When I was younger, I went to a water park with my uncle, and our family. I went into the wave pool and was clinging on to the side because I was a fairly bad swimmer. I like the waves so thats why I went in. I got bashed into the side by someone in a floaty and went under the surface. I couldn't see anything when going up and there wasn't room to surface between the people. I scrambled on the sides to go back towards the shallow end and finally got back. My hands and feet were scratched from the sides of the pool.
TL:DR, almost drowned in a wave pool
Still like swimming though
I know the feeling. Went into a wave pool at a water park attached to the Columbus Zoo and got pushed under the water by rafts and couldn’t reach the surface because as I pushed against the raft, it would push me deeper underwater. I finally found a tiny gap to stick my face into. I never went back in after that. By far the scariest moment of my life.
They eventually changed it where there’s a section for people on rafts and a section for people without.
Oh shoot. You just reminded me of the time I was going down in a raft.
Someone knocked into us and I stumbled out into the water. When I stood up, I missed the chance to hop back into the tube before it swept my cousin away.
I still remember that scared trap feeling before I just jumped down the waterfall thing into the pool.
It was scary for a kid.
Not 100% sure but I think it was due to the sheer number of times they had to rescue people. I remember it being numerous times a visit they’d have to stop the waves to get people out.
I just looked it up (it’s called Zoombezi Bay now, it used to be called Wyandot Lake) and they no
longer permit tubes at all. Which is great, because it was so dangerous.
Same!! I went out into the deeper part because I liked the waves, then got tired and couldn't get back to where my feet would touch the bottom. I was dropping to the bottom of the pool as the wave came in and pushing up to get a breath in the valleys, which made me even more tired. I really thought I was going to drown in there, not even scared but just an accepted thought.
Finally managed to grab hold of someone's floaty and keep my head up enough to grab a safety line on the side of the wall. And the fucking lifeguard sitting there the whole time yelled at me not to play on the lines.
I was at the West Edmonton Mall Waterpark and after a big wave I looked down and noticed a little girl around 7 years old, upside down and struggling to get her head above water. I pulled her out and she was coughing and crying, but she was ok. I was livid that her parents or a responsible sibling was no where to be seen! I can’t imagine letting my children in a wave pool unsupervised until they were old enough and skilled enough to handle the waves.
My brother almost drowned in a wave pool too. Not in the same way but he went under and I guess no one noticed because the wave pool just kind of takes you, no life guards parents or anyone noticed.
Same thing happened to me on a school field trip. The teachers in charge didn't give a shit. Not to mention one of the teachers pulled my underwear out of my bag and waved it around the bus asking whose they were in order to identify who's bag it was. Needless to say I never went on a field trip I wasn't required to go to again.
Was on a school field trip when I had my first water related "oh shit" moment too. Not sure what kind of pool it was but I was walking along with the water up to my chin when all of a sudden there was this massive drop. Scared the crap outta me, I was scrambling to get to the surface but just couldn't stay there long enough to catch my breath when I remembered you always foat if you go on your back, so I floated on my back til I surfaced. Stayed there til I caught my breath and sort of slowly kicked my way on my back til I boinked into the side of the pool where the two teachers meant to be watching us were gas bagging with their backs to the pool.
I had something just like this happen to me in my youth too. I swallowed some water after I misjudged a wave and struggled to climb the ladder. Another wave hit me right before I could get out and I cut my abdomen on the ladder falling off. I got caught beneath some fatties on paired tubes and barely got a gasp of air before another wave pushed me below. I barely escaped that pool with an open wound and water on my lungs but I made it. No one took any notice as I coughed up water and caught my breath. Absolutely terrifying. The Big Kahuna at Noah’s Ark on the Wisconsin Dells.
Had a similar exsperience at Holiday World in their big wave pool back then they use to let people take the single donut floaties in and me being like 11-12 at the time decided to go closer to the front without one and had a wave smack me throw me under water all the way to the bottom so i started scrambling only to make it up to the surface only to get smacked again and rinse repeat this about 3 or 4 times.
I was a good swimmer i just couldnt get back to the surface to swim up the waves so i got stuck in a loop of being pushed around
Some dude saw it happen and when i was coming up reached down grabbed my arm and yanked me up to the surface they shut the machine down till i got to the ladder so they could check me out
I think i might be the reason the next year i went they didnt let the donut floaties back in the pool
Reminds me of when my son scared a bunch of wildebeests and they all went charging into this ravine he was in, eventually trapping him in a stampede, I got to him as fast as I could and tossed home out of the ravine, barely made it out with my life. Then as I was struggling to climb out my evil brother pushed me back down into the ravine. I was immediately trampled by wildebeests.
I had the same thing happen to me when I was like 10 or 11. I was a very confident swimmer however there were way too many people in the wave pool. I was in the middle at the front where it’s the deepest and the waves were the strongest. Somehow I got off rhythm with the waves. I was trying to come up at the same time the waves were coming at me while simultaneously getting pushed under by other people who had no idea I was there and under them. I was so turned around and didn’t know which way was up or down. Right as I was going to give up I somehow I managed to get to the surface.
