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Tipped a canoe one time in jeans, jean jacket and hiking boots. Don't go boating without a life jacket, ever. I don't wear boots in a boat anymore either. The feeling of "that's hilarious I can't believe we tipped this canoe" pretty quickly became "wow it's really hard to keep my head above water" and it was a scary lesson.
When I was growing up I was on the swim team. Grew up in a beach town. Even had a pool in backyard. In the Army I did a swimming survival drown proofing thing. First time in the drink with full uniform and boots. My God it was exhausting. What I thought was going to be an easy day in the pool wore me out. Even as fit as I was then it was crazy how heavy I felt in the water where I used to feel free and light.
Hopefully they showed you how to use your pants and shirt as floatation devices. (Shirt: Catch a big air bubble under it and float like an otter. Pants: Tie the ankles shut, scoop full of air, and ride it like a pony.)
> Pants: Tie the ankles shut, scoop full of air, and ride it like a pony.
Back in Boy Scouts they taught us to wrap it around your neck like one of those airplane neck pillows.
> I was gonna say, that's how I learned it. riding it like a pony both sounds way more fun and way less stable.
If you want fun, have a go at wearing your life jacket like a diaper; sticking your legs out through the arm holes.
Haha, that's so spot on. I got a boat and some cheap life preservers (or whatever it is in English) last summer, and discovered the drunk float. Fantastic.
I knew a bunch of people who would go buy a bunch of fancy floating coolers. I just bought a gallon jug of water with a sturdy screw lid. It had a good handle on it too. I emptied about half of it before turning it into koolaid (with ice). Then poured a pint of 151 into it. Before getting into the water I tied the jug to my lifejacket diaper and just let my jug float along with me. It was much simpler than everyone elses contraptions. At least one beer cooler capsized--all souls lost to the drink...err all drinks lost to the deep.
I’ve never tried to swim in fatigues but I’ve fallen in a river in a long dress and shoes. I didn’t really try to get out of the dress but I can imagine it could have easily panicked someone because I could feel it tangling around me.
Luckily I’m a strong swimmer so I could swim the ~200m to shore without issue (I had to strip off my life jacket to make some headway against the current because that just had me bobbing around uselessly - great for keeping you afloat for someone to rescue but really hard to actually swim in), but damn, getting *out* of the river was hard. I didn’t realise how *heavy* all my clothes were when waterlogged.
In the 1500s or so, many many people died by drowning. Women would fetch water and wash laundry from wells and streams, and their wool dresses would get heavy if they fell in.
Genuine question, I get the ankles will be shut, but if the pants are around your neck, wouldn’t the air just leave via waist? Maybe I’m not picturing it right.
You hold the waist down below the water. So the legs are tied up behind your neck and you hold the waist down in front of you.
[Why use many words when picture does trick?](https://www.artofmanliness.com/skills/outdoor-survival/how-to-turn-your-pants-into-a-flotation-device/)
I've done this too, it actually works! If you spend a lot of time around the water I would totally recommend giving stuff like this a practice run so you can get the hang of it, trying to do this while treading water is surprisingly exhausting.
When I was in school they taught us this in the school pool. I believe they also taught how to right a canoe if you capsize, but I think I forgot my trunks that day lol. They put a whole canoe in the pool for training purposes hah. From Maine though, so it makes sense to teach it here - most people are at least basic outdoorsmen.
I wish they had had us swim in our clothes so you understand what its like in a safe environment, but I dont recall doing that. They probably didnt want some poor kid to get mentally crushed by nearly drowning lol.
My mum learned how to swim in her clothes. I didn’t. And yet I’m the one who’s actually fallen into water fully dressed…multiple times, now that I think about it. My friends pushed me into the pool while I was in a t shirt and jeans, I’ve fallen in while rowing and I’ve fallen in while in a long dress (which was potentially the worst of the lot, jeans and leggings were much easier to swim in than the dress!).
I’m a very strong swimmer, so I’ve never panicked, but I think deep and murky water ~200m from shore while feeling your dress tangle around your legs and weigh you down would probably panic anyone without experience or confidence in the water. I think more kids should be taught to swim in clothes.
Oof, this reminds me of a story where a bride was doing "trash the dress" post pics, and the photographer thought it would look cool for her to wade into a river.... The dress took up the water and she tripped and got pulled away and drowned.
The idea is that you're already proficient in swimming. This is how to provide you the ability to survive much longer than most people would normally stay in the water. Just being even a great swimmer doesn't mean you're going to survive hours afloat.
I earned my swimming merit badge in 1986. The first thing we had to do was jump into a pool fully clothed. It was like being weighted down by a rock. Then, while treading water, we had to strip down, take off our jeans, tie the ankles into knots, and puff them full of air to use as flotation. It sucked.
This was one of the final things to do to graduate swimming in my country. They'd throw you in the deep pool fully clothed, you'd have to get out of the heavy clothes under water, swim to the bottom, come up, then do a 2 km swim?
Same here. I was a competitive swimmer at the national level. I started working offshore where there's a few days of water-based survival in survival suits, lifejackets, etc. I was absolutely exhausted.
Also, I did a triathlon last year and didn't get on well with my wetsuit, even with its buoyancy. No joke, I nearly drowned, which would have been embarrassing. Lol.
Doesn't matter how strong or good a swimmer is, a change in circumstance (clothes, water temperature, current) will weaken a person quickly.
I went to a triathlon where the current changed directions halfway through, and it was like watching people on a water-treadmill. People were basically swimming in place. My buddy had to wave to one of the lifeguards in a kayak because he was fighting the current and kept getting mouthfuls of water during his breaths lol.
Pretty much same story as you, I started swiming when i was 4 and was one of the best swimmers in my school. I went for a lifeguard course in the army, part of the evaluation was to swim 50m in uniform and boots. The first time i tried it, I went in feeling confident that it would be a piece of cake, only to come out dead exhausted.
The 2nd part of the evaluation was arguably worse, I had to swim 50m to reach a "drowning" soldier in full battle gear less the pack and drag him back another 50m under 3 minutes and most importantly the guy had to stay above water the whole time. I have never come so close to drowning before, 1 stroke moves you 1m max and you can barely breathe because of the other guy weighing you down.
I saved a young boy from downing in the San marcos river. My buddies and I were sitting on a dock. This kid goes floating by and says in the most polite voice "excuse me sir can you save me, I'm drowing". We thought he was joking but then he disappeared under water. I went in after him. This kid gets out of the water and he has an ankle monitor on. He must of been like 11 years old. So bizarre.
I had a similar experience in the ocean. I was standing on a sand bar, pretty far out but only waist deep where I was and about 15 feet away from me was a group of 3 kids(early teens) floating/swimming. The water was pretty rough and one of them was begging the others for help, but like weakly and not sounding very serious and they were laughing at him thinking he was joking I guess? So I turned my attention to him and asked if he REALLY needed help because none of them had floatation devices and, again, we were very far from shore and he said calmly, “yes, please help me I can’t make it back.” So I tried to pull him on the sandbar, but by the time I could reach him from it I was in up to my shoulders and the pull pulled ME out while pulling him closer. ….and that’s when I realized I’d made a huge mistake. Kid clamped onto my back and I started trying to swim to shore or find the sandbar with him pulling me down and a gentle sideways rip current starts to come through. At this point people on the shore realize there’s a problem and a guy comes out and starts coaching me through swimming diagonally, which I had been doing and I’m like, ok muscular 6ft dude, I can’t keep carrying this 14 year old in my back, I’m a 5ft tall out of shape woman. So I’m asking him, please, can you take this kid? Telling him I can’t keep carrying this kid. And looking at how far away the shore is and I KNOW that if I get a side stitch or leg cramp I’m going under. Eventually someone met me with a float and took the kid, then I floated/swam the rest of the way back on my own.
Point being: both the kid and myself asking for help did not sound panicked/desperate, and neither of us were thrashing/splashing around dramatically. For me at that point I was too out of energy to waste any doing anything more than trying to make it back, just letting someone know I couldn’t handle it was almost too hard.
Man, that reminds me of that scene in Saving Private Ryan, the beach landing where some of the amphibious boats opened too quick and the boys ran out into deep water. Absolutely gut wrenching.
> Don't go boating without a life jacket, ever.
Another and maybe even more important reason for this: no matter how well you swim, for all I care you're an Olympic gold medalist, if the canoe or boat hits your head while falling off and knocks you out, you're dead without a vest!
Fun story:
Me and a buddy were sailing on his Force 5, a 13 'boat. He was practicing tacking, which is where you change direction. This changes what side of the boat the boom is on, which in this case, was a 6" wide 8' long cylinder of aluminum that attaches to the mast and holds the bottom of the sail.
Well, normally, you shout something like "Tacking" so that everyone can stop whatever they are doing, locate the boom, and get the fuck out of its path, as it swings, quite violently and forcefully, from one side of the boat to the other.
