GUYS, THIS IS IMPORTANT. I’ve been a lifeguard for four years, and I didn’t fully appreciate this until a little kid jumped into the shallow end of the lap pool. He wasn’t flailing. His eyes were wide in panic and h would try and push himself off the bottom, but the water was right over his head. It took me a couple seconds to register what had happened, and fortunately, another swimmer right beside the kid managed to grab him when he saw my reaction.
My mother and I run a water safety non-profit organization and this is one of the things we teach.
In movies someone who is drowning always yells and screams and it’s very dramatic and obvious but in real life you really have to be paying attention
I was on holiday in Egypt when I was 14, and there was a 4-year-old Italian boy I had to save because no-one else even thought he was in trouble. Luckily, the water wasn’t too deep and only came up to my waist, but the kid was so small it covered his head. All he did was gasp for air and angle his head up, and tried kicking off the pool floor while reaching his hands up. I sat him on the edge of the pool in the shallow end and then his mother came over and thanked me.
I didn’t think much of it then, but I saved a life that day.
THIS COULD LITERALLY SAVE A LIFE.
After 2 years of lifeguarding and many more of competitive swimming I can verify this. Drowning signs are eerily quiet. It helps to catch them early. The pool I worked at had a large amount of regular clients. I’d always keep an extra lookout for people I didn’t recognize since I didn’t know their swimming ability. Their face aiming towards the sky is the first thing they’ll almost always do. Especially children.
this is how I almsot drowned in a public fucking pool like 5 meters away form a fucking lifeguard when I was about 10
a swimmer next to me grabbed my arm and pulled me up thank god but I’m still fuckign furious about it almsot 13 years later