With summer on the horizon, for many families it’s swimsuit shopping season. This year, make a choice that’s not only stylish, but also helps swimmers be safer by choosing bold, visible colors that don’t camouflage easily in a pool, lake or other body of water.
Natalie Livingston, co-founder of Alive Solutions, is an aquatic safety consultant serving pools and aquatic centers, insurance companies, and others with a professional interest in water safety. She has conducted a range of tests showing the visibility – or lack thereof – of swimsuits under a variety of conditions to educate parents and hopefully influence purchase decisions.
“As a drowning investigator, you hear so many people say they saw something underwater, but they dismissed it because they thought it was a shadow, or a towel, or a pile of leaves,” she says. “Having a bright color can make a person look twice.”
In choosing her own kids’ suits, she recalled from her time as a lifeguard the way certain colors pop while others seem to disappear underwater, blending in with background colors or obscured by the constantly moving reflections on the water’s surface.
Test 1: Pool Visibility in 3 Feet
Natalie tested 14 different swimsuit colors in a pool, showing how they appear in three feet of water, with a still and agitated surface. While many dark colors were visible against the blue-bottomed pool, they would be easier to dismiss as shadow or debris, especially when their profile is broken up by surface agitation, and their apparent size possibly altered by refraction. The most visible? “Neon orange, neon green, bright yellow and hot pink,” says Natalie. “Think 1980’s colors.”
Pool Test Results
(Images courtesy of Alive Solutions)
Test 2: Lakewater Visibility in 18 Inches
A follow-up test in 18 inches of lake water confirmed those results, although the pink was less visible. With a dark bottom, dark colors disappeared completely. While lake clarity differs and reflections change with the sky, in this case everything disappeared in two feet of water.
Lakewater Test Results
(Images courtesy of Alive Solutions)
Test 3: Patterns and Prints
Natalie received many questions about how patterns affect visibility, inspiring her to conduct tests using a range of colors, each with different print variations: small or large, with light or dark patterns. Small patterns had little effect, but large patterns (especially dark ones) tended to reduce visibility; the pattern broke up the shape like much like a camouflage print.
Pattern Test Results
(Images courtesy of Alive Solutions)
No Color can Substitute for Close Attention
It’s vital to remember that the first rule of water safety for kids is to have a responsible adult offering close observation any time kids are in or near water. “If you have on a bright color and nobody is watching, it doesn’t help,” Natalie stresses. “But in those cases where the unexpected happens, anything to help draw attention is good.”
In addition to the blog on Alive Solutions, where you can read Natalie’s original pool water visibility, lake water visibility and pattern visibility posts, she also offers her quarter-century of aquatic safety experience to parents and individuals through Facebook groups, including Aquatic Safety Connection (a great resource for any FOSS family.)
As you prepare for a summer of fun in the water, we hope this helps you make smarter, safer choices. Spread the word and we’ll see you at the pool!