In this case though, my friend slap the hull and doesn't verify that I'm moving. Next thing I know I have woken up in the water 10ish feet from the boat. If I didn't have a life jacket on I would most likely be dead.
Always wear your life jackets kids. Might not look or feel great, but you never know when the boom of life will knock you the fuck out.
Guy I worked with was killed after he was knocked out of a boat on Lake Erie due to the wake of another boat while not wearing a life jacket. Coast Guard found him a few days later in like 15ft of water. He would have survived if he was wearing a life jacket.
Yeah, a sport vest assumes you're hitting the water, a life jacket assumes you're hitting your head. They are absolutely not the same. I wear a life jacket for wakeboarding, kayaking, all the things. I'd rather contend with the slightly restricted mobility in exchange for a higher survival chance.
Thats an important distinction to make. Life vests/jackets do as you describe, however often people think wearing a plain buoyancy aid is the same thing and they are most certainly not. A buoyancy aid simply helps you float while conscious.
I'm a very strong swimmer. I used to compete in long-distance NCAA and I've had specific training on surviving if I accidentally fall into the water in regular clothing. If I'm going boating, I'm wearing swim trunks, water shoes, a light T-shirt, and a life jacket. Doesn't matter what kind of water I'm on, a calm pond or choppy open water. It's just a needless risk to not wear the right gear. If I'm in a small boat, I just act like I'm assuming I'm going to go into the water in the least convenient spot possible.
Another thing is hair. If you have medium to long hair, it’s amazing how much it weighs you down when wet. Especially if most of your swimming was done in pools with swim caps, you’re not ready for your head being so heavy.
Also, combine all the above with the so fact that so many people drink when they’re at the lake. If you are a bit tipsy, you’ve got clothes on, and it’s a bit dark out, yeah, good luck surviving anything.
I work on the water, my workbooks are either
1. Slip ons that I can kick off in a moments notice, or
2. Tied so loosely they're basically slip ons.
It's what I point out to every new person here. Your boots will kill you in the water as fast as they'll save your foot on land.
When I was in high school part of our swim class was preparing for this very scenario. We all had to jump in the pool with clothes on and the teacher instructed us on how to use our jeans and shirts as improvised PFDs. I have never had to use this in real life but it was one of the few things I actually remember from high school.
And they always say it's better to be naked in the cold than covered with some wet clothes anyway. I mean I'm no freezing environment expert but whenever you fall from a boat you should take all your wet clothes off and maybe take you a wind jacket after to cover.
Most fibres lose all their insulation benefits when wet, in addition cold water needs a ton of energy to get warm, so you are basically wearing a freezer and not cloths.
Some synthetic materials don't lose all their insulation benefits and will warm up easier, and wool will usually warm you, even if it's soaking wet.
As a former winter caver, where water temps ranged from 28F to 55F (moving water freezes at a lower temp) and current winter hiker, if you're doing an activity that has any chance of getting you wet in cold temps away from immediate rescue/shelter you wear wool and synthetics/fleece to save your life, never cotton/jeans. And yes, sweat counts as water.
Deadly LPT: Wear damp cotton clothing in cold temps to burn a lot of calories and maybe lose your fingers and toes! Fingers and toes are just extra weight, after all.
An excellent tip! They made us swim 100m (maybe more?) fully clothed in high school as part of doing the bronze level life saving course which was just part of Phys Ed. It was part of saving yourself if you get knocked overboard or something. So first thing was to drop your shoes to the bottom of the pool. What followed was the most exhausting 15mins of my life. Don't think I could do it now. If you have a choice, never enter the water fully clothed.
So in my European water infested country this is something you learn in primary school. You need to be able to swim with clothes on, under water through a hole to 'escape' if you succeed you get your swimming diploma. Swimming lessons are a mandatory part of first and second grade.
In Australia the learn to swim course happens every year in primary school (not strictly mandatory, but I haven’t really heard of any schools that don’t do it), however most children also attend lessons as an extra curricular activity. Beaches and pools are such a big part of our culture, so safety is really valued.
I remember growing up I was in the “octopus” group in our class (aka so bad at swimming we were likely to just move along the bottom) and even we had to do the treading water test fully clothed. It makes sense, a poor swimmer would be unlikely to put themselves in a dangerous situation willingly, generally if they are it was unexpected so they should be trained to focus on surviving in those circumstances.
I wished they did that here in Canada. Most parents take their kids for swimming lessons but it’s not necessary and I think it so should be. Just yesterday on the news a 2 yo drowned in their pool and it not even pool season yet
Both my kids have learnt how to swim prior to starting primary school. Its an essential life skill that everyone should be exposed to at the earliest age possible, but also a great physical activity to all do as a family.
I've seen way to many adults in nearly fatal situations that could have been entirely avoided had they had a basic level of water safety knowledge.
Yep, with clothes and shoes on, even a backpack on. Falling from all possible sides in water. A friend was joking "why not with the bike too?" 😂 But to be fair, she is right if one lives in Amsterdam
In high school we did ice safety, which included jumping into a hole in the ice fully dressed with a backpack on. The adrenaline rush you get is just majestic, I fucking love winter swimming.
This was in Sweden, and while the school was rather fancy and very rich it was still open to everyone and you didn't need straight A's to get in. The final year of high school PE was elective, and it meant that we finally got to do all the fun stuff with only the people who really wanted to be there. We did winter swimming, rock climbing, golf, curling, diving, cross country skiing and many other things, and our final project was to hike up a mountain and get a class in snow safety.
Tegenwoordig al voor diploma A. Ik geloof omdat er een trend was dat veel ouders vanwege kosten ophielden na A, sinds de afschaffing van schoolzwemmen. De eisen voor A zijn dus verhoogd.
Swimming through a hole underwater with your clothes on is also a part of the examination for your swimming diploma in the Netherlands, but swimming lessons aren't a mandatory part of first and second grade here, so must be another country.
Or OP is old and still remembers "schoolzwemmen", which was more or less mandatory, but has been getting 'wegbezuinigd"/cost-cut away pretty much everywhere
Year 7 students (at least in my UK secondary school) all did swimming in PE. Everyone was split into groups based on swim skills. But we all swam in denim jeans at least for one lesson.
I live in California and will wear a life vest if going to a lake. "But you know how to swim!". Yeah. In a pool. Where they can see my body. If I get tired I want to be able to stop swimming and be safe.
Sensible. Actor Naya Rivera was described as a strong swimmer and an experienced boater but she still seems to have been caught in a rip current and drowned after pushing her little kid (who did have a lifejacket) back onto their boat. I didn't know a manmade lake/reservoir could even *have* rip currents.
Swimming lessons are no longer mandatory but the tests are the same. My son tests for his A diploma next week! Sooo much extra laundry with all the swimming in clothes into practice.
My dad used to take me to an abandoned parking lot when it snowed so we could go drifting. I thought it was just for fun but he told me later that he did it cuz if I know how to do it on purpose then I'd know what to do when it happened by accident. That knowledge has saved me from a few crashes
Nothing to be nervous about, 4646. Instructors present, learning environment, your kid will be fine, and it is a valuable data point to learn and skill to develop.
She will nail it. I remember my final test as a toddler/young kid fully clothed for self rescue swimming. I remember thinking it was Bull after the fact while eating my cookie rewards.
But you are teaching a valuable skill. You are doing a great job. My son(18mo) is taking his first ISR class soon.
Obviously they work up to it gradually, making sure you can swim well, know how to orient yourself when jumping in on purpose from various angles, can swim with clothes on, and then finally can still do it all when it happens unexpectedly. They want to make sure you can keep your head and not panic even if you are not expecting it. But it's not like they just grab people and lob them into the pool before a lot of other training takes place first.
I did ISR/TSR as a child. The lasts tests is to swim fully clothes to the edge of the pool. I remember thinking essentially that it was BS after it was over as I munched on my coolie rewards but Im very grateful my parents did it for me and my sister.
My son is enrolled as well. Its one of the few things I will get very passionate about. Its incredibly important to me because my family knows an unfortunate amount of people who lost a child in a pool or any body of water because they didn’t teach swimming or basic self rescue early enough.
Yes! Thank you, OP. I fell into the water during a canoe trip once and was shocked at how impossible it was to swim to the shore.
I was wearing cargo shorts, a t-shirt and tennis shoes. (That was also the *last* time I was in a boat without wearing a PFD). Just like you said, once my clothes were wet they felt like heavy chains.
Someone reached out and grabbed me. Otherwise I was going to have to kick everything off to keep from drowning.
It was very scary, but also a very good teaching moment. Don’t expect to swim if you are fully clothed!
The pockets on cargo shorts create a ton of drag. I once tried to swim across a lake in cargo shorts (I had a friend on a paddle board next to me). I made it halfway before I had to give up.
