Category

Swim Safety

Jul 29
0

Residential Pool Safety Tips for Your Summer Fun

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With the beautiful weather in Southern California, many of us use our pools nearly year-round. Summer can come up quick for many families, and it is easy to forget about proper safety precautions for the pool area. Before the next time you spark up the barbecue and gather the kids to enjoy some summer fun around the pool, be sure you have done all you can to keep your family and visitors safe.

Pool safety begins before anyone enters the water. At the beginning of each summer season, it is essential to inspect the entire pool and surrounding areas for potential hazards.

  • Inspect the pool fence and gate – every pool should have a secure fence with childproof gate surrounding it. Replacing any faulty or damaged elements can help to keep unsupervised children from accessing the pool.
  • Inspect the deck and pool area – check the pool liner, metal supports (for above ground pools), and deck area for any hazards, including raised nails and sharp edges.
  • Install an alarm – if you often have small children on your property, whether a part of your family or just from the neighborhood, installing an alarm on the pool can be a lifesaving safety feature.
  • Secure pool chemicals – especially if the homeowner does not currently have children in the house, it is easy to forget to lock up the pool chemicals before inviting guests over for summer fun.
  • Check the lifesaving devices – as you pull out the lawn chairs and beach umbrellas from storage, make sure your pool lifesaving devices are in good condition and are easily visible.

Party Time – Pool Safety Tips

As the summer fun begins, pool safety is an important issue. These tips can help to ensure your family and guests have fun without risking injury.

  • No one swims alone – even for experienced swimmers, swimming alone can pose a significant risk. It is especially essential to never leave children unattended in the pool area.
  • Protect inexperienced swimmers – to ensure their safety, inexperienced swimmers should only be allowed in the pool area with someone who has the skills to perform a water rescue.
  • No glass allowed – remember that one broken glass can cause a cutting-hazard for the remainder of the season.
  • Use caution with electricity – by ensuring stereos and other electrical equipment are protected from water, you reduce the risk of electrical shock. Additionally, make sure to only use GFCI (ground-fault circuit interrupter) outlets outdoors.
  • Be aware – the most important tip for pool safety is to be aware of what is happening in and around your pool.

If you are interested in learning CPR and First Aid, Premier hosts certification classes every Wednesday and Saturday. Register for your CPR and First Aid Classes here.

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Jul 22
39

5 Swimming Skills Every Child Should Know

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Across the country and especially in Southern California, many children are exposed to the water on a regular basis. In the summer, it is even more common. While this is exciting for children, it can be scary for parents. After all, we want our children to be safe at all times.

It is important to always have a capable adult actively supervising children near water, but it is also essential to give your children the skills they need to be comfortable and competent in the water.

Here is a list of skills that every child should have to be safer near the water.

Getting in and out of the pool safely.

It may seem like common sense to adults, but entering and exiting the pool safely is one of the first skills a child must learn. In order to avoid injury and build confidence, young children are taught how to sit and ease themselves into the water. Even more importantly, children are taught how to easily get themselves out of the pool.

Putting his or her face into the water and controlling breathing.

For small children, the thought of putting his or her face under the water and not being able to breathe can be quite scary. By teaching your child to control their breath and put his or her face under water without swallowing it, you are teaching your child an essential survival skill.

Floating on his or her back.

Especially for little swimmers, being in a pool can be exhausting. As children are learning to swim, it is important that they understand what to do if they have exhausted all of their energy before reaching the wall.

Swimming with forward motion.

Young children begin swimming forward with the “doggy paddle” because they have yet to learn how to be in the prone position. When a swimmer puts his or her face in the water, the legs naturally rise to the surface, creating a more efficient swimming position. With the face out of the water, the feet drop, creating significant drag. Teaching your child to swim in the prone position allows them to experience more forward movement with less energy – an important skill as they move toward being self-sufficient in the water. 

Treading water.

As children become stronger in the water, treading water becomes an essential skill for independence in the water. This skill not only makes the child safer in the water, but it develops incredible amounts of confidence.

Talk With The Experts About Your Child’s Swim Lessons

Premier Aquatic Services swim instructors use an exciting approach to help swimmers of all ages develop a love of the water. Our instructors are experienced with teaching all levels, whether it be helping beginners to be more comfortable in the water or training more experienced competitors on how to improve their stroke technique. To learn more about our swim lesson programs and register your child for summer and fall classes, visit our aquatic services page.

 

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Jul 01
0

Recognizing The Quiet Signs Of Drowning

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In the movies, a drowning person responds to his or her situation with waiving arms, violent kicking, and screams for help. Therefore, many of us look for those signs when scanning the water for people in need.

However, it simply doesn’t look that way. In truth, when a person is drowning, they are battling to stay above water. Their arms are focused on one thing – swimming. With panicked short gasps and fight to keep water out of their mouths, their lungs are also focused on one thing – breathing.

