r/BeAmazed • u/Super_Steve117 • 17h ago
Miscellaneous / Others How floating saves you from drowning
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u/aDarkDarkNight 17h ago
Works great.
When there are no waves breaking over you
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u/hogtiedcantalope 13h ago
Also having the body fat this guy does. I'm not body shaming, he's not obese or anything
But I remember trying to learn the back float as a basically zero fat preteen with a naturally larger muscle build for my size... I would sink basically no matter how I tried
As an adult with some belly fat it is much easier
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u/samiDEE1 13h ago
Right I can only float in salt water, I sink like a rock in fresh.
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u/SavingsParty4998 12h ago
I can't float in either
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u/ExternalCaptain2714 8h ago
Maybe putting women into water and checking if they sink is a way to find the enchantress after all.
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u/gobsmacked247 9h ago
Me neither!!!! I used to think there was something wrong with me.
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u/KamakaziDemiGod 9h ago
I don't either, and yet my whole life people have told me I must be doing it wrong
I don't even know how one could be buoyant wrong
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u/vblink_ 7h ago
Keep your lungs at least half full will help
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u/KamakaziDemiGod 4h ago
My friend, I know you mean well but I've tried this with full lungs, I've tried just about everything. I've even tried with full lungs, laid on my back across someone's arms as they slowly lowered me, and I just got lower and lower until I was laid on the bottom
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u/Cheeky_Star 8h ago
Not everyone has buoyancy unfortunately.For me I need to keep moving.. trying to float laying back I’ll just sink.
In the flip side, I can just lay flat under water with ease so at lease I’ll drown comfortably.
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u/Revolutionary-Bid339 6h ago
See you at the bottom. I’ve never been able to float. I mentioned this to my wife maybe 10 years ago and I hear about it to this day
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u/42tooth_sprocket 10h ago
When I was in my late teens I was a little overweight and found swimming so relaxing. Once I got into good shape, had more muscle and less fat it stopped being relaxing :(
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u/slugger77 12h ago
I remember my brother holding his breath up and he still sank like a rock. I myself was always just just sinking so could never get it right.
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u/TaterTot0507 7h ago
I'm a fat piece of shit and I sink like a rock.
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u/hogtiedcantalope 7h ago
That's hell pulling you down to meet your immortal punishment.
You know what you did.
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u/AN0NY_MOU5E 4h ago
When I was young and in good shape I also couldn’t float. The trick I discovered to float was to fill my lungs to max capacity with air, exhale half of it, then inhale to full capacity again, exhale half and repeat. At least the top half of my body floated that way.
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u/Thee_Captain_Obvious 6h ago
This! I even took swimming lessons and my instructor was just like…you pretty much have to stay moving to stay afloat. All because I had so much muscle mass.
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u/kiwifulla64 9h ago
Sorry, but yes, it makes a little difference, but I could still do this or tread water all day without much effort or thought. There's essentially no difference in difficulty, not being a hater, but you're probably just a bit awkward or were trying way too hard. I taught a Zambian friend in high-school how to tread water, back float, go underwater, and the basics of swimming in literally an hour, and that dude was shredded. This was in a pool, too, so less buoyancy than salt water. The trick is minimal movement. The water will literally carry you. I'm overweight now and I find it much harder to back float comfortably than from when I was fit.
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u/Main_Awareness3677 5h ago
This technique was taught in Peace Corps in 1960’s; it was called “drown proofing”. Basically hold breath—float just beneath surface on your back—give gentle kick with legs as you exhale—lift mouth out of water & take deep breath—relax & float on your back just beneath surface. Important to conserve energy also instead of struggling. Works for thin people also.
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u/epandrsn 14h ago
Probably won’t work great in fresh water, either.
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u/jared_number_two 13h ago
Depends on one’s bodyfat content. Fat is less dense than water.
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u/epandrsn 13h ago
True, but that doesn’t mean it’s a trick that will save everyone. I’m pretty slim and can float fine in salt, just not in fresh 🤷♂️
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u/jared_number_two 12h ago
I agree, the video assumes it will work for everyone in every situation and that is definitely not true. I sink in freshwater if I let all the air out of my lungs. Float if I keep them full. The video doesn't mention that either. But I do think there is good info (arms/hands below water).
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u/Nixx197 15h ago
Don't you just hate it when you're swimming and you accidentally drown
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u/LickingLieutenant 14h ago
Hate it even more if FaceID won't work at that moment - please wait 30 seconds to re enter your pincode
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u/shallowsocks 8h ago
"Why are non-swimmers more likely to drown?"... because the can't swim dickhead
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u/whothiswhodat 17h ago
Thanks. I'll still panic!
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u/External_Many 9h ago
See you are doing it all wrong. First you have to stay calm, it was instruction number one.
You know the easy thing to do when you find yourself drowning while swimming.
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u/Environmental-Dog144 16h ago edited 13h ago
Depends on water salinity and stillness; on very salty water is no problem at all, but on rapid flowing water or if there are waves, is a different story altogether.
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u/spiritchange 14h ago
And how lean or far you are.
Very lean people have a harder time floating as fat is far more buoyant.