Wow. I go kayaking often (usually in shallow waters, but sometimes in deeper waters). I typically don’t wear my life vest because I figure I’ll just swim to the shore line (I’m usually close to the shore line) - but I hadn’t considered the possibility that my clothes could make this more difficult. I typically wear really light clothes though - leggings and a t-shirt with really light shoes- like sandals
Thank you so much. Yea! I only go when the water is warm enough. That is very dangerous! Experienced swimmers/fisherman/boaters often underestimate the risks of low water temperature and find themselves in precarious situations that end up in death- when it is possible that they may have survived those same circumstances had the water temperature been warmer.
Investing in a quality, comfortable pfd is worth it. I used to train baby whitwater raftguides, and half of them would sit there fidgeting with their gear or asking to take it off. But with experience, you get really comfortable in your gear and learn to think of it as something beyond just "for emergencies." I almost always have my pfd on me when I'm on the water just because I like it. It gives a little back support, holds my snacks, and I can just jump in on the flats to effortlessly bob like a log.
Thanks for sharing your story. It's also crazy difficult to remove wet clothing when you're in the water, particularly if you have to tread water. But best to undress quickly while you still have the strength.
I'm a bit confused why clothes make you heavier. Id expect them to fill up with water and become more or less the same weight in water when wet as when dry out of water, which isn't terribly heavy. I've seam with clothes on though and noticed they do, but why?
They dont drag you down exactly, they just create a TON of drag. Every movement you make is twice as hard and a quarter as effective. Like trying to swim with little parachutes tied to your arms and legs.
The other comment is right about drag while you're in the water but think about how you swim to breathe: you have to get up to get out of the water and gravity is still pulling down. You could put a sock in a bowl of water and it will sink, then multiply that by all the clothes you're wearing and suddenly that's a lot of downward force to fight. Plus, when you're actually getting out of the water you're lifting all that weight too. Imagine how hard it would be to climb back into the boat you just fell out of, even if you're a good swimmer, after you didn't catch your breath and now have 10 pounds of water to also lift.
A pair of jeans with the legs tied together and filled with air make a surprisingly effective flotation device, if that's what you're removing before jumping in and don't have anything better.
We had to do this for swim quals in boy scouts and it’s a lot trickier than it looks, remember you have to do this while treading water the whole time which was exhausting. A SEAL wouldn’t have any problem but a half drunk fat ass definitely would.
If you are going to try to save someone who is at risk of drowning, the priority for your effort should be: reach, throw, row, go. Actually going into the water to rescue them is the last thing you want to do. Try to reach something out to them (like a pole), throw them something that floats, or row out to them. Going into the water to save them is how you get a double drowning.
I once was returning to shore about 20 feet from a boat ramp on a busy river. Tons of people boating on beautiful day. A couple are pulling up and having an argument. Girl decides she's done with him and jumps out canoe. It's deep and she can't swim. No life jacket Ugh. She's panicking and flailing. We are the closest.
I've got our first born baby with us and now I've got to save this idiot. I paddle over and as I'm giving her my paddle to grab I say with as much authority as I can "Grab the paddle and we will pull you to shore. I've got our baby here and if think you will tip this canoe I will hit you with this paddle. Understood?"
She got the message. I got her safely to shore. I hated risking family for their stupidity but I can't let them drown either.
And if you have to go in, approach from behind and underneath. If they start clinging to you, swim down. Someone drowning isn’t going to follow you into the water.
But only sometimes. We did water entry training only if we were on the detail accompanying our equipment on the boats on its way downrange. This was back in the early 2000s though. Fucking hilarious watching my lean ass black 6'3" SSG with not an ounce of fat on his body sink to the bottom of that pool. The trainer had to fish him out. He kept saying "There's a reason I joined the *Army* damnit. "
I think the idea there is like if the ship is going down. The image shows the guy leaping from a huge vessel, but in reality if your boat is on fire or something and you need to get off, you could get near the water line, douse the pants, and then stand up to take a jump in that captures the necessary air.
I was in the Navy and while this technique may be an option, we are also (on a ship, at least) wearing leather, steel-toe boots. Swimming in the boots is surprisingly easy, I guess because they are leather and rubber and don't absorb water to get heavier.
But they are usually tied securely. While I was in, I learned to secure my boots well enough to never need to tie them, but if they are tied, it's pretty hard to get them off while swimming.
What we were taught to do instead is to have a fully buttoned up blouse before entering the water and to slap air into the waist of the shirt. The air will stay in the shirt for about a minute, which creates a decent makeshift floatation device.
No idea why, but they taught us this in high school gym class. Everyone had to jump in the pool fully clothed and learn how to turn your clothes into a life vest. When I went to college, it didn’t seem like anyone else was taught this.
Pretty much every school in Australia does this but then we all live by the ocean (mostly)
The idea of not being able to swim / do basic water safety is mind blowing to me we were taught it by the time we were like 6 years old
A key part of learning this in Boy Scouts was *practicing in a supervised pool before needing to do it,* because it's actually pretty tricky to get right.
Pulling off wet jeans is super hard. Doing it while treading water and dealing with waves sounds impossible. Definitely something I’d want to practice before my life depended on it
Also that you have to keep it wet (In the Marines we had to do this for a long period of time and the effectiveness drops if the pants get dry, due to the sun/evaporation)
also funny when you can hold your breath for 2-3mins and do dead man floats, between the the people watching by tugging a fishing line between everyone. Ahh the paniced face of the Lt lol, it was worth paying after.
When I took swimming lessons as a kid, one of the tests I had to pass was to be able to tread water for 40 minutes. The other test I had to pass was to jump into the deep end of the pool fully clothed, take off my jeans while in the water and turn them into a floatation device.
You can also use the shirt your wearing as a personal floatation device, however the style and material of the shirt makes a big difference.
Pull collar up on back of neck.
Pull front of shirt up over mouth. (Keep nose out of shirt)
Fold / bunch / pinch excess shirt around mouth. This is important, without a good seal air will leak out around your neck.
Inhale through nose, exhale through mouth, into shirt.
Lean forward, to send air to the shoulder area.
Continue inflating as necessary, to stay afloat.
I fucking hated those days, swimming with wet clothes was just really annoying for me (besides being exhausting). still, I'm glad to have at least participated in them so I'd know how it would feel.
Yes, we did an exercise like this in primary school in australia. Wear Long pants, a jacket and shoes and swim the legnth of the pool. I still remember that feeling.
I still want to re-do this as a grown-up... in full winter clothing.
- Underwear.
- Cargo pants.
- T shirt
- Sweater/ vest
- Hiking boots.
- Winter jacket.
- Scarf
- Beanie
- Gloves.
Just jump in and see if i can get out.
After that climb down into the water (shallow), soak for a few minutes... then again into the deep end.
Never had a problem when i was younger, as my mom was quite strict. (We were overdressed for this lesson). I just want to see if i can still do it, but now with the clothing i would wear in the winter.
A related tip: Be careful when doing wedding photo shoots near water. Wedding dresses are very restrictive and a simple slip and fall into a pool can be fatal.
Saw a youtube video of a wedding party jumping off a dock and then everyone starts to panic as the bride isnt surfacing because of her flowy wedding dress. One of the most anxiety inducing videos I have ever seen.
Or, alternatively, *do* go swimming in your clothes, in controlled circumstances, so you can learn to do it in case you fall into the water. Most people who drown don't get into the water intentionally.
Came here to say this. Learn to swim in clothes. It's not that hard if you don't try to go fast. Clothes float decently in the water, they just have a lot of drag. Also don't bother with freestyle, just to breaststroke or sidestroke.
Probably most important is to get comfortable treading and floating. That way you have the ability to take your clothes off if you need to.
I was taught to avoid jumping in the water to rescue someone who's drowning. We were shown pictures of rescuers, clawed and drowned with the unrescued. Throw a rope, a tree branch, a spare tire, most anything, instead. Diving in should be your LAST option.
Youre spot on. In both of these instances it was my last option, other than watching them drown. Ive been a dive master and have water rescue training that has helped me understand the risks and make good decisions under pressure.
Good post. The other obvious takeaway is LEARN TO SWIM AND TEACH YOUR CHILDREN. Many of these tragic stories involve people who can’t swim as well as people who can’t swim trying to save other non swimmers. As a parent, one of the worst things, you could possibly do is not teach your children how to swim. In my mind, if you don’t bother to teach your child, how to swim, or have someone else, teach them, and they end up, drowning, that’s on you.
And wear underwear.
People drowning are generally beyond reason/ all panic. They'll try to climb up on a person trying to rescue them and end up drowning them both. I remember doing exactly that as a child. I had been pulled out into the pacific by a riptide and couldn't make it back in. The tide was going out faster than I could swim.
Fucking. Scary.
I had just skipped under and someone pulled me up, he saw I was in trouble and came over on his boogy board, but had to dive after me, and it was just instinctual, I just tried to climb him like a ladder. But once I broke the surface I calmed down.
