I note there’s been a spate of sad events round the UK beaches over the past few days. Okay, not actually the beach, more that wet stuff that washes over beaches a pair of times a day.
How many drownings now? Not sure, but there were five on one day, one group, and any moment now the safety nuts will be cancelling their summer holidays and scamper back to their keyboards, TV and radio studios and the newspapers to vent their disgust that the government isn’t doing more towards beach and water safety. They’ll be screeching that some legislation, some legally binding rules and regulations are needed NOW. Sadly, they’ll more than likely get wot they want.
Some of these deaths will undoubtedly be the result of tragic accidents. The key word there being ‘accidents’, while others may well be down to stupidity and it’s impossible to legislate against stupidity. If it was possible, we wouldn’t have a government, right?
Anyhoo, memories came flooding {pun?} back of my life spend on the water. The operative word there is ‘on’ by the way.
I’ve been here before, but just to recap, at pre-sea school they attempted to teach me to swim but didn’t really get there and once on man’s boats, I quickly realised that the vast majority of fellow seafarers didn’t swim either as they had no interest, in the event of a sinking, in treading water in the middle of the western ocean for days. Sink, drown and get it over with was their philosophy.
The ‘rules’ to best avoid accidents on the beach, the rocks and in the sea are pretty simple and, for past generations, pretty obvious. They most definitely didn’t need any safety regulations to ‘enforce’ them.
If the sea is calm and you want to get in it but can’t swim, stop wading when the water reaches your knees. If you can swim a strong hundred meters and fancy a swim, don’t go any further out from the guy paddling than twenty five meters and as an added obviousness, only go out there swimming on an incoming tide. If you’re playing on rocks, stay on the land/lee side of them; They rocks are slippery suckers and damn hard an’ sharp when the sea’s repeatedly whacking you against them. And the best rule of all? If it’s blowing and the sea’s a tad rough, watch it and enjoy the majesty of a stormy sea from the comfort of the seafront pub. Who knows, they may be serving gammon, egg, chips with a pineapple ring...
As an added watery, safety memory, I remembered this wot I posted some time ago. Compare and contrast with our ‘modern’ worldly ways.
There’s also a great post over at Readwald relating to ‘us’ vs the bansturbators and their risk aversion industry.
Everything has an element of risk attached to it and luckily we’re all, okay, most of us, blessed with the means to evaluate and manage those risks. In it’s simplest form it’s called ‘engage brain to avoid pain’. If only there was an app for that...
Quote; Frederick Weisel.
“There’s an old adage: the sensation of drowning reminds you of everything you ever knew about swimming.”
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