Jennifer Lynn: What does being water ready mean in the most basic way?\n<\/p>\n
Jennifer May: Being water ready really means that you have a tool belt filled with different types of survival and safety skills to handle all kinds of different situations, whether you\u2019re in a pool or in an ocean or any open water.\n<\/p>\n
JL: What\u2019s the difference between being water ready for a swimming pool and water ready for the ocean?\n<\/p>\n
JM: A swimming pool has walls that you can grab and swim to. The water is clear. There\u2019s not a current. In a public community pool, there\u2019s always a lifeguard.\n <\/p>\n
When you\u2019re swimming in the ocean, you\u2019re dealing with all kinds of things like currents and waves. You\u2019re dealing with marine life, rocks and jetties, and all kinds of things that can be hidden in the water.\n<\/p>\n
JL: And you say most swimmers have never been taught how to recognize and survive dangerous ocean conditions, or maybe any ocean conditions.\n<\/p>\n
JM: And it\u2019s really only just starting to change in the learn-to-swim industry.\n<\/p>\n
JL: You point out that teen boys and young men, in particular, can be at higher risk in the ocean. They can overestimate their ability and take risks. Tell me more about that.\n<\/p>\n
JM: It\u2019s really a shocking statistic. Of all water incidents, regardless of age and regardless of venue, 80% [involve male swimmers]. We do special awareness education for parents of boys.\n<\/p>\n
Not, not to diminish the safety that we have to also teach girls \u2014 it\u2019s just that toddler boys, kid boys and even older men are statistically at higher risk.\n<\/p>\n
JL: So if I\u2019m in a bad current, what safe practices really do exist for the swimmer in that moment?\n<\/p>\n
JM: Well, the first thing is you really should always be swimming at a lifeguard beach. Do not swim at any beaches that don\u2019t have a lifeguard. That\u2019s number one.\n<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also going to be warning flags at a beach that the lifeguards are going to put out just for double assurance. You should always know what the flag system is where you\u2019re swimming.\n<\/p>\n
If you are identifying that you\u2019re in a current, you want to stop, take some deep breaths, tread water and signal to someone at the beach. And then you can try to swim parallel to the shore. There\u2019s two ways you can go. One way might be easier than another.\n<\/p>\n
So if you\u2019re still feeling that resistance, you may have chosen the more difficult path. That\u2019s still okay. Roll on your back and just float. You\u2019ve already signaled. We\u2019ve already told you to stay at a lifeguarded beach. So someone will be coming out to get you. In the meantime, you float and stay calm.\n<\/p>\n
The way the currents work is once you\u2019re floating, it will carry you potentially out a little bit more, but then it will start to bring you parallel, and then will return you back to where the waves are going in the direction toward the shore.\n<\/p>\n
JL: There\u2019s also just navigating the range of waves from small to medium to large.\n<\/p>\n
JM: That\u2019s another thing we teach: What do you do for small waves, medium waves and large waves?\n<\/p>\n
The first thing is, you never turn your back on the ocean. You never want to be surprised by a wave. So, you\u2019re always facing the direction that the waves are coming from. Even if you\u2019re visiting or chatting. You have at least your peripheral vision in that direction.\n<\/p>\n
If you have small waves, you just bend your knees and let the wave pass by you. It\u2019s maybe somewhere between your ankles and your mid-shin. You just let it pass by you.\n<\/p>\n
If you have medium waves, you\u2019re still facing the waves and you want to jump. So you jump up, and then you land back down with two feet. That\u2019s jumping over the waves.\n<\/p>\n
If you get to larger waves, you take a deep breath, hold your breath and go under the wave and let it pass over you, and then you come up after that.\n<\/p>\n
JL: What about the nonswimmer trying to enjoy the ocean?\n<\/p>\n
JM: Well, this is life jacket time. The thing about life jackets is they need to be fitted properly. An ill-fitting life jacket can be even more dangerous than not having a life jacket, to some degree.\n<\/p>\n
A life jacket that is too big is going to rise up and cover your mouth and your nose. And if it\u2019s too small, it\u2019s not going to provide enough buoyancy for you.\n<\/p>\n
Life jackets are designed to keep the body vertical in the water so that you can breathe and be buoyant in the water. Sometimes they\u2019re designed to keep you on your back. They\u2019re not designed to help teach swimming. That\u2019s not what life jackets are for. They\u2019re really for boating. That\u2019s what they\u2019re approved for. U.S. Coast Guard-certified life jackets are approved for boating.\n<\/p>\n
JL: You make it sound very easy.\n<\/p>\n
JM: It\u2019s not easy. That\u2019s the whole thing, right? People are just taught almost from, you know, the dad or an uncle or the mom. You know, it\u2019s just really kind of word of mouth, and it might not be right. It might be right. So, I think we\u2019re trying to create more legitimate and bona fide information about how to handle surf, waves and rip currents.\n<\/p>\n
JL: Jennifer May of Water Ready Swim School, have a great, safe summer.\n<\/p>\n
JM: Thank you so much. You too.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jennifer Lynn: What does being water ready mean in the most basic way? Jennifer May: Being water ready…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,62794,18527],"class_list":["post-211749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-swimming","tag-water-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}