"For example, the lake is calm, but the distressed person is so panicked that they grab on to the person trying to help them, and both succumb," Brewster said.
The best way to approach a drowning victim is with a floatation device, Brewster said.
"If you lack training in rescuing, it is enormously dangerous to attempt a rescue," even for strong swimmers, Brewster said. The safest action to take is to throw a floatation device to the person.
If that can't be done or the person is out of reach, a rescuer should take a floating object with them when they enter the water.
"What you want to do is to avoid contact," he said, "that contact is what results in death."
Professional ocean lifeguards always take a floatation device with them when they go into the water to make a rescue.
If you push a floating object toward a person, they will automatically grab onto it, Brewster said, which will keep the rescuer safely out of the distressed person's frenzied grasp.
Hmmm...Speculation seems to have gone from (initially) dodgy Spanish resort/pool equipment onto black people can't swim...
And pops has gone through 50 years of life without one yet his 2 young kids have one. Uh huh.
Speculation seems to have gone from (initially) dodgy Spanish resort/pool equipment onto black people can't swim...
(First time I came across this phenomena was while talking to a "Training Officer" (Not sure if that is correct British Army designation) who worked at Sandhurst who was commenting that the Black trainees, and who would all have been relatively fit, (well back then anyway!) had the near universal swimming ability of a house brick)
low levels of body fat and are therefore less buoyant.
This is entirely nonsense FYI, yes you are less buoyant, but you are not a boat, and that is not how swimming works.
However, there were differences in body fat distribution (P ≤ 0.05) and buoyancies (P ≤ 0.01), with Whites storing more fat and having better buoyancy than Blacks. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:87-92 © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
This is entirely nonsense FYI, yes you are less buoyant, but you are not a boat, and that is not how swimming works.
OK
When I was 13 around 1971, I was at Pwllheli Butlins and in the morning went to the outside swimming pool that had an Olympic height diving board so the water was deep.
The water was also dirty and no way could you see the bottom.
I dived in, swam to the bottom to be greeted by a dead body just hanging in the water and I basically flew out.
Apparently he was fully clothed and had died of cold the previous evening.
Because I poo'd my pants and cried a lot we got a free weeks holiday.
It's literally right there in the abstract of a published study and yet we're supposed to listen to you saying "it's nonsense"......Welcome to GD I guess.
It's literally right there in the abstract of a published study and yet we're supposed to listen to you saying "it's nonsense"......Welcome to GD I guess.
Also, it is not uncommon for peoples vulnerabilities to be greatest when people are young and old but not so much in between the two.
This is entirely nonsense FYI, yes you are less buoyant, but you are not a boat, and that is not how swimming works.
50 isn't old
He wasn't a very fit black man. He was a middle-aged pastor. So I'm not sure how this supreme black athlete chat is relevant.
The guy couldn't swim and neither could his family.
Take your kids to swimming lessons parents.