Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning

A very important, and timely thread.

During this time of year, the river beckon, the lakes glimmer so coolly. Just what's needed to take the edge off the heat of the day... But danger lays there, too. Be careful, and smart about the water. It's unforgiving.

Just be sure that everyone knows their limits.

Great thread about a sucky subject. To add my two cents, I am now 50 yrs old and I still dont know how to swim. And I have no desire to learn either. Swimming and water sports was killed for me in high school, you see I had had three friends drown in my three years in high school....One each year of school. two really close friends, one who I knew and went to school with but was'nt close .

Two drowned at the beach one at a local lake here in N.C, called Belews Creek, the one that drowned at Belews Creek drowned 12 foot from the shore, the two at the beach from under tows we were told. It soured me on the water for life. I took my kids to YMCA and they can swim like little fish, did'nt want to impart my fear into them about the water.

I still fear the water, long bridges over water scare the crap out of me. No ocean cruise for me, fishing from the bank will do just fine. Listen to the advice given here folks it's well worth the read..........Again, great thread about a sucky subject, thank you for bringing it up and posting this thread. I can tell you from the experience I had.... you dont want to go thru that, 3 funerals in three years of drowning victims.. Two were close casket. One was not and that's the one that is burned into my memory. Hope all on here have a damn fine day.

I was always told if you are swimming and get too tired to go on, to float on your back. So you can rest and catch your breath. Seems to me most adults drown because they drink booze. I was down at Possum Kingdom lake this 4th and a girl went missing. Drinking on a boat, not wearing a life jacket.

It's a shame she was only 22.

Good info.

unless your are sure you can control the drowning person...you should never touch them with you hands or let them touch you. Always use a stick or something else int he middle.


The "death grip" of a drowning victim will take you to the depth as well.

Good information. I've been an ocean lifeguard off and on since '99, drownings are silent. I am fortunate to have grown on the beach and have been able to swim longer than I have been walking. Spotting a distressed swimmer is a skill that most don't have and it takes some experience to know what to look for. Someone who is fatigued and in danger of drowning will be too exhausted to get someone's attention. Most drownings develop, that the victim goes through a few stages of distress before going under, usually the last is 'climbing the ladder,' when someone is at that stage they may go under at anytime and will almost certainly perish without a rescuer. It should be noted that by that stage the victim will be exhausted and the arm movements will likely be slow. Always take a flotation device if you attempt to rescue someone and use that flotation device as a barrier between you and the victim. Someone who is actively drowning can drown you too.

With the coastal populations continue growing, each year there are more swimmers at the beaches. This holiday weekend the east coast of Florida had a swell that caused moderate to strong rip currents that resulted in several drownings.

reply to post by Lysergic


I would say in the ocean where rip currents are a threat, most adults drown because they panic. When a weak or even moderate swimmer who was in waist deep water suddenly finds themselves in over their head and getting pulled out to sea panic often sets in, especially if they inhale water due to the breaking surf.

i believe it's a panic mechanism, i say this because a few years back i had been in the Dominican Republic on a dunebuggy tour through local villages and finally ending at a completely secluded beach. we had 2 tour guides but i doubt any were actually certified lifeguards, and oddly enough kept cracking jokes about getting dragged down to Cuba if you weren't careful. i love the ocean and can float on my back for hours if i wanted, but the undertow and the outward current were so strong every time i went up on a wave it pulled me out instead of in (i obviously didn't notice when it was happening). the farther i got pulled out the more i panicked and felt this weird 'churning' of the current like it was trying to pull me down. my first instinct was to get on my back, i don't recall ever letting my body fall into the water as i knew that would have been it, i then proceeded to figure out how to use the waves and time them to bring me into shore ever so slowly, i was mildly exhausted but towards the end i was able to swim only because my instincts told me to get on my back to presumably save energy. i know my experience was in the ocean so that differs from lakes or ponds, but i figured i would throw in my two cents.

I almost drowned - Even with lessons through out all of childhood, and me being in my late 20's. It was in a wave pool at a water park. I remember the lifeguard getting another guards attention, and pointing to me. I couldn't even respond. I was able to make it to the ladder to chill out until the waves shut down. Very scary lesson I had learned that day.

All the swim Lessons and patches earned growing up does not make you a strong swimmer later in life. Swim confidence? shaken to the core that day...

Thank you! thank you! thank you! so much for posting this article. It is so important for everyone to know and
I have shared it with everyone I know. I hope others do the same. Everyone please flag this article!!

reply to post by Domo1


I honestly did not know that. I have always expected that everyone instinctly calls for help. Guess I have been watching way too much tv.
Thanks for making this topic, I would have probably never known better, had it not been for this topic.

This should be written on signs where people swim.. Why isnt it already?

Thank you for this!

reply to post by luciddream


Yeah, many drowning victims take their would-be rescuer down from panic grabbing.

I was told to either wait until they got feeble or chin punch them to stun and then get behind them and drag them to shore with your arm through their armpit and around the back of their neck. Sounds brutal, but ...

Showing kids how to sink to the bottom, if shallower than 15 or so feet, by putting arms/hands to sides and legs together, feet down, and then using their feet against the solid bottom to push off back to the surface has saved many lives, too.

That and treading water/ back floating.

