The importance of saying “this is a stupid idea”

[THE STIFFMEISTER 16,350]

I’ve always held the train of thought that if you are truly friends with a person , you can call them out for being a prat. Personally I’d never side against a mate whatever , especially in public but This weekend has shown what I would say and dig at is to be proved . 
 

I hate this time of year as not too long ago I had the honour or misfortune of carrying a very dear friend of mine and a top top lad into a church purely on a misjudged action and what I Would term as a lack of bottle .
My mate died swimming across a river pissed at night in a group of very weak swimmers. When I was a child i was at the local river when a big strapping lad was pulled under and killed and saw my cousin and other older lads frantically attempting to find him. 

In both occasions no one said “this is a f***ing stupid idea” 

yesterday I had a busy day and was up and about early , I was with the kids myself on the beach and back by dinner. Last night I saw in the news that a teenage lad was killed in the sea not far from where we were. This morning I read of another young life lost in my home town in a river I spent days in as a kid. 

hindsight is a great reflection , but I am forever grateful that my mother stressed the importance of and paid for my swimming lessons as I kid . I am a very strong swimmer , to the point I can push a mile out in the water without any effort really as I’m massively comfortable with breathing in the water , evonomy of stroke etc. 
 

if you have a teen , please get them into a pool , or if yourself aren’t great , adult swimming is great for your all round fitness. Get in the pool and get better . 
 

this weather , alcohol and bravado and the water creates a perfect storm for life changing events . I grew up next to a river and every couple of years a lad would die there. I never ever thought that I’d be there next to my superior handing a Union Jack to a soldiers mother and it wasn’t from the battlefield . 

Instead it was through something entirely avoidable. 
 

Get online and learn cpr, learn how to life save someone from the water . 
 

we are an outside community and are often around rivers , seas and cliffs . 
 

if your child was in the water , could you do everything you can to save them? 
 

As that person struggling is someone’s child , someone’s friend , someone’s family . 
 

please don’t get in the water if your not capable. 
for my pals sake . 
 

 

 

[tb25 4,627]

Took my son away last week and the amount of very young kids in the sea unsupervised was mind blowing.as we was having a pint I could here mothers wondering were there kids were..they never even got up..just sat there drinking.

[Ken's Deputy 4,460]

5 minutes ago, tb25 said:

as we was having a pint I could here mothers wondering were there kids were..they never even got up..just sat there drinking.

Those McCanns just never learn ...

[jigsaw 11,899]

If your child was in the water , could you do everything you can to save them? 

 I'm close to 60,can't swim,very uncomfortable in water over 3 ft deep....took 2 classes to learn,resolved to the fact I'm never going to learn now....to answer the question above....I'd fail miserably..sad but every summer there's loss of life through drowning...

Edited July 18, 2021 by jigsaw

[Greyman 29,228]

Lady drowned near me last night, alcohol, sun and water happens every time for as long back as I can remember sadly  

[Blackmag 6,124]

Some of the tides and currents depending were you are  are taking you further out regardless how strong a swimmer you are just walk in a small channel when the tides going out only needs to be a foot deep  you will feel just how strong it is against your legs I would think cold water  plays a big part this time of year and how your body reacts it 

[cragman 2,791]

As a reservoir keeper I see this kind of thing quite often. A young lad drowned in one if our reservoirs a few years ago and his mates continued to dive in from a tower while the police were still looking for him! Totally senseless and what a waste of a young life. I’m half expecting to have a call out over weekend telling me something similar has happened. A river, reservoir, canal or the sea, it doesn’t matter, keep out if you’re not capable

[Born Hunter 17,828]

Heartfelt post.

I tried swimming lessons again a few years ago and I felt like technically my stroke really improved. But it didn’t translate into a yard more in distance. I’d love to swim weekly but I suppose I’m just not cut out for it.

Now I suppose this is stupid but I look forward to summer days finding quiet bays and coves for a solitary snorkel and spearfish at. Maybe one day I’ll drown and in those last moments be thinking how f***ing dumb I am or maybe fate is on my side and my judgement will be enough.

I often wonder if it’s a skill I needed to perfect as a child?

[THE STIFFMEISTER 16,350]

9 minutes ago, cragman said:

As a reservoir keeper I see this kind of thing quite often. A young lad drowned in one if our reservoirs a few years ago and his mates continued to dive in from a tower while the police were still looking for him! Totally senseless and what a waste of a young life. I’m half expecting to have a call out over weekend telling me something similar has happened. A river, reservoir, canal or the sea, it doesn’t matter, keep out if you’re not capable

That’s absolutely disgraceful mate 

[riohog 5,790]

learning to swim is a must do ,i have a 7 year old grandson he has been swimming for two years  ,,good lad 1  it might just save his life one day!!!

[Bosun11 537]

Thats a sad but great and important post mate

Swimming first and formost should be taught as a life skill....

It is essential that ALL children are taught and taught well. To me, i see it as every parents duty to put their children through quality swimming lessons, that should last throughout their school years.

I've been Lifeguard trained for 40 years, worked for the Inshore Rescue on the Mersey and sadly have witnessed some real tradgedys from poor and none swimmers.

[socks 32,253]

Taught all my kids to swim from a very young age and now my grandson is over here I will be teaching him when he’s older enough …..

[dytkos 17,841]

Myself, my kids and my grandkids were all taught to swim by parents before 5/6 year old. An essential life skill as has been stated by others.

Cheers, D.

[SheepChaser 8,089]

You touched on another important thing there as well mate - every one, and I mean EVERYONE should learn first aid and cpr. 

[pesky1972 5,364]

This weather always gets people in the water, and then we have the inevitable deaths that follow. Some poor guy was fished out of Thriepmuir reservoir near Edinburgh today.

You can (and should) teach your kids to swim, but they’ll still make stupid decisions. Your only hope is they get to live and learn from them.
In my early twenties, after a night spent in the boozer, a pissed up group of us decided to jump off the bridge in Grantully on the river Tay. It’s not particularly high, but the river runs very quick there (the rapids above are used by the Scottish canoe slalom team for training). One of the group knew the river and told me to swim to the bank as soon as I got in, to avoid the next rapid below. Off I went, but I’d gone too far over and even though I swam for the bank, missed it and went over the next fall. It was pitch dark, and I’d lost any sense of direction. I managed to swim to where I could stand and get out, but there was a minute or two before where I thought, I’ve totally fcuked up here. I’d like to think I wouldn’t do it again, but what shocks me most now is that after I walked back to the bridge I egged on mates to jump off, and proceeded to ridicule the ones who ‘bottled it’. I put it down to the folly of youth and the drink, and count myself lucky that I didn’t drown, or have a mate drown that night.