According to the Woodside Surf Life Saving Club spokesman, Mr Ollington, the 29 year old tried to swim across the estuary from the point. Unfortunately, he got caught in a strong outgoing tide and was dragged out to sea. ”It’s a very narrow estuary and the swell can get quite strong. I’d guess the tide was probably going at three or four knots. The man has just made an unfortunate decision to try and swim across that.” said Mr Ollington.

The man’s body was found only at 4.45pm by a search helicopter. For the full article, click HERE.

This is an extremely unforeseen tragic accident. It is rather debatable as to whether or not it could have been prevented. As we are all aware of how unpredictable and dangerous the open waters can be, perhaps the 29 year old man should’t have swam so far out with his friends. Remember that prevention is always better than cure. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or a skilled swimmer or even someone who has taken part in swimming competitions. A strong tide can drag anyone out to the sea easily as there isn’t much resistance. The reason why such drownings occur most of the time is because many people underestimate the waves and simply want to venture out for more adventure. Drowning doesn’t give you any room of allowance. In fact, it can happen over a space of a few seconds. However, if you possess the necessary skills and techniques, you could potentially save your own life or that of another.

At Happy Fish Swim School, we believe that every Singaporean should acquire these skills. The beaches in Singapore might not be comparable to those in other countries. This gives us more reasons to learn these skills and techniques, so that when we go on holidays to different beach resorts, we’ll at least have a backup. For more information on the various types of lessons we offer, check out our website. It doesn’t matter how young or how old you are, there is bound to be a certain type of lesson catered towards you.

Unknown to many, walking is one of the most highly-regarded low impact workouts. Apart from that, a more popular low impact workout is bike riding. Another fun low impact workout is dancing. Let’s not forget Yoga, which helps to benefit your mind as well as your body. However, if you’re looking for a low impact workout that can actually target the entire body, it is none other than swimming itself.

http://www.edgeonthenet.com/

What’s so beneficial about swimming? Firstly, it helps in toning your muscles and working your heart, providing you with cardiovascular benefits. Furthermore, with the help of swimming aids such as the kickboards, you can tone your muscles even further due to the increase in resistance. Secondly, swimming has also been proven to be capable of increasing your muscle mass and flexibility. This helps in treating conditions like arthritis and others. Thirdly, if you are looking to lose weight, swimming is a great way to get things going. It enables you to burn calories effectively and efficiently. Fourthly, swimming does not only assist you in burning calories and working on your muscles and lungs, it also allows you to relax by floating and gliding through the water. In that case, who is suitable to learn swimming?

Swimming caters to everyone out there be it young or old. For those looking to burn fats, swimming is an ideal option. For those who wants to stay healthy and fit, swimming can help you in achieving that. For those who just want to relax from the stressful life in Singapore, swimming can take you away from that stress. However, the most important thing to note is beyond a low impact workout, swimming is a lifetime skill. Once you have attained it, you’ll be able to keep it with you forever. Let’s not forget that with this set of skill, it can potentially save your life or that of another from drowning.

Happy Fish Swim School believes that every Singaporean should learn swimming. It doesn’t matter how young or how old you are, as long as you are willing to take a chance to learn swimming with us, we’ll definitely be able to find a class that is suited to your needs.

The Top Up Swimming Programme aims to provide 2,500 primary school children with swimming skills before they graduate from primary school. In all, it will cost the government approximately £420,000. However, all the 32 councils in Scotland are in favour of the programme. In fact, the free swimming programme was first launched in September 2010 with a funding of £800,000 from the Scottish government.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-16998634

According to Scottish Sports Minister, Shona Robison, “Swimming is one of the best forms of physical activity for young people, which is why we are investing in the Top Up initiative to give children the opportunity to learn to swim and enjoy a lifelong activity. Learning to swim gives young people confidence in the water as well as a fun way of keeping active – something they can enjoy throughout their lives.”

This is also the ideal method of cultivating a healthy lifestyle from young. This is something that the Scotland government believes in. Apart from that, they view swimming as an essential skill for these kids. It is clear to them that these children shouldn’t be deprive of such an essential skill just because they are unable to afford it. If such were the case, thousands of children will never be able to experience the joy of swimming.

