Principles of Safe Swimming
1. Understand Your Physical Condition:
1. People with heart disease, high blood pressure, infectious diseases, epilepsy, skin conditions, eye diseases, etc., should not swim;
2. Avoid swimming when tired, sick, full, fasting, emotionally upset, or after drinking alcohol;
3. Accurately assess your own abilities. Don’t be overly competitive while swimming—swim within your limits. Those with poor swimming skills should avoid deep water or swimming too far from shore.
2. Choose a Safe Location:
1. Do not swim in areas marked with warnings such as “No Swimming” or “Dangerous Water Depth”;
2. Avoid swimming in shipping lanes, port areas, rapids, rocky zones, near docks, or in areas with dense aquatic plants;
3. If you encounter a thunderstorm or earthquake while swimming, get out of the water immediately;
4. Be aware of water temperature, waves, wind force, and currents;
5. Do not dive in unfamiliar waters or shallow areas, and never recklessly dive into deep water.
3. Develop Good Habits:
1. Warm-up exercises: Do stretching exercises before entering the water;
2. While swimming, try to breathe in through your mouth and out through your nose, using your full lung capacity for both inhalation and exhalation. Breathe rhythmically, avoid talking too much to prevent choking;
3. Get into the habit of swimming with your eyes open and wear goggles to avoid getting hit or kicked;
4. Swim with a buddy so you can look out for each other;
5. When participating in water activities other than swimming, always wear a life jacket;
6. Do not joke around with actions that resemble calling for help;
7. Dry your body and preserve body heat immediately after leaving the water;
8. Before swimming, carefully survey the water area and use buoys to mark deep and shallow zones as well as safe areas.
Causes of Drowning in the Wild:
Drowning occurs when a person is submerged in water, leading to asphyxiation and oxygen deprivation due to blockage of the respiratory tract by water, mud, weeds, or other debris, and spasms in the throat and trachea.
1. Personal Factors:
1. Panic caused by choking on water, which affects swimming posture and leads to drowning;
2. Accidentally swimming into deep water areas;
3. Overexertion during swimming causing physical exhaustion or respiratory imbalance, resulting in physiological oxygen deficiency, such as muscle cramps.
If you feel physically exhausted after prolonged swimming, switch to backstroke and gently move your limbs to keep your mouth and nose afloat. Regulate your breathing, relax your body, rest briefly, then swim to shore or float and wait for rescue. On the contrary, panic will cause muscle tension throughout the body, leading to premature exhaustion and possible drowning.
2. Environmental Factors:
1. Slippery, rolling rocks with large gaps between them;
2. Significant differences in water temperature, with excessively cold water;
3. Whirlpools and undercurrents: When swimming in rivers, you may encounter powerful whirlpools. In such cases, quickly move away from the center along the tangent direction of the whirlpool. Never attempt to swim upright against the current, as this may cause you to be sucked underwater by the strong vortex. If you are pulled under, take a deep breath before submersion and try to swim underwater with all your strength. A strong will to survive is your only hope for rescue.
4. Variations in riverbed conditions;
5. Flash floods caused by heavy rain.