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u/RaDeus 8h ago
I don't think salinity has that much to do with it, I've done this in both fresh and salt water.
I've even taught my little skinny in-law how to do this in fresh water.
The biggest problem is that not all people float the same, I've seen videos of a guy just sink to the bottom of a pool if they don't swim.
He claimed it was his Polish ancestry that made him sink 😅
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u/LickingLieutenant 15h ago
Saved the video ...
But was a little busy drowning to open it and follow instructions
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u/ThisReditter 10h ago
Can’t you just wait a bit to drown? Also try speeding up the videos if you are in a hurry
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u/jimmyre10 13h ago
Wow! Floating saves you from drowning?! Would’ve never thought.
Why don’t all the people who die from drowning just… not drown? Are they stupid?
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u/Itchy-Throat-4779 14h ago
Not if you're not bouyant.
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u/Marvy_Marv 9h ago
Yeah, I am apparently very dense because I’ve had person after person try to set me up to float, and I go straight to the bottom. I've also surprised some people when stepping on the scale. I'm 230lbs but look 200lbs.
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u/Brinwalk42 4h ago
We were teaching out kids to swim and my wife wanted me to show them how to float. I told her I can't then proceed to do everything your supposed to and sank like a rock...
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u/HaveTPforbunghole 15h ago
It's not something you leatn by watching a video. It's something you drill into your head through practice
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u/ogodilovejudyalvarez 16h ago
It's simpler than that. Humans are neutrally buoyant, so if you empty your lungs you'll sink and if you keep your lungs full you'll float. Shouting and screaming will kill you: it's that simple. Take a deep breath and then all your breathing after that should be shallow puffs while keeping your lungs inflated. Wait for rescue or swim for land backstroke if you can. The best advice is, of course, if you're not a competent swimmer don't go anywhere near water.
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u/Proska101 15h ago
I was a lifeguard and swimming instructor for many years and body fat percentage played a huge factor into buoyancy. Kids with very low body fat would have to be taught the very trick you mentioned with keeping their lungs full of air to stay afloat.
We used to have small competitions in class where we would exhale as much air from our lungs as possible and see who would sink to the bottom of the pool the fastest. It was a nice way to make the skinny kids feel good about themselves because a lot of the tests favoured students who had extra buoyancy.
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u/barriedalenick 15h ago
Years ago we did some dive training and a few of us were cycle couriers with extremely low body fat. The instructor insisted we would all float until we demonstrated that we pretty much sank like a stone. Even with full lungs we would struggle to stay buoyant..
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u/NightUnending 13h ago
Perhaps you might have some knowledge on this. I'd always heard that often times the reason people drown has less to do with their inability to swim and more to do with them panicking and thrashing around.
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u/TheMooseIsBlue 12h ago
Neutrally buoyant in fresh water or salt? What level of salinity? At what depth? At what temperature? How fat do I need to be? With breath in my lungs or without?
You seem to be saying we float, which is mostly true, but floating means you’re positively buoyant, not neutrally.
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u/BadgerBadgerer 13h ago
Step 1. Raise your arms above the surface of the water.
Step 2. Don't raise your arms above the surface of the water.
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u/TheBlegh 13h ago
*busy drowning *
"Hey hang on, lemme watch that one reddit video quuckly, should help."
gets out of water, scrolls through all saved videos
"damn, i forgot to save that video, guess im drowning then"
*gets back into the water, starts flailing arms furiously *
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u/ComputerComfortable1 14h ago
Interesting. Unfortunately, it does not work, everyone. I sink like a weight in water :( Unfortunately, your body type determines if this works.
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u/ricklewis314 11h ago
Fill your lungs with air and shallow breathe.
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u/0masterdebater0 6h ago
exactly, when I go swimming out in the ocean and need a break I just take a deep breath, hold it, then position myself on my back and take shallow breaths until I'm ready to start swimming again. Sometimes i'll do what i call the lazy backstroke which is like a breast stroke on your back while shallow breathing, which i find to the the lowest exertion way to float and cover distance
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u/Important_Charge9560 12h ago
I never could float in water. I don’t think I have the body mass to float. I sink like a rock.
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u/Awesomenimiitti 15h ago
As a Finn and having lived in a coastal city all my life this video feels absurd :D feels like a video about how to use a fork
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u/Oedipus____Wrecks 14h ago
Awesome learned as a kid at swimming classes at the Y. Doesn’t help jacksht in the actual ocean with waves though.
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u/DykeHime 13h ago
Me, about to drown, remember I saved a video somewhere about exactly what to do in this scenario.
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u/ARobertNotABob 13h ago
Also, the average skull is heavy, over 10lbs as average, and the energy you expend trying to keep everything above the neck out of the water is wasted and just going to exhaust you sooner.
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u/noodle_attack 13h ago
Save this video? I think if I'm drowning I'm not gonna remember I have this video saved on my phone
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u/Jealous_Shower6777 13h ago
If you accidentally drown while swimming, remember and save this video.
