The image above is from a YouTube video posted in 2009 – a sort of warning to boaters about the benefits of safety gear like life jackets and kill switches. I’m posting it here as a warning about how wrong some people are about what is safe and what isn’t. Our man, Greg – the [...]
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In 2002, my friend and mentor (and maniac) Dr. Gordon Geisbrecht fell – on purpose – through the ice on a frozen lake. He wanted to demonstrate just how those who fall through the ice can survive and help themselves. Advice is also given to amateur and professional rescuers. I ran across the video on [...]
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Francesco Pia, PhD. Discusses the Instinctive Drowning Response using one of his examples from Orchard Beach in NY. And now for the happy ending:
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Drowning signs aren’t like the movies: wivb.com Another (more recent) example of the Instinctive Drowning Response
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It’s July and hot outside and you head to the neighborhood pool for the day. The kids want to swim and you just want to be doing nothing for awhile. Everyone files through the gate as you scan for an open lounge chair and your friends. The kids have sunscreen on, you have your book, [...]
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This morning I received an email from a reader who was struggling with a boating safety question. She and her husband enjoy the water and and they have two small children and they just couldn’t seem to get together on one issue: How much supervision is enough out there on the water? She gave me [...]
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The Consumer Product Safety Commission receives reports every year of drownings that occur in water sources (and other liquids) not normally associated with drownings – things found in an around landlocked homes without pools. Understanding that it happens (however rarely) and why and how it happens can be all it takes to make sure it doesn’t happen to you.
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I couldn’t feel my hands anymore and using them was impossible. The shivering was uncontrollable and violent. “That’s a good sign,” I thought to myself. I remembered from my studies of hypothermia that shivering stops before you lose consciousness. “If I’m still shivering than I’ll live for a while longer”, I reasoned. But mostly I was wondering about how I got myself into that mess.
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I’m going to come right out and tell you something that almost no one in the maritime industry understands. That includes mariners, executives, managers, insurers, dock workers, for certain – fisherman, and even many (most) rescue professionals: It is impossible to get hypothermic in cold water unless you are wearing flotation, because without flotation – [...]
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