Zorba's blog
Out Of Your Depth 😱
It may have been 50 years since the last one but finally the UK 🇬🇧 is enjoying a heatwave and sadly every hot sunny day brings the news of yet another young person who has drowned in open water going for a swim.
The "experts" are saying it could be due to cold water shock or them getting caught in unseen objects under the water etc however I lay the blame squarely at the design of most modern swimming pools.
TranslateYou'll have all heard those old swimming
metaphors "thrown in at the deep end" and "out of one's depth" well in today's swimming pools that can't happen your feet can always touch the bottom. In days gone by if you were a poor swimmer you had to stay in the shallow end of the pool, you couldn't go too far towards the deep end or you'd find yourself out of your depth and that separated those who could swim from those who couldn't encouraging them to learn.
I'm a good swimmer, I taught myself how to as a child having gone too far down the slope towards the deep end, luckily I was rescued by an adult who picked me out of the water and carried me safely back to the shallows.
On holiday I often see youg men full of bravado challenging one another to a race across the hotel pool, there's usually a load of frantic splashing before they run out of stamina half way, which is fine when the water is only 1.5M deep they can stand on the bottom and catch their breath but they clearly don't know how to swim, swimming is the ability to do many lengths without exhausting yourself or needing to stand on the bottom.
These young men are drowning because they've never experienced "The Deep End" or found themselves "Out Of Their Depth" they don't realise they can't really swim and when they run out of stamina 10M into a river or lake and find their feet can't touch the bottom they panic and tragically drown.
If you've family or friends who might be tempted to cool off in a river, lake or reservoir and they're not proficient swimmers Please Warn them of the dangers.
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