Kiwisport | Swimming | Water Safety

LI: to learn water safety and land rescues

Water safety is important to know because it will help and save you in a lot of situations. Water safety includes knowing how to swim. What we learnt in swimming lessons today was how to rescue people.

Land Rescues
Some people stumble into the wrong situations which lead them to drown. Land rescues helps by when somebody is drowning close to the land but can't reach, you can grab something that floats that can reach out to them and either throw it or stretch far enough that they will be able to latch on and you can pull them in.

We practised this in partners or groups of three with water noodles. One person had to be on the outer edge of the pool laying on their stomach facing inwards to the pool with a noodle. The other person/two people had to be facing the person with the noodle further back. The people/person in the pool had to call for help (Putting our arms up straight and yelling help) and the rescuer would hold onto one end the try reach the noodle out so that the people/person in the pool could grab onto it. Once the people/person had grabbed onto the noodle, the rescuer would pull them in and save them. Each person had a turn in the water.

Proper and improper rescuing
Do not jump into the water to save somebody immediately. This is because if you do not have anything to help rescue somebody or if you jump in as soon as they call for help, you could swim towards them and they would use you to float. This would cause them to be able to breath, but cause you to drown underwater.

To properly save somebody, you need to have an item that can float and use it to save them by throwing it out to them so they can reach and pulling them in or try calming them and doing the same to help save them.