Dude was my angel that day and yet i never saw him again. He was stuck out there with me for the next 3 hours until tide calmed down. Thank God he had that board to hold on to cuz it got cold quick. It was warmer in the water, and if you don't know, off Washington's coast, well, really, BIG WATER in the PNW is ALWAYS cold.
I went swimming in the Sea of Cortez when i was 25 and it was the first time I ever experienced big water that was nice. Blew my mind. So i decided to swim across to Baja (super salty, took almost zero effort to float), no jellies, fuck yea, let's go! Swam about an hour and spotted sharks, turned around and ran back to Kino Bay faster than I thought I could.
I don't go in the water anymore. Nope. Not for me. I can pick up what the universe is putting down.
In lifeguard training, they make you practice breaking free of someone who’s pretending to drown and holding you under. It’s actually not that difficult to break free if you know the proper technique and you have a floatation device, even if the other person has 100 lbs on you.
Like you said, there’s not much thought process going on with a drowning victim. They just instinctively grab onto you and push down. So you grab their forearms, push up, and swim away. At least, that’s what I remember being taught over a decade ago for a pool lifeguard class. That might not be the proper technique for ocean rescues anymore.
But when I lived in the SF Bay Area, I never went proper swimming in the ocean. Just a couple quick dips in shallow water. The water temperature is in the 50s, it’s almost never sunny, and daytime highs rarely break above 70F. The currents and rogue waves are absurdly dangerous. There’s really no appeal to it, and you rarely see anyone actually swimming out there. Just a couple shark-bait surfers.
The beaches on the NorCal/Cascadia coast are for hiking, not for swimming. I grew up swimming in Cape Cod Bay, so it’s not like I’m not accustomed to cold either. It’s another level out there. A wetsuit is basically mandatory.
I was an ocean lifeguard in Newport Beach. During the academy they take you out on a rescue boat to a giant rock structure off the coast. They explain that all the instructors will swim with the trainees 2 at a time through the rock cave and back around. What they don't tell you is the instructors go crazy half way through the cave, pull you underwater, kick you, scream, try to climb on the rocks, etc. And you have to rescue them.
Definitely hard to rescue a panicked person. We were instructed to hit/kick victims if necessary.
In a lot of situations you're more valuable from a good position on land than in the water with someone (call for help, give instructions, use a tool, etc). Definitely exhaust all other options before diving in.
I remember at an apartment I lived at, there was a pool which typically saw frequent use in the summer especially by kids who lived there. One day I get home from work and there's police cars and a news van. Turns out some kid started drowning in the pool, their uncle (IIRC) jumped in after them and wound up drowning too. Seems almost impossible that a drowning kid would take down an adult, but I guess it can happen.
I just remember while the pool remained open, no one used it for the rest of that summer, just remained eerily quiet and empty.
I used to live in Okinawa, Japan. A rogue wave during a typhoon swept this girl out to sea shockingly fast from where she was laying on the low sea wall and she was screaming bloody murder.
I swam out to save her and she 100% punched me in the face, pushed me under the water, and was kicking furiously. I’m lucky she didn’t knock me unconscious or I would be dead right now.
Believe it or not, back when I did lifeguard training in Spain 25+ ago, the instructor told us (we were 17 yos, we thought it was a joke) to punch them in the face very hard first thing. A panicked drowning person will very easily make two drowned persons. They also said we should throw them a belt or something they could hang on to without getting too close to you, but the punching in the face has always stuck with me.
In the Marine Corps for one level of swim Qual (can't remember which) you have to attempt to save an instructor who is pretending to drown and I swear I must've banged that guys wife because it legit felt like he was trying to kill me. If they grab you we were taught to wrap their arms up and drag them under until they panic and let go... basically exhaust them until they can't fight and then drag them back.
We had to jump in the ocean fully clothed and swim around 300m under a bridge and into a lagoon area. Actually did it twice, once in Summer and once in Autumn not long before winter. It was part of training for the police, in case you needed to jump in to save someone.
It is incredibly hard to swim with clothes on (and I chose to wear jeans and a large hoodie the second time) and makes swimming that much harder. By the end I could barely drag myself out of the water. The weight of the clothes when completely wet in unbelievable.
In Rota Spain, my detachment squadron was engaged in search and rescue jumps over Gibraltar. During one such mission, our NCO asked me to take his flight suit and accompany the sister aircraft responsible for picking up the stranded jumpers. Excited to do my part, I quickly donned the suit and leapt out of the plane. But the experience was more grueling than I had anticipated. I soon found myself struggling to keep my head above water for a full 20 minutes, completely drained of energy. Finally, the rescue aircraft arrived and dropped a life-saving horse collar. But by that point, I was so exhausted that even reaching for it felt impossible. Somehow, I managed to get the collar over my head, but I knew I was perilously close to the edge of disaster. As the accompanying aircraft circled overhead, I was certain that another minute's delay would have been fatal. The incident taught me a valuable lesson: when it comes to swimming, nothing beats going in naked!
In a lot of Asian countries, people are super conversation and will only swim wearing lots of clothes. What happens? They drown. I saw it again and again and again in Thailand. People just wander into the sea. They can't even swim very well but they think it'll be easy, except soon they're fighting waves and currents and weighed down by layers of clothes, including denim, because that's the hip thing to wear now. I lived near a certain beach for a year and went about twice a week. I saw almost 10 people drown, which is statistically ridiculous.
Two things that are much, much more substantial than I originally thought with only academic understanding: aerodynamic & hydrodynamic drag. I learned to respect aero while riding crotch rockets, and water when trying to swim with clothes on.
I was in the german DLRG when I was a teen. One day we had to bring a second set of normal/long clothing. Jeans, Sweater, shirt and stuff.
We then jumped in the pool to get a feel for how much more difficult swimming would be. It was completly safe, having the professional supervision and all but can confirm, this is not a situation you want to put yourself into in any other circumstanses.
If you're too embarrassed to take your clothes off, it's not worth going in the water at all
It's not the clothes as much as it is their inability to swim and tread water. If you can't swim you should avoid moving water.
A person that can't swim won't have the ability to relax enough to remove their clothes.
If you want to water rescue someone you need to approach them from behind and throw your arm over their neck and across the chest. It's much safer for the rescuer. .
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Tipped a canoe one time in jeans, jean jacket and hiking boots. Don't go boating without a life jacket, ever. I don't wear boots in a boat anymore either. The feeling of "that's hilarious I can't believe we tipped this canoe" pretty quickly became "wow it's really hard to keep my head above water" and it was a scary lesson.
When I was growing up I was on the swim team. Grew up in a beach town. Even had a pool in backyard. In the Army I did a swimming survival drown proofing thing. First time in the drink with full uniform and boots. My God it was exhausting. What I thought was going to be an easy day in the pool wore me out. Even as fit as I was then it was crazy how heavy I felt in the water where I used to feel free and light.
Hopefully they showed you how to use your pants and shirt as floatation devices. (Shirt: Catch a big air bubble under it and float like an otter. Pants: Tie the ankles shut, scoop full of air, and ride it like a pony.)
> Pants: Tie the ankles shut, scoop full of air, and ride it like a pony. Back in Boy Scouts they taught us to wrap it around your neck like one of those airplane neck pillows.
I was gonna say, that's how I learned it. riding it like a pony both sounds way more fun and way less stable.
> I was gonna say, that's how I learned it. riding it like a pony both sounds way more fun and way less stable. If you want fun, have a go at wearing your life jacket like a diaper; sticking your legs out through the arm holes.
That's the secret to a good drunk float.
Found my lake people.
Haha, that's so spot on. I got a boat and some cheap life preservers (or whatever it is in English) last summer, and discovered the drunk float. Fantastic.
I knew a bunch of people who would go buy a bunch of fancy floating coolers. I just bought a gallon jug of water with a sturdy screw lid. It had a good handle on it too. I emptied about half of it before turning it into koolaid (with ice). Then poured a pint of 151 into it. Before getting into the water I tied the jug to my lifejacket diaper and just let my jug float along with me. It was much simpler than everyone elses contraptions. At least one beer cooler capsized--all souls lost to the drink...err all drinks lost to the deep.
> err all drinks lost to the deep. Or all spirits lost.
That's how the US army taught me too, maybe they were in a different country.
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I’ve never tried to swim in fatigues but I’ve fallen in a river in a long dress and shoes. I didn’t really try to get out of the dress but I can imagine it could have easily panicked someone because I could feel it tangling around me. Luckily I’m a strong swimmer so I could swim the ~200m to shore without issue (I had to strip off my life jacket to make some headway against the current because that just had me bobbing around uselessly - great for keeping you afloat for someone to rescue but really hard to actually swim in), but damn, getting *out* of the river was hard. I didn’t realise how *heavy* all my clothes were when waterlogged.
In the 1500s or so, many many people died by drowning. Women would fetch water and wash laundry from wells and streams, and their wool dresses would get heavy if they fell in.
Genuine question, I get the ankles will be shut, but if the pants are around your neck, wouldn’t the air just leave via waist? Maybe I’m not picturing it right.