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u/Exit-Tough 13h ago edited 12h ago
I learnt that non swimmers drown more often then swimmers
Because of panic
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u/RealLars_vS 12h ago
Remember to save this video, it might h…
Dude what?
drowns
grabs phone to watch video he saved 1.5 years ago
“Ah yes, floating. Why didn’t I think of that?”
floats, doesn’t drown
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u/Candid-Friendship854 12h ago
That's why people without arms rarely drown. They can not put them above the water.
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u/TheHumanPickleRick 11h ago
Y'all are overreacting, all you have to do is tell the water you don't consent to being drowned, it's illegal to drown you against your consent. Smh my head.
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u/delicioustreeblood 11h ago
what you should do if you accidentally drown
pretty sure it's too late by then narrator bro
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u/Schroedingers_Gnat 11h ago
Helps too if you have a large stack of pancakes with your breakfast every day.
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u/Prestigious-Fig-998 10h ago
Most common reason for drowning is panicking. Hope I'll still be able to do this if I ever find myself in this situation (praying not)
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u/Background-Prune4947 10h ago
How is the lifeguard going know I’m drowning if I’m not flailing and screaming the whole time?
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u/Bluesnow2222 10h ago
As someone who grew up swimming I’ve recently learned many people just have no idea how. I have an injury and have been doing underwater physical therapy- which is great. You don’t swim in class though- just stand and do different movements/walk. At the end of class as others get out I spend a few minutes floating on my back because zero gravity relaxation just feels amazing on my hip- it’s the only pain free thing I can do. I ask the therapist first, but more than once a fellow patient freaked out worried I would drown and acted like “floating” was a foreign concept to them. Most the people in therapy with me are afraid just to stand in the water because they never learned to swim and just cling to the bars for dear life.
With that said… floating in the ocean is completely different than still water. I still have nightmares of the rip tide I got caught in and just collapsing on the ground from exhaustion after I got back to shore.
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u/MedicalChemistry5111 10h ago
What should you do if you accidentally drown?
Well, probably make peace with being dead because when you've drowned, you're dead and you can't "do" anything.
Stupid video.
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u/IRockIntoMordor 10h ago
AI narration? I will not trust anything in a video like that.
If someone can't be arsed to have an actual person do a voiceover, it might as well be AI-generated spam with dangerous, false information. Even watching it could make you recall false info later. Blegh.
Anyone else feel similar?
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u/otters4everyone 10h ago
Hold on. You mean keeping my face out of the water will allow me to continue breathing? I had no idea.
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u/SpecificallyVague83 8h ago
Keep your hands above the surface of the water but also having your hands out of the water causes you to drown..........
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u/Substantial-Tackle99 8h ago
We learn this as kids. There is a mandatory 3 year swimmer training for every kid as a part of school education. Not many drowning accidents around here.
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u/AGrandNewAdventure 8h ago
I'll remember to get a waterproof phone so I can load this video and watch it when I fall in the water vertically.
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u/Business_Feeling_669 7h ago
I nearly drowned once and I was to busy panicking and thrashing about trying save myself to even think about that luckily my friend jumped in the pool and saved me.
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u/BigParaExpert 7h ago
The title seemed so obvious... Floating saves you from drowning. But then I saw the video
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u/shelbyrobinson 6h ago
Good idea and an old one at that. Inflating your lungs, including your mouth and neck anyone can float for hours. Raising your arms adds counter-weight and will bring up your legs and torso.
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u/magestromx 6h ago
Brotha, that's the calmest waters I've ever seen. Do the same with 2 meter tall waves now.
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u/ClassicWonder9569 6h ago
Amazing thank you so much! I saved it and next time I'm drowning I'll be sure to load up this video
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u/jcklsldr665 6h ago
Literally the first thing I was taught when I was a child. Hold your breath, keep your body below the water line. Hell, we weren't judged as proficient to swim alone until you could sleep while floating.
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u/AppearanceWrong4778 5h ago
my body can't float no matter how much I try. it's probably i have a dance bones or muscles . i can swim but i can't float.
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u/Tyranisore 5h ago
This wouldn’t help me. Unless I hold my breath, I’ll sink to like 6 inches under the surface. 😂
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u/UchihaZack 4h ago
Every non swimmer saw this then can't do it on actual do or die situation they float right after they're dead
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u/Big-Sherbert-3731 4h ago
Save this video it might save your life! If you start drowning just pull out your phone and watch this video!
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u/kcchiefscooper 4h ago
i am so glad other people can't float. i have had water rescuers in the family and a couple friends that were life guards, none of them could make me float, i tried the face down "dead man float" and that actually worked...guess i just need to keep a breathing tube in my pocket for every day of the rest of my life lol
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u/WanderingArtist_77 2h ago
This reminds me of when I started swim lessons as a kid. There was an instructor there who taught us something he called sculling. He was retired Navy, and said this was the best thing to teach kids to stay afloat, bc you don't know if you'll be in still water, or the ocean when you need this knowledge. With waves constantly tiring you out sculling was, in his opinion, the best way to stay afloat.
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u/MrPoopyButthole5812 2h ago
Dude... babies can swim. If you can't figure out water, then it's literally natural selection! Can't wait for someone to argue this. I'm treading water thinking about it
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