YSK Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
(slate.com)
Highlighting this post I feel exemplifies the spirit of the community.
Thank you, I learned something new
Also, use a stick or a rope to get them out of the water. They might drown you if you jump in. If you tie a rope into a loop so they can grab on, make sure it's a static knot or you're throwing them a noose. If you have to jump in, once you grab them, you have to swim side ways with your feet deep in the water and them on your side facing out of the water. This is more for lakes/ pools. Learned most of that in the Boyscouts back in the day.
Extremely important, thanks.
What about the recommendation that, if one does approach them directly, one should do so with a leg rather than an arm?
I don't know if it's still valid but when I did bronze med yes, there was an approach position with one raised leg to kick or splash if needed that was taught.
Drowning people will often try to climb on you and shove you under to breath. If splashing and keeping distance with a foot fails you hold your breath and dive. They will let go and try to get back to air.
The general chain of preferences was: reach>throw>wade>row>swim>tow
Reach with a stick or something if you can avoid getting in.
Throw a flotation aid or rope
Wade out and throw a flotation aid or rope
Use a boat or board etc if available
Swim out with a flotation aid
Swim out and tow them in while swimming.
I've only ever seen this one: 
of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult
These kinds of statistic are harrowing, if you think about them a bit longer. Hundreds of children will fight for their lives only meters away from their parents trying to get their attention, and die.
Drowning 100% looks like drowning. The problem is that people dont know what drowning looks like. Including myself.
Drowning (actual) doesn't look like drowning (common cultural depictions)
Going to repeat Glemek because you've received a shocking number of upvotes.
The point is that people who haven't seen someone drown, may not know what drowning looks like, with the exception of media depictions.
The title and headline communicate the point effectively which draws out the semantics sadists such as yourself.
The point is that people who haven’t seen someone drown, may not know what drowning looks like, ~~with the exception of media depictions.~~
There, fixed that for you.
Drowning does not look like the splashing depictions in media. So that's not an exception. Because that's not what drowning looks like.
Way to prove the headline communicates it effectively when you just made that exact mistake.
I didn't make a mistake. I understood the intent. You decided it was a mistake because you like playing with semantics. You're a semantichist (hah! See what I did there?)
They chose a headline that catches attention, and it bothered you enough to warrant your attention too. Effective. Communication. The words that were chosen had the intended effect.
Yes, headline is stupid. Author should be set on fire.
And then drowned.
yeah but you should know that burning doesn't look like burning!
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Many years ago we were having a pool party. My wife and our adult niece were standing on the steps of the pool, so I walked over to say hi. Looked down and there was our niece's toddler daughter standing on the lower step, head totally submerged, just looking up at me through the water. Words wouldn't even come out - I just reached in, grabbed her arm, and pulled her up out of the water. When I started to reach between them, my wife and niece looked at me like I was being a jerk or something, then both got wide-eyed when they saw the girl come up out of the water. She had been standing on the same step as them, but accidentally stepped off to the lower and they didn't notice. Terrifying.
That is absolutely terrifying. Good instincts on your part. I'm assuming/hoping she was okay?
Totally fine - she didn't even seem phased at the time - wasn't crying or anything - was wondering why her mom was holding her and crying.
I'm relieved to hear that. I'm thinking back about the times where I might have missed something like that. Not a comfortable thought. Thanks for the reply!
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I can confirm this - I have nearly drowned a few times, and it felt like I couldn't move. The natural reactions just took over me, and to be honest felt quite counterproductive. Until I was helped, I felt completely frozen, only moved by the water, until someone helped me, it was terrifying.
One of the worst parts was because I had got water in my lungs, even as I was helped above the water, I tried to breathe, but I simply couldnt. I thought I was going to die and I couldnt communicate it because, like the article says, breathing first, speaking second. It took what felt like multiple minutes but was probably like 10-20 seconds before I could actually breathe.
I'm very grateful for those who have saved me, and I clearly haven't learned my lesson because I still love being in water :P
I watched a kid nearly drown in waist deep water. To this day I have no idea what happened, but it looked like he was floating, then flopping around playfully, then going back to floating. I was standing on the shore just getting my feet wet (this was a "beach" outside Toronto) and I was just kind of watching him because his behavior seemed off somehow. After one of his "flops" he started a face down float, which he's done a few times, but this time it kept going.
I had been counting in my head without even realizing it and we were up to about 60s when I started looking around. Had anyone else noticed? His mom came over and started calling to him. Ok, she's in control. Another 30s pass and his mother is getting panicked. Fuck, I'm fully clothed, an hour from home, should I dive in? Something is definitely wrong. Someone do something... I turn around and start yelling as well.
Finally someone drags him, limp, from barely 3 feet of water. WTF. People are giving him CPR and I check his pulse between breaths... Fuck. I can't find a pulse. Then he rockets a half gallon of water from his lungs and sits up. Finally some lifeguards show up.
I'd completely froze in the moment. I sensed something was off and didn't do anything. Thank God the kid survived, but I think about it way too much...
A crisis is, by definition, abnormal. Please don't kick yourself for not acting as quickly or as perfectly as you want to in hindsight. I've been there before too, and the threshold for "this really is happening, I have to act" isn't always clear...
Surely you learned something, and wouldn't be drowning for the exact same reason next time?
the first time i was VERY young to be fair, only one was relatively recent
I too want to know exactly how this happens “a few times” wtf.
i know it makes me sound stupid but i was just very young the first time lol, barely remember it
A Username like that and still drowning that's impressive mate,
I can't swim very well so I just stay out haha
i know right 😭 definitely an otter in spirit, rather than in practice
Happened to me twice. Both times due to cold shock and I couldn't move. For some reason people like to lie about water temperature, "jump in, it's not too cold"
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I remember this interactive game/video where you can try it out yourself
Yeh, it's an http site. So any browsers that require https will block/warn.
But also, holy hell is it obvious once you realise.
Arms up, then swipe down out to the sides, and repeat. Like frantically trying to fly.
As SOON as they are in trouble, it's arms flailing in that pattern. Like, look for white splashing water and assess if it's playing or panic.
A few you can tell who it is gonna be because they flip off their donut. And a few you can tell cause they are trying to swim but are looking up and aren't keeping their mouth above the water (I clicked on one of these to be told "it's fine" only for them to start thrashing and get rescued when I resumed the video)
I think, from the article, they will not always flail arms that much
Yes, sometimes they just sink.
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When I was a kid at some church event at a local kids camp I noticed a kid that jumped from the (very low) diving board wasn't coming up. I had no idea what drowning actually liked like. I yelled to the lifeguard but jumped in anyway. The lifeguard saved the kid before I got over, but a chaperone noticed and sent a letter home to my parents saying they should be proud. I learned that day that cartoons aren't so real
Great share. I've taken different levels of first aid multiple times, including one where we had to watch real clinical death so we knew not to stop CPR when it looked like someone was "waking up." Death doesn't look like death either.
Article is behind a paywall on mobile.
What the fuck is this shit?
How to spot a drowning website.
Wonderful article. A long anecdote to introduce the topic and then a paywall before you reach the useful information of what the fuck drowning DOES look like.
See the archive link: https://web.archive.org/web/20260523203542/https://slate.com/technology/2013/06/rescuing-drowning-children-how-to-know-when-someone-is-in-trouble-in-the-water.html
Also, it seems like the paywall is just on the client-side, and (at least in my case) just uBlock origin removes it
Thanks for trying. I’m on a phone and that page blurs halfway down 🤷♂️
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this post was submitted on 23 May 2026
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