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I think this has been going around the internets, but it's on what drowning looks like, and it's all new information to me. It's got a lot of scary stats and stories in it too.
http://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/
Apparently when I was a toddler, I almost drowned on a family vacation to Jamaica (I don't remember any of this). My older brother suddenly noticed I was missing, and when he turned around he saw me underwater and standing on the ocean floor on my tippy toes with outstretched hands. His only tipoff was that there was complete silence, otherwise I would've drowned within the next minute, no one else was aware that anything was amiss.
Your stories?
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When i was about 11 years old my parents were building our new home. We have a really small river (you can't even call it that) behind it. I fell in it with my head first and got halfstuck in the mud. Luckily someone pulled me out or it could've ended bad :p
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no drowning experience, but that's definetly the top way I don't want to die.
EDIT: Great informative read, thanks for sharing
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I've saved a 3 year old from drowning so I already knew this, but yea people believe movies and TV too much.
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I once got stuck in something somehow at the bottom of a pool when I was a kid. My aunt saved my ass apparently.
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I worked as a lifeguard one summer at a small outdoor pool. One day just a couple minutes after we let the kids in I looked over the edge of the pool and saw a little girl looking just as that article describes. Floating a little under the water looking up at me. I just reached down and offered her my arm and pulled her to the side of the pool. I told her to stay where she could touch and myself and the other guards just kept an eye on her. She was fine. She had come swimming with her slightly older sister who I guess just didn't pay enough attention. But it got me thinking how easily she could have died there less that a foot from the edge of the pool. Water is a scary force, be careful.
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I was swimming in a bay with a bunch of people with the parents on the pier when we were kids. One of the girls got in over her head and start gasping and yelling. Then she stopped yelling and just stood there with her hands up out of the water, bouncing up and down a little. I didn't like it at all, and not even really knowing her, I swam over as fast as I could and wrapped my arms around her waist and hoisted her up out of the water. At first, the parents just laughed and didn't even help her out. They just said, "she's fine." I never thought she was fine, and she didn't say much of anything after we did get her out. I think we both knew she wasn't, even though our elders didn't want to believe it. Reading this gives me shivers.
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Very useful information, thank you. Drowning seems like a very painful death that I don't want people to experience...
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On July 08 2010 02:52 canucks12 wrote: Very useful information, thank you. Drowning seems like a very painful death that I don't want people to experience...
it's not painful at all. i've drowned before.
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Useful stuff. Thanks for posting it. I only experienced drowning once and that was when I was a kid and my cousin(much less of a jerk now) kept shoving me under the water.
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It's ironic how the natural response to drowning actually prevents any useful motions to stop the drowning.
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l2swim
User was temp banned for this post.
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l2swim
wow i guess u dont know how easily something can happen even if ur a good swimmer and ur under and nobody will here you
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On July 08 2010 02:54 danl9rm wrote:Show nested quote +On July 08 2010 02:52 canucks12 wrote: Very useful information, thank you. Drowning seems like a very painful death that I don't want people to experience... it's not painful at all. i've drowned before.
if its not painful, then why the hell is waterboarding a torture?
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I've had too many drowning incidents lol, one reason why I don't like to swim. One time I was swimming with my friends and one of them was pretty big. He was sitting on one of those floaty chairs and was coming towards me. I was at the edge or something, don't remember exactly what happened but I was trapped under that huge chair LOL.. I kind of panicked so I didn't think of pushing my way out of it but luckily he managed to float it out of my way haha.. Now that I think of it, I was pretty stupid.
Wow man, that must have been horrific.
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not really a drowning inciden pinemu hhaha that stuff happens all the time
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On July 08 2010 03:08 Devski wrote:wow i guess u dont know how easily something can happen even if ur a good swimmer and ur under and nobody will here you
Lets play "find the source of internet hostility!"
I said: Learn to swim
You assumed: I was somehow insulting you or others.
please give me the benefit of the doubt here.
I maintain that learning to swim is an excellent way to prevent drowning.
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On July 08 2010 03:30 sob3k wrote:Show nested quote +On July 08 2010 03:08 Devski wrote:l2swim wow i guess u dont know how easily something can happen even if ur a good swimmer and ur under and nobody will here you Lets play "find the source of internet hostility!" I said: Learn to swim
You assumed: I was somehow insulting you or others.
please give me the benefit of the doubt here. I maintain that learning to swim is an excellent way to prevent drowning.
