It is not on every holiday that you find yourself involved in the rescue of a drowning man.
Our son, who lives in Chandler’s Ford, was enjoying a holiday at Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight. Relaxing after day visiting nearby children’s attractions with his four-year-old daughter, he heard cries for help. From his flat overlooking the sea he could see a man in deep water out beyond the breakwater waving, calling for help and in distress. Already another man was swimming towards him with the life buoy which was provided nearby.
The rescuer himself had been swimming for about an hour and was already fatigued and cold. His strength and endurance was beginning to fail. Our son scrambled along the rocks that form the break-water to the end and into the sea. He was able to grasp the drowning man and carry him over the rocks to the shore. The man was only partly conscious and could not answer questions properly. He was carried to the road where first aid was applied.
Ambulance or Coastguard?
The owner of the local pottery shop had already called the coastguard but when she saw that the man had been pulled ashore she called for an ambulance instead. After 20 minutes the ambulance arrived and took the still part-unconscious man to hospital in Newport. Standing nearby were the man’s wife and small daughter. They did not seem to be fully aware of the seriousness of the situation.
The man, aged 29, was a holidaymaker and a non-swimmer. He had gone out surfing on a polystyrene body board which he used as the flotation device when he was out of his depth. During his adventures in the surf the strap connecting the body board to his ankle broke and the body board drifted away in the current and wind.
Left without his buoyancy aid, the man began to flail around and by the time help has arriving his head was dropping beneath the surface. His breathing was impaired and he was losing consciousness. By the time he was brought to shore, he was shocked and unable to do anything for himself but was still breathing.
There was a satisfactory outcome but it was a close thing. It was just the sort of story that the local press or the Daily Mail would have loved to fill a few of their column inches.
Can you Swim?
The UK is supposed to have a scheme whereby all school children should be able to swim 25 M by the age of 11 years. I wonder how successful this is.
Print 
PDF
My Cousin has a holiday flat near Bonchurch, so this drew my attention.
Thankfully, the outcome seems to be a good one.
In answer to your question Mike, No, I never managed to learn to swim properly, despite my interest in boats!
Our school gave us swimming lessons (Back in the late 1950’s/early 1960’s). However, I was then nervous in the water, & took longer to get any confidence, & was therefore ignored by the teacher who gave up on me, & encouraged those who had learnt to swim!
Hopefully the teaching these days is better !
Wen I was a schoolboy, one of the little ones refused to get into the pool. He had been brought up in India and taught never to go in the water or crocodiles would get him. He screamed and screamed but the teacher threw him in anyway, poor lad.
Me, against the odds I won a diving competition.
Glad the outcome was a happy one. My better half was deterred from swimming by a teacher holding his head under the water! Not a great way to encourage a love of swimming!! However, our son took to the water like the proverbial duck so maybe some things have got better? I hope so.
Two of my granddaughters, aged 13 and 12, had lessons at school but have not learned to swim. They are confident in the water, especially underwater, but seem to sink like stones when they try to swim with their heads above water.
Luckily I managed to learn swimming at university 25 years ago and have enjoyed swimming since. However it’s disappointing that our local pool length is only 25m and it is not that inspiring to me as an experienced swimmer. (I love swimming in a 50m pool as standard.) My son learnt swimming in a small group like most kids do many years ago, but it didn’t work for him as he spent most of the time by the pool side, as they had to take turn to swim. In the end I found someone to teach him one-to-one, and he managed to swim in a very short span of time.
Well written Michael and you must be very proud of your son. Good for him – it sounds as though it was a very challenging recovery.
The point about swimming lessons is well made.