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…?
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I almost drowned once in a lagoon with FAIRLY calm water. I got carried away by the current to an awkward location / position so I had quite a lot to swim back to the shore without knowing if I’m against the current or not since I’m nowhere near a good swimmer.
After I managed to control my panic I would swim in bursts then lay on my back to rest.
While this kind of worked and it did help a few things happened:
1. You still need to put in some effort to float on your back as your legs usually sink. While being less effort than swimming, it’s still considerable effort that will drain you after a while.
2. Even small waves will wash over your face and you can’t really time your breathing since you can’t see anywhere except upwards.
3. A short burst of swimming was easily negated by the waves as I would be spun around and usually end up in another direction. This disoriented me every time and I had to expend more energy turning, looking around and then swimming again towards the shore.
I could maybe see this working for longer in really really calm waters but it’s probably even more problematic in fresh water, more so than salt water.
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