Better yet just keep your head above water
+ Show Spoiler +
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ets play "find the source of internet hostility!"
I said: Learn to swim
You assumed: I was somehow insulting you or others.
please give me the benefit of the doubt here.
I maintain that learning to swim is an excellent way to prevent drowning.
it is an exellent way to prevent drowning but lets take my case. my friend who swims fine was swimming after a frisbee thats far away and when he gets to it hes tired so while reaching for it he accidently swallows water and he goes under and no one herd him slip under it can be that fast
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as a 6 year lifeguard- this is extremely obvious to me. However that article is spot on! i can't count the number of times i have rescued children drowning feet from friends, parents, and the pool wall lol
The article is scar mongering a bit, but it s true that no one ever asks for help. Out of all of the saves i have had- only one ever asked for help. and most likely that person was more of a distressed swimmer, not drowning. The entire part about not talking is true, as well as the lack of splashing / noise in general.
However enough about the serious stuff: time for some funny lifeguard tales- of an inner city pool :0
Steve Erwin Memories:
the seagull + Show Spoiler +I was sitting on break enjoying a sub when suddenly my boss asks me to come out and help her do something. As i step out into the office she hands me a pair of rubber gloves, a cardboard box. I had a weird look on my face to say the least. Seeming to notice my quizzical look- she quickly told me that some kids had thrown a football at a seagull. The seagull apparently had a broken wing, and was currently residing in the deep end of our pool- squawking away in 15 ft of water. As i slowly saddled up and placed the gloves on and firmly grabbed the box in my hands, i began to swim out to the distressed gull. everyone was watching me, and with people telling me that my eyes are going to be pecked out- i pushed off from the side of the pool, swimming one armed with a box above my head. as i was slowly approaching the gull, all of the time spent watching animal planet, and discovery came to mind. Acting with my best Steve voice, i called her a beauty and began to try and coax the bird into my box. Sadly the bird didn't want to have any of this shit. It started to freak out. thankfully i got my hand around it's neck before it could swim farther away, and while i was trying to stuff it into the box it was pecking, flapping, kicking it's way on my hand. Now let me tell you- trying to tread water while stuffing a bird into a box is not easy. couple that with the fact that this bird is supremely pissed off made it all the better for the spectators. 5 min later i had that fucking bird inside of that box, and thankfully had sent it to the humane society to get it fixed. I felt all good, and hoping that karma would be flowing good for me for the next few weeks but no- humane society just killed it.
The Rabbit: + Show Spoiler +During one of the worst summer rain storms that i can remember- me and another life guard were quickly taking down items that could be destroyed by the storm. as we were running back into our main building, we saw a baby rabbit run form one of our pool land scape bushes across some open ground. With a strong gust of wind- the bunny lost it's footing and tumbled into the deep end of the pool. The rabbit immediately began to swim, but because of the lip on the pool was stuck from getting out. With out thinking me and the other life guard dove into the pool and by boxing the rabbit in were able to grab, and rescue it from the clutches of the pool. We wrapped the rabbit in some of our towels to dry it off a bit, and then quickly ran it back to the huge cluster of bushes from which it came.
Really Funny Drowning People:
Twins + Show Spoiler +When it is a rainy cloudy shitty day- what do you want to do? go see a movie or go to the fucking pool? well i can tell you- if you chose the movies your wrong. the only course of action is always the pool! otherwise your not hard core, lite the rest of the patients that come to my facility. so as you can probably imagine, this day was one of those days. It was cloudy cold, nad windy. So there i was sitting in my favorite chair with a huge parka on. The pool had just opened up and i was not expecting anyone to show up on a day like today. But not 2 seconds after i had said that, two little shits came running into the pool- and straight over to my drop slide.
Now let me explain the drop slide. If you can swim it's no big deal. basically it's a slide that has a 60 degree slope, and it shoots you into the water. the slide stops about 3 feet from the surface, so it's fairly exhilarating. Well these two little scamps came running up to the slide, and with their father standing near by the first one shot down the slide.