The reality is that a drowning person may look more like they are practicing treading water than experiencing life-threatening trouble. Even worse, they may look as though they are simply enjoying the view of the perfect blue summer sky. This is the reason so many don’t recognize that someone is drowning until the person goes under water.

Understanding The Myths Of Drowning

Calling for help – A drowning person will not be able to call for help. He or she also will not be able to make play sounds or talk with someone. This can be an especially important sign with children. Know your children and how they play in water. If they are suddenly quieter than usual, investigate.

Waiving arms – Don’t look for waiving arms. Signaling for help is a voluntary movement, and drowning victims lose this ability. A person who is in trouble in the water will be instinctively using his or her arms to try to stay afloat.

Big splashes and kicks – Most drowning victims stay upright until they go underwater. Instinctively, their arms will be moving outward and downward, but because of the body’s instinctive drowning response, their legs often do not get the signal to provide the supporting kicks. Do not expect large splashes to be a sign of drowning.

Understanding The Signs Of Drowning

  • Uncontrolled arm movement – Arm movement will be outward and downward, but it will be uncontrolled.
  • Eyes are closed or glassy – The victim is experiencing an instinctive response and will not have the ability to logically analyze the situation to focus his or her sight on someone who can help.
  • Head tilted back with the mouth just above the water – The person may look more like they are enjoying looking at the blue sky than needing help.
  • Hair covering the face or forehead – A simple but important sign. People who are experiencing the threat of drowning lose the ability to perform voluntary actions, such as brushing the hair from their face.
  • Gasping or hyperventilating – They are struggling for breath both from their battle with the water and due to instinctive response within their body.
  • Trying to swim in a direction without going anywhere – It may look like he or she is stuck in a riptide. They may look like they are trying to swim somewhere, but they are not making any headway.
  • Turning onto their backs or float without leg movement – Many drowning victims will instinctively attempt to float, but without the essential leg movement that gets lost with the body’s instinctive drowning instinct, they will be unsuccessful.

Drowning can happen in as little as 60 seconds. Recognizing the first signs of trouble can mean the difference between a close call and a tragic event. When in doubt, always call out a simple question, “Are you okay?” If no answer comes, immediately provide assistance.

Talk With The Experts

Premier Aquatics Services provides our local community with lifeguard services, water safety trainings, and swim lesson programs. To ensure your guests’ safety, always remember to assign someone to watch the water at all times and hire a Premier Aquatics Services lifeguard for your next private party.

For more information on water safety, follow us on Facebook.

Mar 19
0

Premier Aquatic Services Teams Up With The Safer 3 Water Safety Foundation

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Drowning remains the leading cause of the death for children 1-4 years of age in Orange County and throughout California.

Drowning is also one of the top five leading causes of death among children under 17-years-old. This information is according to a study conducted by the Orange County Health Care Agency.

Around 64% of the drownings occurred in a pool or spa. The most tragic part of these statistics is that drowning is completely preventable.

That is why Premier Aquatic Services has teamed up with  Safer 3 Water Safety Foundation to help spread awareness about the dangers of drowning.

Safer 3 is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to saving lives through drowning prevention and water safety education.

The non-profit strives to educate the public about the three elements common in every drowning: water, people, and response.

Safer 3 Foundation has developed a comprehensive curriculum to address each element of drowning:

  • Safer Water: Participants learn to identify the risks depending upon the body of water and learn how to take preventive action to reduce those risks.
  • Safer Kids: This part of the curriculum teaches children and their parents the proper boundaries and rules around water. This includes tips like having an adult constantly supervise a child while swimming.
  • Safer Response: Classes outline emergency response techniques and stress the importance of learning CPR/AED and first aid techniques for parents.

Safer 3 also has developed a safety education curriculum for schools to teach children about water safety.

The company hosts annual events at swim schools across the country in the spring to promote drowning prevention.

To help spread awareness about the dangers of drowning, Premier along with the Safer 3 Water Safety Foundation and the Orange County Fire Authority will be hosting the first Orange County Drowning Prevention Task Force meeting.

Join us Thursday, March 19, for the inaugural Orange County Drowning Prevention Task Force meeting at the Aliso Viejo Aquatic Center at 5:30 p.m.

We will discuss how to eliminate the risks of drowning and teach attendees how they can keep their family safe around the water.

Last year was one of the worst years for drownings in Orange County. Let’s all do our part to prevent drowning.

Feb 26
0

3 Reasons To Make Your Next Workout A Swim Workout

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Pools can be used for a lot more than soaking up the sun and avoiding the heat on a hot summer day. For many people, the thought of swimming laps in a pool is far outside their comfort zone, but it shouldn’t be.

