Well if they couldn?t swim and we?re standing on the bottom, coming across a steeply sloped section of pool bottom leading to a deeper zone could well give the appearance/effect of being ?sucked towards the centre?.
I suspect that they *couldn?t* actually swim but the wife is hoping to find someone else to blame, possibly for financial gain or just unable to recognise/admit that they were responsible for their own deaths.
Tim
How much difference that makes swimming, I wouldn't like to say. I also know fat people tend to be less dense than thin people and I know that I sink if I breath out and float if I breath in.
Still a banal comment like that is probably enough to get you cast out of polite society, even if you do couch it in terms of originating from a black friend.
Many years ago my boss was black (the word he used himself). We had a swimming pool a couple of minutes walk from the office, and I used to swim every other lunchtime. One day I got back, and he mentioned that he could happily sit on the bottom of the pool - something I just can't do.
The lack of any African swimming record holders suggests there is something in it.
Bearing in mind we'd probably be a bit taken aback if the 100m world record were to ever be held by a white person ....
I don't know anyone who describes themselves as "of colour" ...
When my (white) son was about nine, he had swimming lessons. He could quickly swim very well, and got bored during lessons.
One day the instructor noticed he was missing. Panic. Even more so when she noticed he was sitting on the bottom of the pool, quite calmly.
Surest way to annoy a friend we have who is "black, black and black again" as she puts it.
Does 'pink' count?
I don't float. Heavy bones or something.
>
If I keep perfectly still (almost impossible because the drown-proof reflex makes you move your arms and legs) I sink. It was my party trick at school: clasp my arms round my knees (to stop the reflex action) in the deep and and I'd sink to the bottom, bounce and rise to about 3 feet below the water. If I lie on my back, even perfectly still, however, my chest floats and my legs sink to about 45 degrees. I'm not sure why the difference in posture (flat on back versus clasping arms round knees) affects the buoyancy.
Interestingly, my ability to float/sink is unchanged, even though I was thin and wiry at school and I'm now a bit more portly. You'd think that different fat distribution would affect things more than it does for me.
Hotel pools are frequently not deep enough for diving (and this was described as a small pool), so perhaps 2m maximum. Even someone (adult) who cannot swim can push off the bottom multiple times, taking a breath and moving towards the side at each push.
SteveW
Interesting bit in this
Suggests grossly negligent training rather than an racial difference. Divers use weight belts and buoyancy aids that would compensate for any inherent differences in natural buoyancy due to muscle/fat ratio.
Tim
Less easy to do with a panicking drowning child or children clinging to your neck. The Spanish police seem pretty certain that it?s just a tragic accident and are closing the case.
Tim
Yes, the training was grossly deficient and the memoir says that.
The problem wasn?t that they sank, the problem was that they panicked.
Yep, I float but very low in the water. On my back virtually the only bit of me above the the water are my cheeks, nose and mouth. Breath out too far and I go under. As a kid I didn't like my ears going under, so would try and keep them out of the water which just made me sink...
Rod Speed snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com posted
If electrocution was the cause of the deaths, is it likely that the post-mortem failed to find evidence of it?
There has been a post-mortem, hasn't there? And an inquest?
On the Beeb news tonight it said that both father and son were over
6ft tall, a mere 10cm shorter than the maximum depth of the pool (sorry for the mixed units - it's what the Beeb said). They also showed a picture of the pool, now drained and empty, with a grille in the centre.
People, mostly young men, die every time we have a heat wave when they jump into a lake to 'cool-off' and don't realise how cold the water is until it is too late.
People who swim in unheated lidos generally know their limits.
I go kayaking a lot. There are on average, 2 kayaker/canoe deaths a year on UK water due to drowning. One that I had a first hand report from (around 30 people saw it) was a guy drowning in 3 foot of water. It was a rapid, and he was being tossed about in one spot, but, he just either didnt think straight enough to stand up, or push away from the danger spot. When I started, I was told if you swallow/breathe in one mouthful of water, then you may be OK,if however, having taken in one mouthful, you're coughing away, and cannot really do anything else, you then take in another mouthful, then it is a 90% chance of drowning, as you'll have water in your lungs, and it isnt easy to get it out yourself.
If the reports are true, first child went in, got into difficulty, 2nd child then went in trying to save 1st child, the 1st child will just grab hold of child 2, and drag him/her down. Father then jumps in, and the same happens, he is trying to hold both of them, takes in a mouthful of water, and he is really struggling to save himself, nevermind 2 others.
We are always taught to not go near to anyone in difficulty unless we are totally safe ourselves, as they will grab on anywhere, and can take you down with them.
I really don't see how one can get electrocuted in a swimming pool. The swimming pool water will be more conductive than the bodies floating around in it so most of any current that there is will go through the water rather than through the bodies.
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