Now it's common practice for the slide attendant at the top of the slide to ask the kids if they can swim in deep water. Obviously the kid was young, and i noticed that attendant ask the kid three times if he can swim. he shook his head yes. with out a second to lose, he shot down the slide- and began drowning. yep thats right- the only people in the pool come right over to me, and of course the first person in the pool begins to drown. So i jump in and save his ass. the entire time his father is just chuckling that his kid made the cold lifeguard get in and soak all of his warm cloths. As i slowly stripped off my wet cloths, and dried off using my towel- i wrapped the towel around my shoulders, and got up on my chair once again.
I look up at the top of the slide and to my horror, the kids twin brother is going down the slide. Stifling a fuuuuuuuuuuuuu- the kid hits the water- and begins to drown. So i jump after the little shit, and safe the twin brother. Now all of my cloths are soaking wet, my towel is wet- and the pool had been open for less than 5 min. and the father is standing near my chair stairing stupidly at the water- hopefully coming to the conclusion that he had almost lost both of his kids in less than 5 min. fml.
queen latifah: + Show Spoiler +If you have not read twins story read that first.
I was sitting on my fav chair again, right next to the drop slide. It had been a good day and i had not had to dive in and save anyone 'yet' with 15 min left for the pool to be open, i was hoping that it would be a rare day where i did not have to get wet. But boy ohh boy i was so wrong. I had noticed that for some time a rather large African American women had been going up and down the drop slide. she seemed to scared to go down the slide- so i just asked her if she could swim. She responded that yes she was a good swimmer and could swim in deep water quite well. So with about 3 min left of the day she finally gathered enough courage to finally attempt the drop slide. I watched her go down, and sure enough as soon as she hit the water started to drown. So much for her being a strong swimmer i though- as i plunged into the pool.
by the time that i had gotten to her, she was screaming that only a women like that can scream. She was belting out the 'LOOORDY LOOORDY LORDS' like no tomorrow, and while it is my job to try and calm the victim when i am swimming them to safety, nothing i said seemed to help her at all. she was milking it for all it for all it was worth- and nothing i could say or do made her calm down. Basically the end of the night, i was soaking wet- and in a super mood yet again.
Double Story Double Save:
+ Show Spoiler +Saving one person is always cool. However life guards are always talking about the doubles. A double is saving two people at the same time. IE you jump into the water after one, and come out with two. This is a rare occurrence, and all of the danges and worries of saving one person are doubled with two.
My first story is about a mom and her 6 month old baby.
Mom and baby are standing awfully close to the point on our pool where it goes to 5ft to around 13 feet. This drop off is really just a very aggressive slop on the pool bottom. Mom was standing in a circle talking with some of her friends, and i noticed her take a larger 'water jump' back. She was immediately in water over her head, and was quite surprised that 6 inches away from where she could touch the bottom, she was not in water over head. With both hands holding the baby, she quickly went under- feet from her friends, and no one seemed to notice.
at that point is was already off my chair and jumping into the water. I reached the drowning pari about 5 seconds after i saw mom jump over her head, and quickly had the baby cradled in one of my hands. Thankfully the kid was crying, and was OK. I grabbed mom with my other hand- and gave her my lifeguard tube. She was sputtering, but still breathing- so i pulled her to a section of the pool where she could touch. My first concern was still the baby, and i left my tube with the mom in the water while i quickly walked twards the side of the pool. The baby was crying the entire time, and i quickly laid the baby on it's side, and watched it or a few moments.
Luckily the baby was fine, and was simply crying because of the obvious scare it had been placed in. Oddly enough- mom decided to scream in my year and tell me that i need to do CPR on her child, and acted disgusted / called me racist for telling her that here baby is ok, and the becuase it is coughing / crying is breathing, conscious, and does not need CPR.
Diving Board double
Our diving board is in 14ft of water, which is clearly over anyone's head. However this did not stop one girl from jumping off the board into the water. She of course began to drown, and as i was in mid air jumping from my high stand- i noticed that another girl is running and proceeding to jump off the board. I told her to stop as loud as i could, but because she failed to realize that her friend was drowning, or had some how not heard my extremely loud whistling, still ran and jumped off the board.
