Seems like you can float on your back forever, without really getting tired. When people drown in lakes or oceans, why can’t they just float until someone rescues them? I get it if you’re wearing clothes heavy with water, but if you were already swimming, or at least dressed for it…?
In: 851
I think the basic flaw in the thinking is that you do get tired even when floating. It is not nearly as tiring as actively swimming, but few people can truly float, without any movement at all, without some minor hand or leg movement. Advanced swimming and lifesaving courses require demonstrating the ability to float for an extended period of time because it isn’t actually totally effortless. And they do that in a calm pool usually where they do not have to fight waves.
The most stable position for most people is called the “dead-man’s float”, which is where the person is face down in the water and the high point is the air-filled lungs, but this requires holding the breath and periodically raising the face above water every minute or so. It is a very low energy, last-ditch method, perhaps most useful in agitated waters where the person would be fighting to get the face above water basically constantly anyway. Going totally loose for a minute at a time (relax all muscles and just go where natural ballast will take you, at or slightly beneath the surface), with a brief arm/leg kick and head push to get air, can be less effort in some situations.
A person with a reasonable level of fitness and some idea of how to do it almost effortlessly can float for many hours and avoid drowning, definitely. However, everyone has to sleep eventually and few people can go a full day without sleep. Unless you are in extremely quiet water, you won’t keep your face out of the water without interruption unless you are actively making sure of it. Failure is inevitable, a matter of when more than if.
Toss in loss of body heat to the water, and fatigue and inability to keep your face above water so you can breath because extremely difficult with passage of time.
Also, having clothes when falling in on can be useful. Take off your shirt and pants, tie off the ends of the arms/legs, fill the inside with air, and wet clothes can be used as a make-shift flotation device. Not a great one, but better than nothing at all. Another advanced swimmer training method.
Latest Answers