's Largest Swimming Lesson™

Aquabilities with Jennifer along with other top water safety and training organizations will be joining forces to present The World's Largest Swimming Lesson™ (WLSL) on Tuesday, June 14, 2011.  The goal of this worldwide event is to build awareness about the vital importance of teaching children and adults to swim to help prevent drowning. On June 14th, water parks, pools and other aquatic facilities around the globe will host local WLSL lessons simultaneously at 11am ET (3pm GMT) in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record.

Please email us at aquabilitieswithjennifer@gmail.com if you can join us for this unique opportunity on June 14th!  

Thanks!

Jennifer

May is National Water Safety Month!  

See some helpful tips below from the creators of The Worlds Largest Swimming Lesson. 

Be Water Aware

Swimming is one of life's great pleasures. It offers many health and fitness benefits, cools you off in the summer, and provides a great opportunity to socialize with family and friends. Make sure you and yours stay safe in the water by being water aware.

Learn to swim
Swimming Lessons Save Lives.™ The best thing anyone can do to stay safe in and around the water is to learn to swim. This includes both adults and children.

Never leave children unattended
Parents are the first line of defense in keeping kids safe in the water. Never leave children unattended near water, not even for a minute. If your child's in the water, you should be too!

Read all posted signs
Follow posted safety rules and warnings. Teach kids that being safe in and around the water is a personal responsibility - yours and theirs.

Never swim alone or in unsupervised places
Teach your children to always swim with a buddy.

Wear a life jacket
If you or a family member is a weak or non-swimmer, wear a life vest. It's nothing to be embarrassed about and many facilities provide them at no charge.

Look for lifeguards
It is always best to swim in an area supervised by lifeguards, but remember, Lifeguards are the last line of defense when all other layers of protection fail.

Don't drink alcohol
Avoid alcoholic beverages before or during swimming, boating or water-skiing. Never drink alcohol while supervising children around water. Teach teenagers about the danger of drinking alcohol while swimming, boating or water skiing.

Spit it out
Teach kids not to drink the pool water. To prevent choking, never chew gum or eat while swimming, diving or playing in water.

Avoid water wings
Do not use air-filled swimming aids (such as "water wings") in place of life jackets or life preservers with children. Using air-filled swimming aids can give parents and children a false sense of security, which may increase the risk of drowning. These air-filled aids are toys and are not designed to be personal-flotation devices. After all, air-filled plastic tubes can deflate because they can become punctured or unplugged.

Check the water depth
The American Red Cross recommends 9 feet as a minimum depth for diving or jumping.

Watch out for the dangerous "toos"
Don't get too tired, too cold, too far from safety, exposed to too much sun or experience too much strenuous activity.

Note the weather
Pay attention to local weather conditions and forecasts. Stop swimming at the first indication of bad weather.

Use sunscreen
Apply sunscreen on all exposed skin to ensure maximum skin protection. Hats, visors and shirts are recommended to prevent overexposure.

Don't take risks
Don't take chances by overestimating your swimming skills.

Keep toddlers in shallow play areas
Zero-depth entry pools have water games, sprays and fountains with no appreciable water depth.

Follow age & height instructions at water parks
Restrictions apply to many rides in a water park. Size and coordination is critical to safety inside open water flumes.

Watch water depth
When you go from one water park attraction to another, note that the water depth may be different and the attraction should be used in a different way.

Warn kids about swallowing park water
Chlorine and water pH readings are usually posted at large water parks.

Use plastic swim diapers
Many parks require them. Note where changing areas are located and use these designated, sanitized changing spots.

Notice health restrictions
Guests with neck or back problems, heart conditions, prevalence toward motion sickness or pregnancy may not ride high-speed or rapid-descent rides.

Learn More About Water Safety

Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children ages 1-14. It can and should be prevented. Research shows that if a child doesn't learn to swim by the third grade, they likely never will. Teaching children to swim is a vital skill for drowning prevention along with other key water safety measures that everyone can take to stay safe in and around the water.

Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning

Most drowning incidences happen in the blink of an eye.  You turn your back for one minute and your child is out of sight.  Contrary to what we see on TV, drowning is often silent.  There may not be splashing or yelling for help.  Protect your children and those around you from this life threatening danger by knowing how to identify the signs of a person who is drowning.  Make teaching your kids water safety a priority and get yourself lessons if you don't know how to swim.   Most importantly, ALWAYS keep an eye on your child even when lifeguards are present. 

This is an excellent article that everyone should read!

by Mario Vittone on May 3, 2010

in Boating Safety
http://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/

The new captain jumped from the cockpit, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the owners who were 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 knows 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 (source: CDC).  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 beginning to 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)

This doesn’t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble – they are experience 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 there own rescue.  They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.

Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are n 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
• Ladder climb, rarely out of the water.

So if a crew member falls overboard and every looks O.K. – 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.