By the time the second girl hit the water, i was already swimming the first girl to the side- when i noticed that the second girl started to drown as well. I quickly swam back with the first girl freaking out on my tube fro the second. Luckily i could grab both of them and spinning them on their backs- safely took them to the edge. when i got them safe and sound on the side- i reprimanded the second girl for jumping, and told her to look before she leaps.
Some of my facts:
+ Show Spoiler +I have saved 5 people in a 7 hour period i have had over 50+ saves in my time as a life guard Only one person has ever said thank you to me after saving them I have saved people of all ages. the oldest was a 40 year old overweight male that said he could swim, but upon jumping off the diving board found out the hard way, and sunk to the bottom. This was my hardest save, because dragging him from 13 ft under water was really hard.
I have never had some one drown on me I have never had a spinal or serious conditon I have never given CPR I have never given rescue breathing I have never delivered a baby
The dumbest save i have ever had was with a 14 year old kid. He comes up to me and asks how deep the water is by the diving board. I tell him that its 14 feet, and that he sould not go off the board if he cannot swim. 5 min later he jumps off the board, and drowns. When i get to him in the water- i am fuming mad and ask him why he jumped- his answer? "I could see the bottom so i thought i could touch.
When people say they can swim, you need to ask them if they can swim in deep water over their heads. Because for some reason- people think that walking in water = swimming.
never doubt the stupidity of people around water.
I have yelled at people having sex in the pool I have yelled at people only wearning a t shirt and no bottoms in the pool Girls rutinely wear nothing but a white cotton shirt on top- with under wear for bottoms ext ext.
Basically i life guard to much.
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A story ... mm heres mine. When I was a baby my parents were at a party at their bosses house with a pool. Apparently they let the boss throw me up and down ... I dunno how high. But low and behold he dropped me and I ended up with a irregular heart beat. Thankfully the doctor said it should be gone by now. Whew.
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On July 08 2010 03:47 Misrah wrote:as a 6 year lifeguard- this is extremely obvious to me. However that article is spot on! i can't count the number of times i have rescued children drowning feet from friends, parents, and the pool wall lol The article is scar mongering a bit, but it s true that no one ever asks for help. Out of all of the saves i have had- only one ever asked for help. and most likely that person was more of a distressed swimmer, not drowning. The entire part about not talking is true, as well as the lack of splashing / noise in general. However enough about the serious stuff: time for some funny lifeguard tales- of an inner city pool :0 Steve Erwin Memories: the seagull + Show Spoiler +I was sitting on break enjoying a sub when suddenly my boss asks me to come out and help her do something. As i step out into the office she hands me a pair of rubber gloves, a cardboard box. I had a weird look on my face to say the least. Seeming to notice my quizzical look- she quickly told me that some kids had thrown a football at a seagull. The seagull apparently had a broken wing, and was currently residing in the deep end of our pool- squawking away in 15 ft of water. As i slowly saddled up and placed the gloves on and firmly grabbed the box in my hands, i began to swim out to the distressed gull. everyone was watching me, and with people telling me that my eyes are going to be pecked out- i pushed off from the side of the pool, swimming one armed with a box above my head. as i was slowly approaching the gull, all of the time spent watching animal planet, and discovery came to mind. Acting with my best Steve voice, i called her a beauty and began to try and coax the bird into my box. Sadly the bird didn't want to have any of this shit. It started to freak out. thankfully i got my hand around it's neck before it could swim farther away, and while i was trying to stuff it into the box it was pecking, flapping, kicking it's way on my hand. Now let me tell you- trying to tread water while stuffing a bird into a box is not easy. couple that with the fact that this bird is supremely pissed off made it all the better for the spectators. 5 min later i had that fucking bird inside of that box, and thankfully had sent it to the humane society to get it fixed. I felt all good, and hoping that karma would be flowing good for me for the next few weeks but no- humane society just killed it. The Rabbit: + Show Spoiler +During one of the worst summer rain storms that i can remember- me and another life guard were quickly taking down items that could be destroyed by the storm. as we were running back into our main building, we saw a baby rabbit run form one of our pool land scape bushes across some open ground. With a strong gust of wind- the bunny lost it's footing and tumbled into the deep end of the pool. The rabbit immediately began to swim, but because of the lip on the pool was stuck from getting out. With out thinking me and the other life guard dove into the pool and by boxing the rabbit in were able to grab, and rescue it from the clutches of the pool. We wrapped the rabbit in some of our towels to dry it off a bit, and then quickly ran it back to the huge cluster of bushes from which it came. Really Funny Drowning People: Twins + Show Spoiler +When it is a rainy cloudy shitty day- what do you want to do? go see a movie or go to the fucking pool? well i can tell you- if you chose the movies your wrong. the only course of action is always the pool! otherwise your not hard core, lite the rest of the patients that come to my facility. so as you can probably imagine, this day was one of those days. It was cloudy cold, nad windy. So there i was sitting in my favorite chair with a huge parka on. The pool had just opened up and i was not expecting anyone to show up on a day like today. But not 2 seconds after i had said that, two little shits came running into the pool- and straight over to my drop slide.
