A high percentage of drowning deaths occur in "spontaneous" situations where the victim had not actually intended to get wet. These tragedies actually underscore the value of our hobby. What appears to be just fun and a good overall experience, also builds strength and stamina, and could save your life one day.

Please remember these important points:

Supervised practice by any reasonable swimmer is recommended. Safety and preparedness are important and can be practiced! The Boy Scouts of America teach buoyancy wet clothing techniques as part of the Lifesaving Merit Badge. That is one of the required MBs for Eagle Scout.

Safety Considerations

At first forget that old story: Clothes don't pull you down in the water. They merely cause more inertia. Wet clothes cause no illness directly, bad discipline does. Watergames in winter, swimming during a thurderstorm, and the like are dangerous.

By swimming in clothes teenagers can get a feeling for what one day could be important to save themselves or others. To teach the basic elements of lifesaving, first aid and water safety is our job.

Clothes avoid sunburn and injuries. To take young people into bright sunlight without a sun cover is irresponsible. We all know of the skin cancer this causes. You also see often barefoot kids between broken bottles and sharp drink cans. It seems some parents accept serious injury more than wet clothes.

1. Never Swim alone or when cold. If you are not a good swimmer go with other properly trained swimmers.
2. Know the area of water before entering it. Do not jump into an unknown water head first. This would be a quick way to become paralized.
3. Know your physical/mental limits.
4. Don't swim for at least an hour after meals.
5. Don't swim after drinking alcohol.
6. SLIP-SLAP-SLOP
   1. SLIP on a tee shirt and other clothes
   2. SLAP on a hat
   3. SLOP on some sun cream
   Watch out for heat/sun stroke or hypothermia, both in the water and out of it.
7. Listen to your LIFEGUARDS and follow their advice. Try to keep to beaches patrolled by lifeguards and take notice of any warning signs or flags.
8. If you get into difficulty remain calm, float on your back and raise one arm to attract attention
9. When you see someone in trouble, contact a LIFEGUARD or dial 999 (in Britain) and ask for the COASTGUARD
10. If you get caught in a riptide do not fight it but swim parallel to the shore until you can get in.
11. Bodyboarders, stay with your board and don't go out too far.
12. Don't take inflatables into the sea, you could be carried away by wind and tide.

1. Don't swim when the Red flag is flying.
2. Do swim between the Red over Yellow flags. Bodyboarders belong here too.
3. Surfers should stay between the black and white flags.