Name:   John C - Subject:   50 50 50 50 Date:   8/12/2019 6:31:32 PM

As a former lifeguard and Water Safety Instructor, the term "drown proofing" makes me cringe. No human can claim that and I think terms like that give a false sense of invincibility.

However, with good technique like what is linked you can exponentially help your chances. We used to call this "survival floating" which I think is a much more accurate term. Like any survival situation, the #1 thing is to not panic. Most people can't swim very far without fatiguging so consider going in to survival float pretty quickly. Even though Lake Martin's potential swim distances are really short compared to salt water, I would venture to say that most boaters I observe are not in any sort of shape at all. Recent studies estimate that 60% of americans are obese, so odds are that the average boater could not swim as far as they might think they can. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I had to swim any meaningful distance so I am sure I could not react as well as I would hope myself.

Another key that we stressed when I taught was transitioning from a high heart rate to the survival float. Last summer, for my children, as a practice run, I made them swim around and tread water for several minutes to get their heart rates up, then phase in to a survivial float. Practice helps.