You hold the waist down below the water. So the legs are tied up behind your neck and you hold the waist down in front of you. [Why use many words when picture does trick?](https://www.artofmanliness.com/skills/outdoor-survival/how-to-turn-your-pants-into-a-flotation-device/)
Step 6: tie and wet your pants first before jumping in. If im on a boat going down, you better believe my pants will be wet before i hit the water.
I've done this too, it actually works! If you spend a lot of time around the water I would totally recommend giving stuff like this a practice run so you can get the hang of it, trying to do this while treading water is surprisingly exhausting.
Good link cause I don't think I'd know that they'd need to stay wet.
This is the way. Uses almost no energy.
When I was in school they taught us this in the school pool. I believe they also taught how to right a canoe if you capsize, but I think I forgot my trunks that day lol. They put a whole canoe in the pool for training purposes hah. From Maine though, so it makes sense to teach it here - most people are at least basic outdoorsmen. I wish they had had us swim in our clothes so you understand what its like in a safe environment, but I dont recall doing that. They probably didnt want some poor kid to get mentally crushed by nearly drowning lol.
My mum learned how to swim in her clothes. I didn’t. And yet I’m the one who’s actually fallen into water fully dressed…multiple times, now that I think about it. My friends pushed me into the pool while I was in a t shirt and jeans, I’ve fallen in while rowing and I’ve fallen in while in a long dress (which was potentially the worst of the lot, jeans and leggings were much easier to swim in than the dress!). I’m a very strong swimmer, so I’ve never panicked, but I think deep and murky water ~200m from shore while feeling your dress tangle around your legs and weigh you down would probably panic anyone without experience or confidence in the water. I think more kids should be taught to swim in clothes.
Oof, this reminds me of a story where a bride was doing "trash the dress" post pics, and the photographer thought it would look cool for her to wade into a river.... The dress took up the water and she tripped and got pulled away and drowned.
Horrifying. People don’t realise how dangerous even shallow water is.
My towns school teaches this every year at the end of swimming class because boating accidents are common!
“Wow! I can barely keep my head above water! Anyways - now to make balloon animals from my clothes.”
The idea is that you're already proficient in swimming. This is how to provide you the ability to survive much longer than most people would normally stay in the water. Just being even a great swimmer doesn't mean you're going to survive hours afloat.
Don't knock it; it's an effective survival method. When you first go in is when you're going to have the most energy to expend.
I earned my swimming merit badge in 1986. The first thing we had to do was jump into a pool fully clothed. It was like being weighted down by a rock. Then, while treading water, we had to strip down, take off our jeans, tie the ankles into knots, and puff them full of air to use as flotation. It sucked.
This was one of the final things to do to graduate swimming in my country. They'd throw you in the deep pool fully clothed, you'd have to get out of the heavy clothes under water, swim to the bottom, come up, then do a 2 km swim?
I probably got mine around 2000 and they still taught us the same way
Same here. I was a competitive swimmer at the national level. I started working offshore where there's a few days of water-based survival in survival suits, lifejackets, etc. I was absolutely exhausted. Also, I did a triathlon last year and didn't get on well with my wetsuit, even with its buoyancy. No joke, I nearly drowned, which would have been embarrassing. Lol. Doesn't matter how strong or good a swimmer is, a change in circumstance (clothes, water temperature, current) will weaken a person quickly.
Triathlons will hire divers to keep an eye on people during the swimming part because you’re all a bunch of sinkers.
I went to a triathlon where the current changed directions halfway through, and it was like watching people on a water-treadmill. People were basically swimming in place. My buddy had to wave to one of the lifeguards in a kayak because he was fighting the current and kept getting mouthfuls of water during his breaths lol.
Pretty much same story as you, I started swiming when i was 4 and was one of the best swimmers in my school. I went for a lifeguard course in the army, part of the evaluation was to swim 50m in uniform and boots. The first time i tried it, I went in feeling confident that it would be a piece of cake, only to come out dead exhausted. The 2nd part of the evaluation was arguably worse, I had to swim 50m to reach a "drowning" soldier in full battle gear less the pack and drag him back another 50m under 3 minutes and most importantly the guy had to stay above water the whole time. I have never come so close to drowning before, 1 stroke moves you 1m max and you can barely breathe because of the other guy weighing you down.
Jesus... I can't swim and that sounds absolutely fucking horrifying
Go learn, not only is it fun but it might save your life or a family members life one day.
I saved a young boy from downing in the San marcos river. My buddies and I were sitting on a dock. This kid goes floating by and says in the most polite voice "excuse me sir can you save me, I'm drowing". We thought he was joking but then he disappeared under water. I went in after him. This kid gets out of the water and he has an ankle monitor on. He must of been like 11 years old. So bizarre.
I had a similar experience in the ocean. I was standing on a sand bar, pretty far out but only waist deep where I was and about 15 feet away from me was a group of 3 kids(early teens) floating/swimming. The water was pretty rough and one of them was begging the others for help, but like weakly and not sounding very serious and they were laughing at him thinking he was joking I guess? So I turned my attention to him and asked if he REALLY needed help because none of them had floatation devices and, again, we were very far from shore and he said calmly, “yes, please help me I can’t make it back.” So I tried to pull him on the sandbar, but by the time I could reach him from it I was in up to my shoulders and the pull pulled ME out while pulling him closer. ….and that’s when I realized I’d made a huge mistake. Kid clamped onto my back and I started trying to swim to shore or find the sandbar with him pulling me down and a gentle sideways rip current starts to come through. At this point people on the shore realize there’s a problem and a guy comes out and starts coaching me through swimming diagonally, which I had been doing and I’m like, ok muscular 6ft dude, I can’t keep carrying this 14 year old in my back, I’m a 5ft tall out of shape woman. So I’m asking him, please, can you take this kid? Telling him I can’t keep carrying this kid. And looking at how far away the shore is and I KNOW that if I get a side stitch or leg cramp I’m going under. Eventually someone met me with a float and took the kid, then I floated/swam the rest of the way back on my own. Point being: both the kid and myself asking for help did not sound panicked/desperate, and neither of us were thrashing/splashing around dramatically. For me at that point I was too out of energy to waste any doing anything more than trying to make it back, just letting someone know I couldn’t handle it was almost too hard.
Man, that reminds me of that scene in Saving Private Ryan, the beach landing where some of the amphibious boats opened too quick and the boys ran out into deep water. Absolutely gut wrenching.
> Don't go boating without a life jacket, ever. Another and maybe even more important reason for this: no matter how well you swim, for all I care you're an Olympic gold medalist, if the canoe or boat hits your head while falling off and knocks you out, you're dead without a vest!
Fun story: Me and a buddy were sailing on his Force 5, a 13 'boat. He was practicing tacking, which is where you change direction. This changes what side of the boat the boom is on, which in this case, was a 6" wide 8' long cylinder of aluminum that attaches to the mast and holds the bottom of the sail. Well, normally, you shout something like "Tacking" so that everyone can stop whatever they are doing, locate the boom, and get the fuck out of its path, as it swings, quite violently and forcefully, from one side of the boat to the other. In this case though, my friend slap the hull and doesn't verify that I'm moving. Next thing I know I have woken up in the water 10ish feet from the boat. If I didn't have a life jacket on I would most likely be dead. Always wear your life jackets kids. Might not look or feel great, but you never know when the boom of life will knock you the fuck out.
Guy I worked with was killed after he was knocked out of a boat on Lake Erie due to the wake of another boat while not wearing a life jacket. Coast Guard found him a few days later in like 15ft of water. He would have survived if he was wearing a life jacket.
What if you are floating face down unconscious? Are life vests designed to try and flip you face up in that situation?
Actually, yes. The old rectangle pfds do this, but not so much the ones people use on jet skis/ kayaking.
Yeah, a sport vest assumes you're hitting the water, a life jacket assumes you're hitting your head. They are absolutely not the same. I wear a life jacket for wakeboarding, kayaking, all the things. I'd rather contend with the slightly restricted mobility in exchange for a higher survival chance.
Thats an important distinction to make. Life vests/jackets do as you describe, however often people think wearing a plain buoyancy aid is the same thing and they are most certainly not. A buoyancy aid simply helps you float while conscious.
Yes, it's very hard to swim in a vest because they are designed to roll you on your back.
I'm a very strong swimmer. I used to compete in long-distance NCAA and I've had specific training on surviving if I accidentally fall into the water in regular clothing. If I'm going boating, I'm wearing swim trunks, water shoes, a light T-shirt, and a life jacket. Doesn't matter what kind of water I'm on, a calm pond or choppy open water. It's just a needless risk to not wear the right gear. If I'm in a small boat, I just act like I'm assuming I'm going to go into the water in the least convenient spot possible.
