Flutterby™! : Drowning 2010-06-29 15:52:53.221699+00

Drowning

2010-06-29 15:52:53.221699+00 by Dan Lyke 1 comments

Drowning doesn't look like drowning. When I was learning whitewater, one of the hardest reflexes to overcome was the "oh shit, I'm going underwater, breathe!" reflex, because it got me into a cycle where I was trying to breathe against the waves, rather than with them.

The reflexive action that this article describes sounds exactly like that: Someone looking like they're breathing, because they're gasping when they surface, but that's air going out, not in.

This is your PSA for the day.

When I was in what the article describes as "aquatic distress" and what I describe as "I nearly drowned," I learned firsthand some of the points in this article. Once I got back to shore safely and my brain had time to reflect, I was surprised how much it was not what I expected. It was an interesting experience, and not one I would care to repeat.