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Survival Swimming on the Beach
Part of your lifeguard training may be to get used to the wild outdoors. When the weather is wet and rainy, put on your adventure clothes and go for a run, swim, or cycling trip. Do not swim alone. Take a few friends along. It's more fun too.
The beach has a few more challenges than the pool, like waves, wind, tides, and underwater obstacles. Go to a lifeguarded beach, tell the lifeguards that you will swim in your clothes and where you go. We recommend you stay close to shore. There is no reason to swim out far.
Recommended Clothing:
T-shirt, jeans, hoodie or anorak, robust socks and shoes.
Wade in carefully. Watch out for underwater rocks.
Wade in chest deep. Notice how your clothes soak up water and get heavy to move. Footballers use this effect to train their leg muscles.
Now lay back and float. Clothes slow you down, but won't pull you down. Water weighs nothing in water.
Start wading around. Feel the resistance of waterlogged clothes. This is important to remember when you climb into boats.
Practice swimming forward and backward. Breaststoke works best when swimming in clothes. Front crawl is not much faster but wears you out quickly.
When you get out, wave surges can push you over. Keep an eye on the waves near the shore. Dumpers can catch you out.
Shallow water running in wet clothes can be quite tough. Practice this often to get fit.
Are you cool enough to swim outdoors fully clothed?