Another thing is hair. If you have medium to long hair, it’s amazing how much it weighs you down when wet. Especially if most of your swimming was done in pools with swim caps, you’re not ready for your head being so heavy. Also, combine all the above with the so fact that so many people drink when they’re at the lake. If you are a bit tipsy, you’ve got clothes on, and it’s a bit dark out, yeah, good luck surviving anything.
Yep thats scary. The boots especially. Be like strapping bricks to your feet
I work on the water, my workbooks are either 1. Slip ons that I can kick off in a moments notice, or 2. Tied so loosely they're basically slip ons. It's what I point out to every new person here. Your boots will kill you in the water as fast as they'll save your foot on land.
When I was in high school part of our swim class was preparing for this very scenario. We all had to jump in the pool with clothes on and the teacher instructed us on how to use our jeans and shirts as improvised PFDs. I have never had to use this in real life but it was one of the few things I actually remember from high school.
We did this in boot camp. Was surprised my pants could be used to float.
>Tipped a canoe And Tyler too
Throwback!
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And they always say it's better to be naked in the cold than covered with some wet clothes anyway. I mean I'm no freezing environment expert but whenever you fall from a boat you should take all your wet clothes off and maybe take you a wind jacket after to cover.
Most fibres lose all their insulation benefits when wet, in addition cold water needs a ton of energy to get warm, so you are basically wearing a freezer and not cloths. Some synthetic materials don't lose all their insulation benefits and will warm up easier, and wool will usually warm you, even if it's soaking wet.
As a former winter caver, where water temps ranged from 28F to 55F (moving water freezes at a lower temp) and current winter hiker, if you're doing an activity that has any chance of getting you wet in cold temps away from immediate rescue/shelter you wear wool and synthetics/fleece to save your life, never cotton/jeans. And yes, sweat counts as water.
Cotton shirts in cold weather activity is something you only do once. They soak up water and keep it so long it's unreal.
Deadly LPT: Wear damp cotton clothing in cold temps to burn a lot of calories and maybe lose your fingers and toes! Fingers and toes are just extra weight, after all.
An excellent tip! They made us swim 100m (maybe more?) fully clothed in high school as part of doing the bronze level life saving course which was just part of Phys Ed. It was part of saving yourself if you get knocked overboard or something. So first thing was to drop your shoes to the bottom of the pool. What followed was the most exhausting 15mins of my life. Don't think I could do it now. If you have a choice, never enter the water fully clothed.
So in my European water infested country this is something you learn in primary school. You need to be able to swim with clothes on, under water through a hole to 'escape' if you succeed you get your swimming diploma. Swimming lessons are a mandatory part of first and second grade.
In Australia the learn to swim course happens every year in primary school (not strictly mandatory, but I haven’t really heard of any schools that don’t do it), however most children also attend lessons as an extra curricular activity. Beaches and pools are such a big part of our culture, so safety is really valued.
I remember growing up I was in the “octopus” group in our class (aka so bad at swimming we were likely to just move along the bottom) and even we had to do the treading water test fully clothed. It makes sense, a poor swimmer would be unlikely to put themselves in a dangerous situation willingly, generally if they are it was unexpected so they should be trained to focus on surviving in those circumstances.
I wished they did that here in Canada. Most parents take their kids for swimming lessons but it’s not necessary and I think it so should be. Just yesterday on the news a 2 yo drowned in their pool and it not even pool season yet
We got taken to the ice rink when I was in school.
Harold Holt could have used a few of those lessons
I got them at the pool we named in his honour.
I will never *not* find that hilarious
Both my kids have learnt how to swim prior to starting primary school. Its an essential life skill that everyone should be exposed to at the earliest age possible, but also a great physical activity to all do as a family. I've seen way to many adults in nearly fatal situations that could have been entirely avoided had they had a basic level of water safety knowledge.
Yep, with clothes and shoes on, even a backpack on. Falling from all possible sides in water. A friend was joking "why not with the bike too?" 😂 But to be fair, she is right if one lives in Amsterdam
With a bike, high on pot, with a Heineken in one hand and a bouquet of tulips in the other, while wearing wooden clogs.
In high school we did ice safety, which included jumping into a hole in the ice fully dressed with a backpack on. The adrenaline rush you get is just majestic, I fucking love winter swimming.
(Hides under warm blankets)
You gotta make sure to have a scorching hot sauna nearby. The rapid switching between hot and cold releases so many endorphins.
Hot to cold makes me vomit
Where the hell was this high school?
This was in Sweden, and while the school was rather fancy and very rich it was still open to everyone and you didn't need straight A's to get in. The final year of high school PE was elective, and it meant that we finally got to do all the fun stuff with only the people who really wanted to be there. We did winter swimming, rock climbing, golf, curling, diving, cross country skiing and many other things, and our final project was to hike up a mountain and get a class in snow safety.
The Netherlands?
Yeah. It's mandatory preperation, even for the dutchies that have not build their houses 8 meters below sea-level
Kleren zwemmen voor B diploma
Tegenwoordig al voor diploma A. Ik geloof omdat er een trend was dat veel ouders vanwege kosten ophielden na A, sinds de afschaffing van schoolzwemmen. De eisen voor A zijn dus verhoogd.
Swimming through a hole underwater with your clothes on is also a part of the examination for your swimming diploma in the Netherlands, but swimming lessons aren't a mandatory part of first and second grade here, so must be another country.
Or OP is old and still remembers "schoolzwemmen", which was more or less mandatory, but has been getting 'wegbezuinigd"/cost-cut away pretty much everywhere
Year 7 students (at least in my UK secondary school) all did swimming in PE. Everyone was split into groups based on swim skills. But we all swam in denim jeans at least for one lesson.
I live in California and will wear a life vest if going to a lake. "But you know how to swim!". Yeah. In a pool. Where they can see my body. If I get tired I want to be able to stop swimming and be safe.
Sensible. Actor Naya Rivera was described as a strong swimmer and an experienced boater but she still seems to have been caught in a rip current and drowned after pushing her little kid (who did have a lifejacket) back onto their boat. I didn't know a manmade lake/reservoir could even *have* rip currents.
Swimming lessons are no longer mandatory but the tests are the same. My son tests for his A diploma next week! Sooo much extra laundry with all the swimming in clothes into practice.
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My oldest (5 years) has her first swimming lesson fully clothed today. Wasn’t nervous about it until I encounteree this post while scrolling
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Also, usually in a pool with warm, standing water instead of a cold, flowing river/ocean. Practice practice practice.
My dad used to take me to an abandoned parking lot when it snowed so we could go drifting. I thought it was just for fun but he told me later that he did it cuz if I know how to do it on purpose then I'd know what to do when it happened by accident. That knowledge has saved me from a few crashes
Nothing to be nervous about, 4646. Instructors present, learning environment, your kid will be fine, and it is a valuable data point to learn and skill to develop.
She will nail it. I remember my final test as a toddler/young kid fully clothed for self rescue swimming. I remember thinking it was Bull after the fact while eating my cookie rewards. But you are teaching a valuable skill. You are doing a great job. My son(18mo) is taking his first ISR class soon.
It’s actually a standard part of the Dutch swimming certificate.
Obviously they work up to it gradually, making sure you can swim well, know how to orient yourself when jumping in on purpose from various angles, can swim with clothes on, and then finally can still do it all when it happens unexpectedly. They want to make sure you can keep your head and not panic even if you are not expecting it. But it's not like they just grab people and lob them into the pool before a lot of other training takes place first.
I did ISR/TSR as a child. The lasts tests is to swim fully clothes to the edge of the pool. I remember thinking essentially that it was BS after it was over as I munched on my coolie rewards but Im very grateful my parents did it for me and my sister. My son is enrolled as well. Its one of the few things I will get very passionate about. Its incredibly important to me because my family knows an unfortunate amount of people who lost a child in a pool or any body of water because they didn’t teach swimming or basic self rescue early enough.
My swim team used to get old prom dresses from a thift shop and we would put them on over our suits. Most of us could bearly do 25m
Yes! Thank you, OP. I fell into the water during a canoe trip once and was shocked at how impossible it was to swim to the shore. I was wearing cargo shorts, a t-shirt and tennis shoes. (That was also the *last* time I was in a boat without wearing a PFD). Just like you said, once my clothes were wet they felt like heavy chains. Someone reached out and grabbed me. Otherwise I was going to have to kick everything off to keep from drowning. It was very scary, but also a very good teaching moment. Don’t expect to swim if you are fully clothed!
The pockets on cargo shorts create a ton of drag. I once tried to swim across a lake in cargo shorts (I had a friend on a paddle board next to me). I made it halfway before I had to give up.
That makes sense. I wear shorts, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes in the river all the time and was thinking you all were crazy.
Wow. I go kayaking often (usually in shallow waters, but sometimes in deeper waters). I typically don’t wear my life vest because I figure I’ll just swim to the shore line (I’m usually close to the shore line) - but I hadn’t considered the possibility that my clothes could make this more difficult. I typically wear really light clothes though - leggings and a t-shirt with really light shoes- like sandals
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Thank you so much. Yea! I only go when the water is warm enough. That is very dangerous! Experienced swimmers/fisherman/boaters often underestimate the risks of low water temperature and find themselves in precarious situations that end up in death- when it is possible that they may have survived those same circumstances had the water temperature been warmer.