Drowning, it burns in your lungs and "vomitting" the water out hurts like hell at least dirty sea water does. Drowning isnt´t always like shown in OP, no dismissing, just personal experience. Maybe the last 2 seconds are like that but before it´s functioning until there is no more hope and then panic.
I can´t imagine how much seawater must burn.

reply to post by Domo1


I'm really glad you posted this and the link.I've never come across a drowning person so I had no idea they would act that way.I don't spend a lot of time around water,but you never know when something can happen.Kudos to you.

reply to post by Domo1


Thanx for This Learning Experience! I Totally Appreciate this Post, as I know others will Feel the same. This is an Incredible Tool for Us ALL!!! Thanx, Syx.

Great thread Domo1!!
You could be the best swimmer on Mother Earth and still drown.

reply to post by Domo1


I really want to say a big thank you for posting this thread - it really gave me shivers down my spine thinking of my daughters and the assumption I always had that I would know if they were in trouble in the water.

Having spent most of last summer by the pool, my girls, age 5 and 6 were already strong and confident swimmers but I kept a close eye on them, nevertheless. They are both happier to swim underwater than on the surface and I guess I was always on the look out for thrashing around in the water as a sign of trouble.
Reminds me of one day when my 6 yr old became 'overcome' in the water for no apparent reason. She had dived to the bottom but suddenly felt a struggle to get back to the surface. She panicked and thank God she did get back up but it really shook her confidence for some time. That's why I get the shivers just reading the article.

Thank you so much...you have highlighted something so very important and I for one will be 100 times more vigilant as a result.

I came close once , never really could swim , I had been renting jet ski's & doing some tricks on them
One day they only had a different model available , it was faster & handled differently . I also had a girl on the back with me this time ,...I went to do a trick at high speed & flipped the machine ,..I hit the water very hard , Had life vest on ,...but I was actually inhaling when I hit the water , I immediately took full lungful breath of lake water . I think this made the life vest somewhat ineffective as I could not break the surface , Involuntarily I was breathing underwater full breaths of lake water in & out , This was extremely painful , I could see the light from the surface but could not get there My arms & legs became exhausted very quickly & I felt my arms start to stop moving
there was literally nothing more i could force my body to do , I knew I didnt have long & tried to force my arms to work but they wouldnt ,...The girl I was with finally saw the yellow of the vest below the surface she had dived down & brought me back up , it took her half an hour to kind of hook me back over the back of the jetski she hit me alot & tried to make me breathe & then I threw up lake water for another 20 minutes before we could drive back ,the lake was busy but noone knew we were in trouble ,..I think I was about 19 at the time ,I havent even been in a pool since ,...the thing I remember most is that when you can no longer hold your breath , even if underwater you automatically do it anyway , you breathe water , & it is very very painful ......
Water is just as dangerous as fire or anything else ,you really have to respect it ,I learned the hard way

SnF exclusively for the last sentence.

Interesting thread, I clicked it but it didnt really grab my attention but the last sentence brought me back home
Havent been on much lately but I missed you all.

May not be feelin the article but Im feelin the love

reply to post by Domo1

Good thread, and link. I almost drowned a few times, though it never reached the point were you body and mind shuts down like that, but I have reached the point of compete exhaustion were the only thing you can really do is turn over on your back and just try to stay above the water as you tread to the nearest bank, never quite seized up or completely lost it, but I have swallowed water and barely made it more then a few times.

And the link is right you use all and any energy you may have to stay afloat, literally you do not even have any energy or strength to scream even if there is a person a few feet away you basically just go through motions while your dazed and in la la land hoping that you reach the end. Its not a very fun felling, and I am not the greatest of swimmers either, its all really about knowing your limits, and for kids especially if they never experienced or ever pushed themselves swimming before, or little kids. Stuff like that is bound to happen, and nobody would even be able to tell.

Also the more salt content in the water the easier it is to swim or float, I been a few times to the ocean in places like Greece and by the black sea, were the sea water literally just makes you float and it takes minimal effort to swim. And when I go to the local lakes around my area, its a whole nother story, you literally have to constantly put in effort just to stay above the water and if your done, you will sink much faster and it will tire you out much faster. In comparison at the black sea, I would just float on my back for pretty much as long as I wanted to with almost no movement to keep me above, at my local lake I cant do that I always have to be kicking and using my arms and be consummately moving just to stay afloat. And if anybody has ever been into one of them salt water pools they will know what I am getting at, I have been in one of those which was above ground and the pool water pumped from from a salt mine you literally dont even need to put any effort to stay afloat no matter what position your in, in fact I tried diving under and it pushes you up instead of down. So the place your swimming at and were depends a lot also, I would say lakes and such places could and are probably much more dangerous.

Oh and another thing, its like every year were somebody drowns here at the lakes, its usually kids or teenagers just having fun. And they usually are diving in or jumping from ledges. I did this to, its fun nothing wrong with it, but you got to watch out and know your surroundings. Once i almost drowned, I jumped off a ledge, straight in my feet got tangled in the seaweed that was growing from the bottom, I panicked started reaching down and trying to get untangled. Eventually I got untangled, swallowed a bit of the lake and made it back up, but that is a whole different thing and way of drowning then completely losing all motor function because you just cant go anymore and you have no energy to do anything but the ladder climbing motion, your mind is literally like its going to sleep or shutting down. Once you reach that point your pretty much just hoping, and going through the motions barely even aware of were your at.