 

Swimming laps isn’t just for water polo players, swimmers and triathletes. Anyone that has access to a pool can swim a few laps and reap the benefits of a calorie burning total-body work out.

We have provided a list of three awesome reasons why swimming is for everyone, no matter what time of the year.

Cross Training

Swimming is great for cross training. There is very little impact on your joints and it also stretches your body as you swim- something we don’t get enough of. Swimming is a different workout from anything you will experience in the gym and it’s a great way to target muscles that are usually neglected.

If you are runner or weight lifter, swimming is a great low-impact workout to give your muscles and joints a break from the stress that is put on them each day.

Heart Health

Swimming is an excellent aerobic exercise. It forces your body into a breathing pattern by being face down in a pool. This forces your heart and lungs to process oxygen more efficiently and in return your heart muscle grows stronger.

Endurance and Core Strength

Swimming can help with endurance in other areas of physical activity such as running and biking. Swimming also helps establish better breathing patterns for other sports.

It is estimated that somewhere between 75 and 85 percent of all Americans will experience some form of back pain during their lifetime. Lower back pain is associated with having a weak core. Swimming helps strengthen your core because you use it to maintain balance while swimming laps.

It is never too late to try something new! Go ahead and take a dive into the pool.

We offer frogman classes for teens and adults looking to get into great shape, in and out of the water.

Feb 06
12

How to Help Children Overcome Their Fear of the Water

By | Blog, Swim Safety | No Comments

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At one point or another, most children are afraid of the water – especially putting their head under water. The earlier you expose your child to the water, the more it will help prevent them from fearing it.

Below are six steps to help your child conquer their fear the water.

Step 1:

Bring your child to the side of a pool without any water wings or flotation devices. These tools can give your child a false sense of security and will lead them to develop the habit of not going in the water without the aids.

Step 2:

Have your child touch the water and demonstrate to them that water is safe and won’t hurt them. You can also encourage them to splash the water to show them that water can be fun.

Step 3:

Have your child blow bubbles into the water using his or her mouth. You can do this by having them get into the water with you and showing them how to blow bubbles. If they are still afraid of entering the water, you can have them lay on the edge of the pool and blow bubbles without being fully submerged.

Step 4:

Playing games is a great way to get your child acclimated to the water. Start by throwing sinking toys into the shallow end of the water and having your child reach down to retrieve them. As they become more comfortable with the water, you can gradually throw them into deeper areas of the pool. Keep doing this until they are comfortable with putting their head completely under water to revive the toys.

Step 5:

Getting your child to float on their stomach or back can difficult. Start by providing support by placing your hand under your child’s stomach or back. As they begin to become comfortable with floating, remove your hand so that they are floating without assistance. Once they are comfortable with floating on their stomach, try adding in basic kicking and arm movements while you give them support by holding their stomach.

Step 6:

Stand close to the edge of the pool and have your child push off of the wall or jump into the water to you. After they have successfully reached you, back up a little and try it again. Take progressive steps backward until they are using basic kicking and arm movements to reach you.

Gradually your child will gain more confidence in the water, and once they properly learn how to swim they will be able to swim confidently in a pool on their own.

At Premier Aquatic Services, we specialize in acclimating young children to the water and teaching them to be safe swimmer. We even have parent and me classes for children younger than 3-year-old.

Learn more about the swimming programs we have available.

Jan 28
0

Drowning Risks for Children 5 and Under

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Most of the time, drowning is completely preventable, especially with young children. There are many resources available to teach parents and their children about water safety.

Parents often believe that the only way for a child to drown is in a swimming pool, but this is not true. There are other water hazards that your child faces, and it is important to know where your child is most likely to drown to help you prevent it.

Infants: 0 to 12 months

Bathtubs pose the greatest danger for infants less than a year old. Bath seats, even the ones with the suction cups, are not always safe. Babies are still prone to rolling or even falling out of the bath seat. Just because your baby can sit up in the bathtub does not mean it is safe to leave them alone.

Solution:

Do not leave your child alone in the bathtub until they have had swim lessons and can comfortably swim in a pool.

Children: 1 to 5 Years Old

Children one to five years old have the greatest chance of drowning in a swimming pool. Children often believe they can swim better than they actually can or are unaware of the depth of the pool.

Solution:

Enroll your child in swim classes as soon as possible. There are parent and me classes available for children younger than three years old. Once your child reaches three, they are often mature enough to enroll in private, or group swim lessons.

Set strict rules for your child to follow when they are around the pool, such as always having to have an adult present before your child enters the pool.

Drowning is Preventable

The water should be a place that both you and your child enjoy. It is important that you start getting your child comfortable with the water as soon as possible.

The best way to prepare your child for water safety is to enroll them in swim lessons. There are swim classes for children of all ages available.

Find one in your area today.