Swimming for Survival

We all know that New Zealand is not only surrounded by water, there are also many rivers, lakes and pools. It's therefore really important that we learn water safety skills so that we can manage to get ourselves out of danger, should we fall into the water or get caught in a rip.

Lynley, from Drowning Prevention Auckland, visited Sunnyhills School to support both the learners and teachers with water safety skills. These skills included survival strokes (which are quite different to the usual swimming strokes) that conserve energy, flotation with life jackets and sculling.  We also used paddle boards to create turbulent water and then tried to swim through it.  This was really hard!

The favourite activity for most of us was creating a whirl pool. It was always a lot of fun to move in a circle as quickly as we could, then put our feet up to float down the 'rapid'.

Creating turbulent water