Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, NOV, 10, 1948 MAKING SWIMMING SAFE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 18, 10 November 1948, Page 4

Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, NOV, 10, 1948

MAKING SWIMMING SAFE

In 1945, the Whakatane Amateur Swimming Club was formed, not so much with the idea of running competitive sport as with the object of making swimming a safer, more enjoyable relaxation for the many who could not swim properly, if at all. Since then, emphasis has be m on the “learn to swim” aspect of the Club’s activities, v and there is no doubt that it is filling a real need. It is considered by the Club that not more than 1 in every 5 people who go bathing can swim well enough to save their own lives in an emergency. That figure,, if anywhere near accurate, is alarming in a place like this where there are such splendid opportunities for the careless bather to get drowned. Ohope is probably one of the safest beaches in the North Island. It is certainly regarded as one of the best, but it has not been without its tragedies. Parts of our rivers are definitely not suitable for the type of bather' who plunges in and trusts to luck to struggle out. v Members of the Swimming Club have been performing a useful civic service these past few years,, perhaps without the public recognition their efforts have deserved.

Poliomyelitis restrictions curtailed their efforts last summer, but in the 1946-47 season the Club catered for a membership of 160, many of whom were learners.

Once again Club tutors , are making a big proportion of their spare time available to teach anyone from 4 years of age up how to swim. Officials have pointed out that early untrained strokes are of little use in a real emergency.

When one’s life depends upon getting the greatest possible propulsion out of every atom of energy one possesses, one does not want to be wasting precious effort on more or less aimless struggling,

And that is all too often what the untrained swimmer .does.

In fact, when movements of legs and arms are not properly co-ordinated, it is often possible for the one to tend: to counteract the other so that tne swimmer exhausts himse’f in frustrating his own efforts. How

different from the trained swimmer, wha moves with an apparently effortless grace,, a picture of confidently co-ordinated power ! , With the object of continuing its efforts on an even bigger scale this year, the Swimming Club has called a meeting of all interested at the Women’s Institute Hall tomorrow night. It should be well-attended.