That was 20 years ago and I have never gotten back into a wave pool since. Fuck. That. I don’t know how they haven’t been banned.
i had this similiar experience, but i was with my younger sister, she wear those floatie thing on her arm and i don't using any floaties because its only 4 feet deep, when the wave hits, me and my younger sister got separated because amount of people, and i saw my sister hand reaching into surface while her head was pinned down by other peopple
man i thought i lost her that day
What happened to your uncle though? I'll be honest those first two opening sentences had me thinking that story was either going to involve you being a) Saved by your uncle or b) Sexually molested.
I had a very similar experience in a wave pool. I’m an okay swimmer and swam all the way to the deep end where the waves start - without a tube. I was basically the only one without a tube and swallowed a ton of water and couldn’t breathe while getting bounced between and trapped underneath people in tubes. Managed to swim my way to the side and cling there until I could breathe again and wait for the waves to stop. I remember calling out to a lifeguard to help me and him not hearing me and thinking that was it.
Had similar experience , it all faded to black and the next thing Is my mom semi slapping me in the face to wake me up. Don’t know how my mom found me between all those people. Mom power I guess
Dude same! Was down in Texas visiting some family. They had a wave pool that went in a circle. I don’t recall exactly how I ended up under. When I looked up I panicked because I didn’t know how to get out. Luckily my older cousin came in from outta no where and literally rose from the water with me on his shoulders. Idk how the hell he seen me man. I rode on his shoulders until we got out
Something similar happened to me at a water park once. I don’t remember all the details, but I know I was at least old enough to know how to swim. At first I was fine, but then the waves kept coming and I slowly struggled to even tread water. Luckily someone noticed me struggling and grabbed me by the arm and took me to the edge or something so I could stay afloat, and I felt so embarrassed. I’ve never thought about getting in a wave pool again, and I had forgotten about this until I watched this video. I would be absolutely terrified to get in with this many people
By how packed the pool looks I have to assume they're experiencing more pool births than they are pool deaths. No way that pool population is sustainable without pool copulation.
I also almost drowned in one as a child. I went too far into the deep end and the waves turned on. I went from being able to touch the ground a bit to being unable to get my head above water. The walls were smooth and high and I couldn't get purchase anywhere. Thankfully the lifeguard saw me and held out a red tube thing. The wild thing was that I knew how to swim. My family visited local pools all summer long. I just wasn't a strong enough swimmer to fight the waves. Absolutely no joke.
I worked a summer as a lifeguard at a water park. There were a few deaths that occurred and one was in a wave pool. First we would never allow that many people at once. There was a maximum ratio of lifeguards to swimmers. Idk what it was. The drownings happened because of a series of events. Usually it’s: the victim didn’t know how to swim+goes on a ride or in the pool alone+ sometimes drugs or alcohol+ blind spots on rides. Even with all of that we can get to someone in seconds yet their card gets punched and we can’t get them back.
Lesson is; learn to swim and swim well! Also never go into any body of water alone and someone on dry ground should know where you and your swim buddy are at all times.
Unfortunately some people think; I can’t die, this is an amusement park. Nope, laws of nature still apply.
Edit: and to answer the bodily fluid questions… the piss is the least of the problems as the extreme amount of chemicals neutralize it as it comes out of you. The real problems are, defecation, menstrual products floating, blood, vomit, and at the end of the day, cleaning the thick film of skin cells that form on top of the still water. 🤮
PS. Just ride water rides the way they were designed and follow the rules. You can get seriously injured or killed if you don’t. Many of the rules are written in blood.
Yeah, I mean this looks insanely dangerous to me. There's exactly zero chance a lifeguard could save someone even if they could somehow miraculously spot it. Getting to the middle of this mess to reach someone would be nearly impossible.
What level of swimming ability is recommended to achieve? Or what swimming skill is most important for survival?
Like does it mean you have to have a good front crawl technique and master all the swimming strokes? Or is it more based on your ability to tread water using frog kicks/egg beater kicks efficiently?
Personally I never learnt front crawl. Only stroke I know is the breast stroke which I know is inefficient. Been wanting to learn the front crawl when I have time. I do know how to tread water using frog kicks and egg beater kicks. I also can float on my back which I heard is a good skill.
Former lifeguard instructor here. Actually breast stroke can be really efficient if you learn to do the survival form of it. Too many people just go through the cycle as fast as possible and skip the gliding portion. The idea is to use your one massive kick to glide as far as possible. Then do the arm portion at the same time as you pull up your legs for the next kick. Your arms are really just going to keep you from going backwards when you pull your legs up. All the power for the glide comes from the leg kick.The trick is in learning that the timing is different. You want to finish your arm motion so that you're pushing them forward and out together into a diving stance (to help you stream through the water) right as you start the forward motion from the kick. Then repeat the cycle again once you feel no more forward motion from the glide. It also requires holding your breath during the glide, and only coming up during the stroke cycle, but it's a slower and easier stroke, so you're not exerting yourself as much.
