Are you drowning?
By ElicBxn
@ElicBxn (64169)
United States
February 24, 2023 12:31am CST
I was responding to another discussion asking if you could swim and, well, I don't know that I've told this story... I might've, I mean, I've been on here off and on for 16 years.
So, I was saying I could swim and then I started going on about somethings that have happened while I was swimming. And, as I often do, realized I really had a discussion of my own...
So... while I was swimming I have, inadvertently, actually rescued a few people. I mean, neither were actually in any serious danger, but both panicked. One could actually have touched if she wasn't panicking, but the other couldn't. The one who could've touched is a couple of inches taller than I am, not really hard since I'm just a fraction over 5 foot. Now, 5 feet is 152.4 centimeters, and lets say 153 centimeters with my fraction, could be a tad less. My friend is 5 foot 4 or 5, so... 160 or so centimeters. We were in a city pool - they have life guards - and we were just past the 5 foot mark, even standing on my toes I was out of my depth, but only by a couple of centimeters, probably not even two inches, maybe even just one. Standing on my toes my head was out of water, but my nose wasn't LOL. So I bounced and looked at the life guard. She asked if I needed help and I nodded. My friend would have been fine if she hadn't panicked, but she was a very poor swimmer at best.
I got an email from her that she is coming to town this summer so I'll get to see her again. I'm looking forward to that.
The other girl was out at Girl Scout camp. She had told the councilors she could swim. She was probably about the youngest age campers were allowed back then. We were doing what was called the "boating" test. This was staying afloat for 10 minutes. Because I was one of the bigger kids, I had rather waited until the press of girls moved out so I didn't land on anyone before I went in. I had turned, because they wanted us to take off our shoes and hand them up on the dock, we were in a lake not a pool. I can't really say, but it seemed to me someone pushed her in, but she had said she could swim, so when she balked at going in, it is possible she had been 'encouraged' into the lake. She did, more or less, what I had waited for, she practically landed on top of me, I do know that when she came in, I was pulled under. When she came up however, she was facing the doc and didn't see me behind her. She started flailing, you know, that thing people think of when someone is drowning, so I reached out and lifted her under her arms. I held her up until I could get the councilors on the dock to understand she needed to be taken out of the water.
Amusingly, after they got her up on the dock, they looked down and I was there, my arms just kind of resting on the water. They looked at me and said: "Are you standing on anything?"
"No," I replied, "can you take my shoes now?"
"How are you staying up?" one asked.
"I'm kicking," I replied.
And, I could do that for years because I rode horses and had strong legs. I doubt I could do it now, it has been decades since I rode horses.
So, not going to ask if you can swim, that was handled nicely in the other discussion, but have you ever been there when someone was rescued? Don't worry if you didn't save them, just been there...
Living in an archipelago like the Philippines, most people would think that all Filipinos could swim. With the ocean all around us, there’s no reason not to...
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1 response
@LadyDuck (502209)
• Italy
24 Feb 23
Yes, I have been there when a girl collapsed while swimming in the sea. I do not swim, so I was not the one who helped to rescue her. I remember when they brought her on the beach, she was as white as a sheet of paper, but she recovered after a while.
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