Now let me explain the drop slide. If you can swim it's no big deal. basically it's a slide that has a 60 degree slope, and it shoots you into the water. the slide stops about 3 feet from the surface, so it's fairly exhilarating. Well these two little scamps came running up to the slide, and with their father standing near by the first one shot down the slide.
Now it's common practice for the slide attendant at the top of the slide to ask the kids if they can swim in deep water. Obviously the kid was young, and i noticed that attendant ask the kid three times if he can swim. he shook his head yes. with out a second to lose, he shot down the slide- and began drowning. yep thats right- the only people in the pool come right over to me, and of course the first person in the pool begins to drown. So i jump in and save his ass. the entire time his father is just chuckling that his kid made the cold lifeguard get in and soak all of his warm cloths. As i slowly stripped off my wet cloths, and dried off using my towel- i wrapped the towel around my shoulders, and got up on my chair once again.
I look up at the top of the slide and to my horror, the kids twin brother is going down the slide. Stifling a fuuuuuuuuuuuuu- the kid hits the water- and begins to drown. So i jump after the little shit, and safe the twin brother. Now all of my cloths are soaking wet, my towel is wet- and the pool had been open for less than 5 min. and the father is standing near my chair stairing stupidly at the water- hopefully coming to the conclusion that he had almost lost both of his kids in less than 5 min. fml. queen latifah: + Show Spoiler +If you have not read twins story read that first.
I was sitting on my fav chair again, right next to the drop slide. It had been a good day and i had not had to dive in and save anyone 'yet' with 15 min left for the pool to be open, i was hoping that it would be a rare day where i did not have to get wet. But boy ohh boy i was so wrong. I had noticed that for some time a rather large African American women had been going up and down the drop slide. she seemed to scared to go down the slide- so i just asked her if she could swim. She responded that yes she was a good swimmer and could swim in deep water quite well. So with about 3 min left of the day she finally gathered enough courage to finally attempt the drop slide. I watched her go down, and sure enough as soon as she hit the water started to drown. So much for her being a strong swimmer i though- as i plunged into the pool.
by the time that i had gotten to her, she was screaming that only a women like that can scream. She was belting out the 'LOOORDY LOOORDY LORDS' like no tomorrow, and while it is my job to try and calm the victim when i am swimming them to safety, nothing i said seemed to help her at all. she was milking it for all it for all it was worth- and nothing i could say or do made her calm down. Basically the end of the night, i was soaking wet- and in a super mood yet again. Double Story Double Save: + Show Spoiler +Saving one person is always cool. However life guards are always talking about the doubles. A double is saving two people at the same time. IE you jump into the water after one, and come out with two. This is a rare occurrence, and all of the danges and worries of saving one person are doubled with two.
My first story is about a mom and her 6 month old baby.
Mom and baby are standing awfully close to the point on our pool where it goes to 5ft to around 13 feet. This drop off is really just a very aggressive slop on the pool bottom. Mom was standing in a circle talking with some of her friends, and i noticed her take a larger 'water jump' back. She was immediately in water over her head, and was quite surprised that 6 inches away from where she could touch the bottom, she was not in water over head. With both hands holding the baby, she quickly went under- feet from her friends, and no one seemed to notice.
at that point is was already off my chair and jumping into the water. I reached the drowning pari about 5 seconds after i saw mom jump over her head, and quickly had the baby cradled in one of my hands. Thankfully the kid was crying, and was OK. I grabbed mom with my other hand- and gave her my lifeguard tube. She was sputtering, but still breathing- so i pulled her to a section of the pool where she could touch. My first concern was still the baby, and i left my tube with the mom in the water while i quickly walked twards the side of the pool. The baby was crying the entire time, and i quickly laid the baby on it's side, and watched it or a few moments.