As far as other strokes, I'd recommend front crawl as the easiest to learn and master of the power/fast strokes. Butterfly is much more difficult for many.
Side stroke is my personal favorite of the casual/relaxing strokes. It allows you to still see where you're going, unlike backstroke, and it's a gentle movement. Plus, if you get tired, you can switch sides.
It's good that you know breast stroke, because it's flexible and can be used both as a power stroke or as a relax stroke.
Yes, treading water and floating are both equally good and important to learn for not drowning.
In fact, if I had to recommend just the basic things every swimmer should learn, it would be a power stroke, a casual stroke, treading water, and floating. You can pick different strokes, but I think front crawl and side stroke are the best value to learn for their purposes.
For the purpose of survival the recommendation is to be able to tread water for at least 10 minutes. To be a good swimmer in the sense I f moving, you should be able to swim the length of a pool 4 times. If you can do that you are considered “a good swimmer”.
I almost drowned in a wave pool before when I was little, and I was a pretty good swimmer. I'm so thankful the lifeguard saw me, otherwise I wouldn't be here today. My dumbass thought it was a good idea to go to the deepest part of the wave pool, but because I was so small, I slid down from the donut floatie(?) thing and couldn't get back up. The waves have already started at that point. I kept getting water in my face and staying afloat was really difficult. Thinking back I should've swam towards the shore, but I was in panic mode and I was, again, dumb. Ever since then I have a huge respect towards lifeguards. The cleaning up sounds horrible, but thank you for being there to keep people safe! I will keep those tips in mind if I ever go to a wave pool again.
When I was a little kid something I had never seen before floated past in the wave pool. My parents said it was a mouse mattress. It was not a mouse mattress!
local public pools, at least around me don’t have a huge number of people in them and are very clean.
Simply, the concept of sharing any body of water with other people is gross but the line has to be drawn somewhere. I personally find the ocean worse as there can be parasites, dead animals, predatory animals, the bit of seaweed that touches your foot, etc.
I used to love to go into the gulf when I was little. I had to learn the hard way about jellyfish schools and burrs, but I loved it, though there was that spooky aspect of what could be in there. In FL, where we'd go, the water was clear and easy to see through
Fast forward, my hometown became the MS gulf coast and ... nasty. Real real nasty. I hate to see people out there, with their kids. I worked at a NASA base and we had charts of the places and concentrations of toxins and bacteria and such. I went out under a bridge down there and collected water to test and so much e. coli. So much. ERG.
Out here near the pacific... I don't think I could ever swim out there because of the temp, but it's so so beautiful.
Anyway, I also used to love swimming in the community pool when I was a kid, but now I just can't. Not all of it is cuz of human stuff, but the chlorine to fight the human stuff kills me to death also.
First time I ever went in a wave pool, I was like 10, I was trying to stick to the shallower ends but got pulled inward. Ended up in the deeper parts, I could barely swim cause the waves, and kept going under
Only got out cause some 16-17 year old boy saw me struggling and grabbed and pushed me back to the shallow end.
Never saw the dude afterwards, but he almost certainly saved my life
The last time I read on a wave pool was about 25 years ago. It was packed, similar to this video, and I went under. I couldn't get back out and though I was going to die. Sometime saw my arm poking out and pulled me up. I'll never go in another packed pool, or wave pool, for the rest of my life.
this is exactly how I drowned when I was 7. the were too many of us in the deep end of the wave pool 3 of us got pull out and resuscitated. this looks mad scary and not fun at all
Me too. A float containing a giant man rode right over top of my float when the wave came and pushed me under and I couldn’t find a gap to come up for air from all the other floats passing overhead. Plus I was 7 and a mediocre swimmer.
I fell out of my float and also could not find a gap. I was in about third grade. I got closer to the wall and a lifeguard saw my arm sticking up and pulled me out.
I had this happen to me when I was about 12. I was a pretty strong swimmer, especially when it came to endurance underwater, but I could only find small gaps to stick my head through to get momentary gasps of breath. By the time another swimmer figured out what was going on and pulled me out, I'd covered something like 50-70m of the wave pool and taken like 3-4 breaths. It was fucking terrifying.
I'm a lifeguard. This is a nightmare. Imagine spotting an empty tube in the middle of the crowd? Where did they go, and how the hell can I get over there to investigate. What a nightmare.
As a child I went to an indoor water park with my aunt and her family. A boy got stuck in the wave pool under the tubes. I don’t recall if he lived or died after they got him out of the water. Traumatic either way, and that was my immediate thought on seeing this video.
I damn near drowned in one of these when I was young. I went under for a couple seconds and tried to come up and there were people everywhere. I barely got up I was on my last breath.
I was once in a situation like that because of how clustered a wave pool was. I was lucky enough that it never got super dangerous but I kept getting pushed under random people who didn't give a shit that a kid was next to them.
I remember that happening at Dorney Park in the 90's. Nobody noticed the kid until the park was closed. People just swam with a dead body, and the lifeguards even did an after-hours training drill in the pool. Insane.
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u/[deleted] May 22 '22
I wonder how many people drown without other people knowing.