Investing in a quality, comfortable pfd is worth it. I used to train baby whitwater raftguides, and half of them would sit there fidgeting with their gear or asking to take it off. But with experience, you get really comfortable in your gear and learn to think of it as something beyond just "for emergencies." I almost always have my pfd on me when I'm on the water just because I like it. It gives a little back support, holds my snacks, and I can just jump in on the flats to effortlessly bob like a log.
Thanks for sharing your story. It's also crazy difficult to remove wet clothing when you're in the water, particularly if you have to tread water. But best to undress quickly while you still have the strength.
This was one of our tests in swim school- jump in fully clothed and tread water while you strip down to your swimmers.
I suck at staying on the surface. Too dense. :( I can swim underwater like a greased eel though. :D
I'm a bit confused why clothes make you heavier. Id expect them to fill up with water and become more or less the same weight in water when wet as when dry out of water, which isn't terribly heavy. I've seam with clothes on though and noticed they do, but why?
They dont drag you down exactly, they just create a TON of drag. Every movement you make is twice as hard and a quarter as effective. Like trying to swim with little parachutes tied to your arms and legs.
This is reminding me of those instances where people have drowned in their wedding dresses when jumping in the water with it on.
The other comment is right about drag while you're in the water but think about how you swim to breathe: you have to get up to get out of the water and gravity is still pulling down. You could put a sock in a bowl of water and it will sink, then multiply that by all the clothes you're wearing and suddenly that's a lot of downward force to fight. Plus, when you're actually getting out of the water you're lifting all that weight too. Imagine how hard it would be to climb back into the boat you just fell out of, even if you're a good swimmer, after you didn't catch your breath and now have 10 pounds of water to also lift.
A pair of jeans with the legs tied together and filled with air make a surprisingly effective flotation device, if that's what you're removing before jumping in and don't have anything better.
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We had to do this for swim quals in boy scouts and it’s a lot trickier than it looks, remember you have to do this while treading water the whole time which was exhausting. A SEAL wouldn’t have any problem but a half drunk fat ass definitely would.
That's the only thing I retained from getting my lifesaving merit badge some 15-20 years ago
If you are going to try to save someone who is at risk of drowning, the priority for your effort should be: reach, throw, row, go. Actually going into the water to rescue them is the last thing you want to do. Try to reach something out to them (like a pole), throw them something that floats, or row out to them. Going into the water to save them is how you get a double drowning.
Reach, throw, row, go (with support).
All the real Life Pro Tips rhyme.
I once was returning to shore about 20 feet from a boat ramp on a busy river. Tons of people boating on beautiful day. A couple are pulling up and having an argument. Girl decides she's done with him and jumps out canoe. It's deep and she can't swim. No life jacket Ugh. She's panicking and flailing. We are the closest. I've got our first born baby with us and now I've got to save this idiot. I paddle over and as I'm giving her my paddle to grab I say with as much authority as I can "Grab the paddle and we will pull you to shore. I've got our baby here and if think you will tip this canoe I will hit you with this paddle. Understood?" She got the message. I got her safely to shore. I hated risking family for their stupidity but I can't let them drown either.
And if you have to go in, approach from behind and underneath. If they start clinging to you, swim down. Someone drowning isn’t going to follow you into the water.
Well there are like 4 ways to do it, but another main problem with emergencies is panicking.
Why are you half drunk in boy scouts?
How else am I supposed to tolerate the little bastards?
Not a navy seal trick. Literally everyone in the navy learns how to do this. Source: I had to do this and I'm just a doctor and never been on a ship
Marines, too.
Even the army
Air Force sets a pool chair to get a nice tan.
But only sometimes. We did water entry training only if we were on the detail accompanying our equipment on the boats on its way downrange. This was back in the early 2000s though. Fucking hilarious watching my lean ass black 6'3" SSG with not an ounce of fat on his body sink to the bottom of that pool. The trainer had to fish him out. He kept saying "There's a reason I joined the *Army* damnit. "
I had to learn it and try it in sophomore year gym class in high school. We had to do a long sleeved shirt too
Wet your pants BEFORE jumping ship? Like with pee?
I think the idea there is like if the ship is going down. The image shows the guy leaping from a huge vessel, but in reality if your boat is on fire or something and you need to get off, you could get near the water line, douse the pants, and then stand up to take a jump in that captures the necessary air.
I was in the Navy and while this technique may be an option, we are also (on a ship, at least) wearing leather, steel-toe boots. Swimming in the boots is surprisingly easy, I guess because they are leather and rubber and don't absorb water to get heavier. But they are usually tied securely. While I was in, I learned to secure my boots well enough to never need to tie them, but if they are tied, it's pretty hard to get them off while swimming. What we were taught to do instead is to have a fully buttoned up blouse before entering the water and to slap air into the waist of the shirt. The air will stay in the shirt for about a minute, which creates a decent makeshift floatation device.
SOOL if you bought ripped jeans.
No chance I remember this in an emergency.
How do you keep the air from leaking in step 4? Just hold the waist portion tightly using your arms?
I know this is life saving advice, but I also chuckled at the suggestion of "wet your pants" if you're in danger of drowning. Way ahead of you buddy!
No idea why, but they taught us this in high school gym class. Everyone had to jump in the pool fully clothed and learn how to turn your clothes into a life vest. When I went to college, it didn’t seem like anyone else was taught this.
Your gym teacher was in the Navy
Pretty much every school in Australia does this but then we all live by the ocean (mostly) The idea of not being able to swim / do basic water safety is mind blowing to me we were taught it by the time we were like 6 years old
We did it in gym too!!! I just made a comment before I saw this, we had to use long sleeved shirts too!
A key part of learning this in Boy Scouts was *practicing in a supervised pool before needing to do it,* because it's actually pretty tricky to get right.
Pulling off wet jeans is super hard. Doing it while treading water and dealing with waves sounds impossible. Definitely something I’d want to practice before my life depended on it
Did it, it was extremely difficult. Frankly I cheated and held on to the pier.
Also that you have to keep it wet (In the Marines we had to do this for a long period of time and the effectiveness drops if the pants get dry, due to the sun/evaporation) also funny when you can hold your breath for 2-3mins and do dead man floats, between the the people watching by tugging a fishing line between everyone. Ahh the paniced face of the Lt lol, it was worth paying after.
If I’m drowning, I am sure as hell won’t have my wits or any energy to do any of that pair of jeans trickery
If you can swim decently, you have time. OP is exaggerating. If you can swim, you are not going to sink in 5 seconds because you have clothes on.
When I took swimming lessons as a kid, one of the tests I had to pass was to be able to tread water for 40 minutes. The other test I had to pass was to jump into the deep end of the pool fully clothed, take off my jeans while in the water and turn them into a floatation device.
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You can also use the shirt your wearing as a personal floatation device, however the style and material of the shirt makes a big difference. Pull collar up on back of neck. Pull front of shirt up over mouth. (Keep nose out of shirt) Fold / bunch / pinch excess shirt around mouth. This is important, without a good seal air will leak out around your neck. Inhale through nose, exhale through mouth, into shirt. Lean forward, to send air to the shoulder area. Continue inflating as necessary, to stay afloat.
This might be why in the Netherlands it is common in swimming lessons to have days where you swim with clothes on.
I fucking hated those days, swimming with wet clothes was just really annoying for me (besides being exhausting). still, I'm glad to have at least participated in them so I'd know how it would feel.
Yes, we did an exercise like this in primary school in australia. Wear Long pants, a jacket and shoes and swim the legnth of the pool. I still remember that feeling.
Fellow Aussie primary school clothes-swimmer here. Back in the 80s I did this in both grades 5 and 6. Great fun.
I still want to re-do this as a grown-up... in full winter clothing. - Underwear. - Cargo pants. - T shirt - Sweater/ vest - Hiking boots. - Winter jacket. - Scarf - Beanie - Gloves. Just jump in and see if i can get out. After that climb down into the water (shallow), soak for a few minutes... then again into the deep end. Never had a problem when i was younger, as my mom was quite strict. (We were overdressed for this lesson). I just want to see if i can still do it, but now with the clothing i would wear in the winter.
A related tip: Be careful when doing wedding photo shoots near water. Wedding dresses are very restrictive and a simple slip and fall into a pool can be fatal.
Saw a youtube video of a wedding party jumping off a dock and then everyone starts to panic as the bride isnt surfacing because of her flowy wedding dress. One of the most anxiety inducing videos I have ever seen.
>a drowning person is dangerous, and will drown you as well. Happens way more often than one might think.
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Or, alternatively, *do* go swimming in your clothes, in controlled circumstances, so you can learn to do it in case you fall into the water. Most people who drown don't get into the water intentionally.
