Scary...could have been Darwin's law at work

[lakelover]

Re: Scary...could have been Darwin's law at work

Sorry, but I think a lot of you are under-estimating how fast COLD water can do you in. They also had boots on, ever tried swimming with boots on?

Curmudgeonly or not, scary and dumb, I stand by my title.

....There were enough folks standing around incase anything happened. Not as risky as the title led to believe... JMHO!

What would they have done?

 

[dwco5051]

Re: Scary...could have been Darwin's law at work

Sorry, but I think a lot of you are under-estimating how fast COLD water can do you in. They also had boots on, ever tried swimming with boots on?

Curmudgeonly or not, scary and dumb, I stand by my title.



What would they have done?

I was not trying to downplay the danger of cold water. I have lost two friends at different times in the last forty years due to cold water. The point I was making that a person should not panic over the fact they are wearing heavy clothing. The trapped air and eventually the water that permeates is somewhat like a wetsuit and can extend a persons survival time.

Yes I have swum with duty boots on. I will admit they slow you down. I also have trained through the ice wearing a survival suit during ice rescue training many times and when that cold water hits the exposed skin of your face it’s like somebody hit you with a board right across the middle of your face.

You are entirely correct in what the bystanders could have done. Untrained teenagers with no equipment or rescue equipment and victims in the water far from shore might possibly have led to even more fatalities .

 

[lakelover]

Re: Scary...could have been Darwin's law at work

dwco, I agree, what you say makes a lot of sense, sounds like you really know your stuff.

My main thought about the bystanders being able to help was that it looked like all they'd be able to do is stand there and watch their friends drown, or get in the water themselves and make it worse.

Anyway, they were very lucky it went the way it did. I know kids do stuff like that. I look back and cringe when I think of some of the times I was equally lucky! I ask myself "What the hell was I thinking"? With kids...who knows?