By Foss Swim School
Whether its summertime swimming in a local lake or river, or a vacation that takes you to an ocean or other enticing body of water, swimming in open water can be fun, refreshing, and a great place to play, as long as you consider water safety. Mary Ann Best, an open-water coach with the non-profit Blue Flow Great Lakes, is a firm advocate of water safety training, and focuses especially on open water safety trainings.
“We want to encourage a culture where people get in and enjoy water safely,” Best said. “We’re trying to educate people about all hazards and about survival skills. How do you know when to go in safely? The shoreline is safer when people know what they are doing.”
Best has noticed a trend toward avoiding water rather than educating swimmers. Communities want to keep people safe, which is admirable, but to reduce risk, they have tended to limit access.
“We teach what are actual hazards, how to identify your own skillset, and how to decide what’s safe and what’s not for me,” Best said. She hopes to remove some of the fear around open water and replace it with knowledge and good judgement.
Safety Starts on Dry Land: Five Steps
The first layer of water safety knowledge is really universal and not specific to open water, Best says. In her training, she starts by going over all the things people can do to be safer around water long before they dip their toe in.
- Know Before You Go: Lake, ocean, pool or waterpark, start by researching from home where you are going, what conditions are like, and what safety precautions are present. “Are there lifeguards? Rescue equipment? For open water, what are the prevailing currents and what’s the bottom like? Different places have different rules about watercraft, rafts and inflatables,” Best said.
- Check the Weather: Wind and precipitation can affect swimming on open water or at the pool. Use your favorite app and adjust your plans as needed.
- Know Where You Are: Get the official name of the body of water and the place you are swimming, and an address or directions you can share. “I listened to several 911 calls and people don’t always know exactly where they are,” Best said. “If you don’t know, you can’t tell people to where to send help.”
- Agree on a Meeting Place: Make sure the entire party knows where to meet if they are separated. This can help quickly ascertain if they might be in the water.
- Discuss Conditions: As a group, everyone should look at local conditions. Point out how water is moving, what waves are like, and the apparent depth of water and location of sandbars and drop-offs. Learning to read the water is an important skill for open water swimming.
Hazards and Conditions in Open Water: Five to Watch For
For swimmers entering open water, Best teaches them to pay attention to five things and err on the side of caution whenever a hazard is present.
- Buoyancy: Especially going from ocean water to fresh water, knowing about buoyancy can help inform a safety evaluation. Knowing they can sink faster reminds swimmers they have to be proactive if they feel at risk.
- Waves: In large bodies of water, waves can knock a person off balance. On Lake Michigan, with waves coming every 3-5 seconds, a swimmer might be hit 200 times in 15 minutes. It can be tiring, even if the waves aren’t large.
- Uneven Bottoms: Holes or sudden drop offs can leave a person unexpectedly in deeper water and make keeping balance a challenge.
- Currents (including rip currents): Know how the water moves where you are swimming. A current parallel to shore may carry you far from your group. Rip currents, where surf flows back out through a narrow break, can sweep a person away. Places where streams empty into a lake also create outflow currents. Piers and other things jutting out create their own eddies and currents that are unpredictable. Best says, “Stay Clear of the Pier.”
- Lack of Knowledge: The final danger is risky decisions by a swimmer, often caused by a lack of knowledge. Avoid creating false confidence in poor swimmers, and instead advocate for good self-awareness and being cautious. Remind them that things look closer than they are in a big body of water. And remind them, if you aren’t sure – don’t do it!
Swim lessons and safety techniques always help
Of course, swim lessons are still one of the best ways to improve water safety. Best also teaches swimmers to alternate front and back swimming – at FOSS we call it “swim-flip-swim” – to get to safety and avoid tiring. Knowing when to use life jackets and what to do if a person is in distress is also crucial.