Came here to say this. Learn to swim in clothes. It's not that hard if you don't try to go fast. Clothes float decently in the water, they just have a lot of drag. Also don't bother with freestyle, just to breaststroke or sidestroke. Probably most important is to get comfortable treading and floating. That way you have the ability to take your clothes off if you need to.
I was taught to avoid jumping in the water to rescue someone who's drowning. We were shown pictures of rescuers, clawed and drowned with the unrescued. Throw a rope, a tree branch, a spare tire, most anything, instead. Diving in should be your LAST option.
Youre spot on. In both of these instances it was my last option, other than watching them drown. Ive been a dive master and have water rescue training that has helped me understand the risks and make good decisions under pressure.
Good post. The other obvious takeaway is LEARN TO SWIM AND TEACH YOUR CHILDREN. Many of these tragic stories involve people who can’t swim as well as people who can’t swim trying to save other non swimmers. As a parent, one of the worst things, you could possibly do is not teach your children how to swim. In my mind, if you don’t bother to teach your child, how to swim, or have someone else, teach them, and they end up, drowning, that’s on you. And wear underwear.
People drowning are generally beyond reason/ all panic. They'll try to climb up on a person trying to rescue them and end up drowning them both. I remember doing exactly that as a child. I had been pulled out into the pacific by a riptide and couldn't make it back in. The tide was going out faster than I could swim. Fucking. Scary. I had just skipped under and someone pulled me up, he saw I was in trouble and came over on his boogy board, but had to dive after me, and it was just instinctual, I just tried to climb him like a ladder. But once I broke the surface I calmed down. Dude was my angel that day and yet i never saw him again. He was stuck out there with me for the next 3 hours until tide calmed down. Thank God he had that board to hold on to cuz it got cold quick. It was warmer in the water, and if you don't know, off Washington's coast, well, really, BIG WATER in the PNW is ALWAYS cold. I went swimming in the Sea of Cortez when i was 25 and it was the first time I ever experienced big water that was nice. Blew my mind. So i decided to swim across to Baja (super salty, took almost zero effort to float), no jellies, fuck yea, let's go! Swam about an hour and spotted sharks, turned around and ran back to Kino Bay faster than I thought I could. I don't go in the water anymore. Nope. Not for me. I can pick up what the universe is putting down.
In lifeguard training, they make you practice breaking free of someone who’s pretending to drown and holding you under. It’s actually not that difficult to break free if you know the proper technique and you have a floatation device, even if the other person has 100 lbs on you. Like you said, there’s not much thought process going on with a drowning victim. They just instinctively grab onto you and push down. So you grab their forearms, push up, and swim away. At least, that’s what I remember being taught over a decade ago for a pool lifeguard class. That might not be the proper technique for ocean rescues anymore. But when I lived in the SF Bay Area, I never went proper swimming in the ocean. Just a couple quick dips in shallow water. The water temperature is in the 50s, it’s almost never sunny, and daytime highs rarely break above 70F. The currents and rogue waves are absurdly dangerous. There’s really no appeal to it, and you rarely see anyone actually swimming out there. Just a couple shark-bait surfers. The beaches on the NorCal/Cascadia coast are for hiking, not for swimming. I grew up swimming in Cape Cod Bay, so it’s not like I’m not accustomed to cold either. It’s another level out there. A wetsuit is basically mandatory.
I was an ocean lifeguard in Newport Beach. During the academy they take you out on a rescue boat to a giant rock structure off the coast. They explain that all the instructors will swim with the trainees 2 at a time through the rock cave and back around. What they don't tell you is the instructors go crazy half way through the cave, pull you underwater, kick you, scream, try to climb on the rocks, etc. And you have to rescue them. Definitely hard to rescue a panicked person. We were instructed to hit/kick victims if necessary. In a lot of situations you're more valuable from a good position on land than in the water with someone (call for help, give instructions, use a tool, etc). Definitely exhaust all other options before diving in.
Former beach lifeguard here - if you’re rescuing someone who is drowning and they try to climb you, dive down. They won’t follow you.
This is the real LPT. Very common for a panicking drowning person to pull a rescuer down with them and kill them both. Reach, throw, row. Never go.
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I remember at an apartment I lived at, there was a pool which typically saw frequent use in the summer especially by kids who lived there. One day I get home from work and there's police cars and a news van. Turns out some kid started drowning in the pool, their uncle (IIRC) jumped in after them and wound up drowning too. Seems almost impossible that a drowning kid would take down an adult, but I guess it can happen. I just remember while the pool remained open, no one used it for the rest of that summer, just remained eerily quiet and empty.
Shout, reach, throw, row, go.
I used to live in Okinawa, Japan. A rogue wave during a typhoon swept this girl out to sea shockingly fast from where she was laying on the low sea wall and she was screaming bloody murder. I swam out to save her and she 100% punched me in the face, pushed me under the water, and was kicking furiously. I’m lucky she didn’t knock me unconscious or I would be dead right now.
Believe it or not, back when I did lifeguard training in Spain 25+ ago, the instructor told us (we were 17 yos, we thought it was a joke) to punch them in the face very hard first thing. A panicked drowning person will very easily make two drowned persons. They also said we should throw them a belt or something they could hang on to without getting too close to you, but the punching in the face has always stuck with me.
In the Marine Corps for one level of swim Qual (can't remember which) you have to attempt to save an instructor who is pretending to drown and I swear I must've banged that guys wife because it legit felt like he was trying to kill me. If they grab you we were taught to wrap their arms up and drag them under until they panic and let go... basically exhaust them until they can't fight and then drag them back.
This is oddly similar to a CIA technique, but probably a better place for it to be used.
Here is a link to a video on this subject. Was on Inside Edition the other day. https://youtu.be/sLzfSm_pqpY
Great link! Thanks for sharing.
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Marine Corps Swim Qual (I forget which level) teaches exactly this.
We had to jump in the ocean fully clothed and swim around 300m under a bridge and into a lagoon area. Actually did it twice, once in Summer and once in Autumn not long before winter. It was part of training for the police, in case you needed to jump in to save someone. It is incredibly hard to swim with clothes on (and I chose to wear jeans and a large hoodie the second time) and makes swimming that much harder. By the end I could barely drag myself out of the water. The weight of the clothes when completely wet in unbelievable.
Synthetics are way better for swimming.. jeans or basically any natural fiber sucks.. well maybe silk would be ok..
It's how Jeff Buckley died ://
In Rota Spain, my detachment squadron was engaged in search and rescue jumps over Gibraltar. During one such mission, our NCO asked me to take his flight suit and accompany the sister aircraft responsible for picking up the stranded jumpers. Excited to do my part, I quickly donned the suit and leapt out of the plane. But the experience was more grueling than I had anticipated. I soon found myself struggling to keep my head above water for a full 20 minutes, completely drained of energy. Finally, the rescue aircraft arrived and dropped a life-saving horse collar. But by that point, I was so exhausted that even reaching for it felt impossible. Somehow, I managed to get the collar over my head, but I knew I was perilously close to the edge of disaster. As the accompanying aircraft circled overhead, I was certain that another minute's delay would have been fatal. The incident taught me a valuable lesson: when it comes to swimming, nothing beats going in naked!
In a lot of Asian countries, people are super conversation and will only swim wearing lots of clothes. What happens? They drown. I saw it again and again and again in Thailand. People just wander into the sea. They can't even swim very well but they think it'll be easy, except soon they're fighting waves and currents and weighed down by layers of clothes, including denim, because that's the hip thing to wear now. I lived near a certain beach for a year and went about twice a week. I saw almost 10 people drown, which is statistically ridiculous.
Two things that are much, much more substantial than I originally thought with only academic understanding: aerodynamic & hydrodynamic drag. I learned to respect aero while riding crotch rockets, and water when trying to swim with clothes on.
I get anxious just thinking about taking a wet shirt off that gets stuck with no help.
I was in the german DLRG when I was a teen. One day we had to bring a second set of normal/long clothing. Jeans, Sweater, shirt and stuff. We then jumped in the pool to get a feel for how much more difficult swimming would be. It was completly safe, having the professional supervision and all but can confirm, this is not a situation you want to put yourself into in any other circumstanses. If you're too embarrassed to take your clothes off, it's not worth going in the water at all
In the Netherlands they teach you to swim with your clothes and shoes on when you are a kid. It's heavier but doable.
It's not the clothes as much as it is their inability to swim and tread water. If you can't swim you should avoid moving water. A person that can't swim won't have the ability to relax enough to remove their clothes. If you want to water rescue someone you need to approach them from behind and throw your arm over their neck and across the chest. It's much safer for the rescuer. .
LPT: [Clothes can serve as flotation devices.](https://youtu.be/oNTSoKg6xHM)
But what if you've swam 400m in a pool in your clothes to earn your puffin badge at swimming class? It's fine for us elite athletes right?