Luckily the baby was fine, and was simply crying because of the obvious scare it had been placed in. Oddly enough- mom decided to scream in my year and tell me that i need to do CPR on her child, and acted disgusted / called me racist for telling her that here baby is ok, and the becuase it is coughing / crying is breathing, conscious, and does not need CPR.
Diving Board double
Our diving board is in 14ft of water, which is clearly over anyone's head. However this did not stop one girl from jumping off the board into the water. She of course began to drown, and as i was in mid air jumping from my high stand- i noticed that another girl is running and proceeding to jump off the board. I told her to stop as loud as i could, but because she failed to realize that her friend was drowning, or had some how not heard my extremely loud whistling, still ran and jumped off the board.
By the time the second girl hit the water, i was already swimming the first girl to the side- when i noticed that the second girl started to drown as well. I quickly swam back with the first girl freaking out on my tube fro the second. Luckily i could grab both of them and spinning them on their backs- safely took them to the edge. when i got them safe and sound on the side- i reprimanded the second girl for jumping, and told her to look before she leaps. Some of my facts: + Show Spoiler +I have saved 5 people in a 7 hour period i have had over 50+ saves in my time as a life guard Only one person has ever said thank you to me after saving them I have saved people of all ages. the oldest was a 40 year old overweight male that said he could swim, but upon jumping off the diving board found out the hard way, and sunk to the bottom. This was my hardest save, because dragging him from 13 ft under water was really hard.
I have never had some one drown on me I have never had a spinal or serious conditon I have never given CPR I have never given rescue breathing I have never delivered a baby
The dumbest save i have ever had was with a 14 year old kid. He comes up to me and asks how deep the water is by the diving board. I tell him that its 14 feet, and that he sould not go off the board if he cannot swim. 5 min later he jumps off the board, and drowns. When i get to him in the water- i am fuming mad and ask him why he jumped- his answer? "I could see the bottom so i thought i could touch.
When people say they can swim, you need to ask them if they can swim in deep water over their heads. Because for some reason- people think that walking in water = swimming.
never doubt the stupidity of people around water.
I have yelled at people having sex in the pool I have yelled at people only wearning a t shirt and no bottoms in the pool Girls rutinely wear nothing but a white cotton shirt on top- with under wear for bottoms ext ext.
Basically i life guard to much.
I was on swimteam for 6 years, worked at a private pool for 1.5.
It still amazes me what people do...Why on earth would you go jump out into the middle of the pool when you can't even doggie paddle, know your limits, jesus. Saved a 45 year old guy snorkeling in Hawaii, the guy takes a little inflatable boat out over the reef, hops off and immediately starts drowning...snokel/flippers and all. Funny/sad part is that there were probably about 50 people within 200 feet of him, and he's yelling "Help!, Help!" and everyone is just staring at him like they're too embarrassed to do anything...I look around and It's clear everyone is just waiting for someone else to go save this guy. Fuck all of them. I swim all the way out and drag him back to the beach with them all goggling at me.
Really depressing, but at least the guy said thanks.
Why the fuck would you go SNORKELING if you can't swim? 85% of the populace is pants-on-head retarded.
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^ ya another swimmer i was on team for some time before i became an LG- i thank god that there are still people like you in the world ie. people that can swim heeh
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Pretty close when I was around 3-4 years old, I fell out of the raft and was underwater, I wasn't under for long cause adults were with me, but still it is something that I'll always remember. I'm not scared of water (like long term psychological effects) - more like I have got respect for safety in water now.
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On July 08 2010 03:01 sob3k wrote: l2swim
Lol ignorant... Even the best swimmers ever can drown you know, in stupid situations...
You can't rely on your "swimmingskills" when your body takes over...
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Hong Kong20321 Posts
shit thats so scary >_< thanks for posting.
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Wow, that's pretty educational/scary.
Personally, I could see myself getting into a drowning situation - I don't really know how to tread water, so in deep water, the only way for me to easily keep my head above the water is by actively swimming. If I ever were out in deep water and started to panic and get tired, I might be in danger.
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Wow. Just watching that video shook me up a bit. That was something really amazing you/your friends did.
Even with my training, I don't think I could act so calmly and quickly. Really one of those experiences that can change a life.
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In Australia, Swimming is a big part of the culture, and its rare to know someone who can't swim. However we get huge numbers of people from other countries travelling that just have no idea what they are doing in the water.
In highschool once, we were doing swimming for phys ed, and the teachers didn't even bother to ask what kind of swimming experience we had. Everyone just jumped in, and it was assumed we would all be fine. However we had an exchange student with us who had never learned to swim. He saw everyone else just jumping in and figured he would do it as well, which led to a scary drowning experience for him. Luckily our class contained a few students who also worked as lifeguards who recognised he was in trouble and grabbed him.
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all the lifeguards for mississauga had to go to a scanning training, where we watched a movie where a child drowns while the lifeguard is sitting in a chair ten feet back from the water (the kid was revived with brain damage). there was a timer counting from when the child started drowning, and it went up to 5 minutes before a parent noticed and pulled the kid out.
it's definitely gonna make me more careful when guarding, but a lot of why the kid drowned was because of the policies in place at the pool (only 2 guards guarding a pool the size of 2 and a hot tub, and the guard sitting on the chair, plus a giant trampoline in the water). can't imagine it would be a pleasant way to die...
EDIT: geeze, Misrah, did you work at a water park or something (or bondi beach )? I'd never think there'd be that many major situations that a lifeguard would have to deal with in one career if they worked at a pool. i've only had a one major situation in 3 years, and a few minors (def a good thing though).
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I almost drowned once. Way back in the day when i must have been around 5 or so I was at a public swimming pool floating around on one of those foam pads in the shape of an animal. I decided it was time to come out so I envisioned myself jumping from the pad to the edge then just pulling myself out. If anyone has tried jumping off something floating in water you will know it doesn't work. So when I jumped I was basically in the same spot except without the floaty...and I couldnt swim. Luckily I believe I was able to call out a little in-between choking to death and trying to swim (flailing my arms) and the lifeguard jumped in to save me
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The article's author isn't too good, but the information made sense. Instinctive behavior pretty crazy
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lifeguarding is a shit job. All the posts in here confirm it.
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Does floating count as swimming? :D
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This kind of thing makes me thank god I'm a pretty good swimmer.
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On July 08 2010 04:57 DwmC_Foefen wrote:Lol ignorant... Even the best swimmers ever can drown you know, in stupid situations... You can't rely on your "swimmingskills" when your body takes over...
You can totally rely on your swimming skills. It's the ONLY thing you can rely on.
Sure, there are situations where even an olympic swimmer could drown, but there are about 2456886908976 MORE situations in which a shitty swimmer can. Read a couple hundred drowning/near drowning reports, you will notice a significant trend of weak swimmers (you can even start with the one posted earlier). If you want to reduce your risk of drowning, becoming a strong swimmer is going to be great.
After 6 years of swim team I'm confident that I would never have problems in water unless:
A. I was bludgeoned with flying log B. The water was supercooled to antarctic temperature C. I'm going over class 5 rapids D. I'm fucked out of my mind on Shrooms
Sure, these could all happen, but they are far less likely than simply falling into a deep lake and realizing you can't float. You can't control all circumstances, but its only responsible to do the best you can to minimize the ones you can.
In conclusion
l2swim
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On July 08 2010 12:12 TimmyMac wrote: lifeguarding is a shit job. All the posts in here confirm it.
whoa, life guarding is the SICKEST first job you can have! other than the fact that you have to do rescues every now and then (which shouldn't be a problem if you follow procedure, and are mostly avoidable), its awesome (depending on whether your city employed, imo). depending on the shift (in mississauga), you may only have to work 20 minutes out of an hour, and the rest is sitting in an office. the pay here is spectacular, 14.50 for a guard, and if you work daytime, it's near 18 bucks an hour. and this depends on the place, but the staff where I work is awesome. plus it looks pretty respectable on a resume. definitely not a shit job if you do it right. even teaching swimming lessons isn't too bad...
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On July 08 2010 13:09 eLiE wrote:Show nested quote +On July 08 2010 12:12 TimmyMac wrote: lifeguarding is a shit job. All the posts in here confirm it. whoa, life guarding is the SICKEST first job you can have! other than the fact that you have to do rescues every now and then (which shouldn't be a problem if you follow procedure, and are mostly avoidable), its awesome (depending on whether your city employed, imo). depending on the shift (in mississauga), you may only have to work 20 minutes out of an hour, and the rest is sitting in an office. the pay here is spectacular, 14.50 for a guard, and if you work daytime, it's near 18 bucks an hour. and this depends on the place, but the staff where I work is awesome. plus it looks pretty respectable on a resume. definitely not a shit job if you do it right. even teaching swimming lessons isn't too bad...
Where the hell do you lifeguard for 18 bucks an hour? :O
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I only make 9.25 an hour- private swim lessons net me like 50 an hour tho.
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On July 08 2010 13:11 sob3k wrote:Show nested quote +On July 08 2010 13:09 eLiE wrote:On July 08 2010 12:12 TimmyMac wrote: lifeguarding is a shit job. All the posts in here confirm it. whoa, life guarding is the SICKEST first job you can have! other than the fact that you have to do rescues every now and then (which shouldn't be a problem if you follow procedure, and are mostly avoidable), its awesome (depending on whether your city employed, imo). depending on the shift (in mississauga), you may only have to work 20 minutes out of an hour, and the rest is sitting in an office. the pay here is spectacular, 14.50 for a guard, and if you work daytime, it's near 18 bucks an hour. and this depends on the place, but the staff where I work is awesome. plus it looks pretty respectable on a resume. definitely not a shit job if you do it right. even teaching swimming lessons isn't too bad... Where the hell do you lifeguard for 18 bucks an hour? :O
city of Mississauga ftw! part of why we're awesome. this is one of the few cities in Canada with no debt and tons of dough saved up. and it's all thanks to our all mighty leader, Hazel McCallion, mayer for over 30 years, now 89. She's been hit by a truck (the truck needed repairs after) and she's still kicking. She even knows Regis (she was on Regis and Kelly and has met him a bunch of times). I swear everyone is in love with her. My dad even has bobbleheads and a mississauga monopoly board with her on it that he had her sign. ALL HAIL HAZEL!!!
i'm guessing the surplus is why we get paid so well
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my mom always had this hangup about drowning.
i always hear her tell people with kids, "you must be so so careful, because you don't realise, its so QUIET. you won't hear a thing."
Guess she knew her shit.
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Hmm... I was pushed off a roof once and into a thornbush. Have a faded scar on my left arm from that.
Closest thing I have water-related is snorkling and jackass-the-staffman decided it was cool to throw bread at me while I was trying to get out of water (from being sick) and ended up swallowing sea water and getting seasick on the way back.
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On July 08 2010 14:10 Misrah wrote: I only make 9.25 an hour- private swim lessons net me like 50 an hour tho. what the hell!? 7.60/hour and swim lessons are $10 in the morning and $15 at night per lesson. fuckin cheapskates
when I was little I dragged my brother out of the pool just beyond the steps. Lifeguard & parents and everybody sitting right there, not noticing a thing. kind of affected me how blind everybody was, never realized this was why they didn't notice
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same as you OP, i almost drown as a child, but my father saved me =D
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That was interesting read, thanks.
Fortunately I haven't got any experience like this
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I`m from sweden, so dont hate me for this question, but, what is a Toddler?
I am pretty good in english but this is a word i`ve never been taught or came across.
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On July 09 2010 01:46 Dakk wrote: I`m from sweden, so dont hate me for this question, but, what is a Toddler?
I am pretty good in english but this is a word i`ve never been taught or came across.
A toddler is a young child who has just learned to walk. Because they are new to walking, they walk funny and fall over lots
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On July 08 2010 02:54 danl9rm wrote:Show nested quote +On July 08 2010 02:52 canucks12 wrote: Very useful information, thank you. Drowning seems like a very painful death that I don't want people to experience... it's not painful at all. i've drowned before.
You're a complete idiot... drowning is one of the most painful deaths you can go through..
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