However, the most significant reason to arm these primary school children with swimming skills is to prevent drownings from occurring. Although drowning can happen to anyone at anywhere and anytime, having the necessary skills can potentially help to reduce the chances of such tragedies from occurring. The Scotland government didn’t mention this, but it is pretty obvious that they believe in it if not they weren’t have invested hundreds of thousands of pounds into the programme.

In Singapore, we feel the same way too. Although we are unable to offer free swimming lessons like that in UK and Scotland, we still do offer swimming lessons at an affordable rate. If the government is willing to make such an investment, then a parent should do the same for their child. Furthermore, you will be granting your child with a lifetime skill! For more information, check out Happy Fish Swim School and the Frequently Asked Questions about swimming. Always remember that a small investment like this will go a long way for your child!

http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/

His mission is to raise hundreds of pounds for Donna’s Dreamhouse. He intends to accomplish this by embarking on a swimming challenge, where he will undertake 50 lengths of Moor Park swimming pool in Bispham. This will take place on 12th of March. In fact, Bradley is merely a Bispham Endowed Primary School student. After finding out about the charity’s plight in The Gazette, he set his sights on raising funds for the swim. This was what he said, “I want to help charities any way I can and when I found out about Donna’s Dreamhouse I decided to help them. I thought it was very bad what had happened and I knew straight away I wanted to help.”

Donna’s Dreamhouse helps to give respite to terminally ill children and their families. What actually happened was that last year before Christmas, a fire destroyed part of the Chapel Street building as well as the Christmas presents for the children, and pictures and mementoes of Donna Curtis, who the charity was actually set up in memory of. Although the public has contributed some funds to help in the repair works and re-building, Bradley still feels that he can help further. So far, he has raised £230 to go towards re-building of the charity’s home. For the full article, click here.

The truth is that there aren’t many young children out there who share the same thinking as Bradley. This is a value that has to be cultivated since young. According to Bradley’s father, Jason Taylor encourages all of his sons to try to help charitable causes whenever they can. This is something that we as parents can do to help promote better morals and values in our child. It might not seem like a big deal at first, but it is actually because of little things like this that can cause children to differ in their behaviour. Hence, it is never too early to start!

In order to participate in a swim for charity, you’ll first need swimming skills. This is something that Happy Fish Swim School can offer you. For more information on the various lessons available, do check out our website.

They were actually in Dalrymple Bay when the incident occurred. The sea was rough and the wind was strong at that point of time. They attempted to anchor their boat about two kilometres off the coast. However, they were knocked over by a strong wave. This is how unpredictable and strong open waters can be, especially when you’re in the middle of the sea.

Eventually, one of the 32 year old man decided to stay with the boat, while the other pair put on their life jackets and tried swimming to pylons about 30 metres away. Unfortunately, the current was too strong and swept them away. This caused them to be stranded in the sea for six hours. Somehow and someway, the pair managed to make it to shore at an unknown location near Louisa Creek.

As for their friend who stayed with the boat, he managed to get to Round Top Island after abandoning their boat. He was found by other fishermen who were passing by around 7am in the morning. It was also at this point of time when he alerted the police and rescue team about the missing pair.

This started an air and water search for the pair, who were only found about 9am at the Louisa Creek house where they had been staying. In fact, they had only reached there 10 minutes before. According to them, they were actually resting on shore for a few hours before they started to seek help. The man stated that they were woken up and helped by another boatie, who took them to where they eventually ended up in.

The constable agreed that all three of them were lucky to make it through the night. He also stated that, ”The smartest thing they did was put lifejackets on before they left the boat… it probably saved their lives.” The full article can be read from here.

The truth of the matter is people tend to overlook and underestimate the importance of a life jacket. They do not realise that it can potentially save their lives. Hence, always remember to have a life jacket standby with you should you decide to head out into the open waters. To gear yourself up for the open waters, do check out the swimming lessons that Happy Fish Swim School has to offer. By arming yourself with these necessary skills, you’ll be better prepared for the open waters.

On Saturday, just passed midnight, at about 1am, the ladies were heading for home after an evening out. Unfortunately, they got lost and ended up at Lake Ray Hubbard. The incident happened when the driver was talking to her dad over the phone. Their car ended up driving down a boat ramp and into the lake. One of them even mentioned that she thought she was going to die.

http://www.tuoitrenews.vn/cmlink/tuoitrenews/society/two-vietnamese-women-escape-drowning-in-texas-1.59950

Thankfully, Kevin Rowan was doing his patrol and managed to spot the car’s brake lights above the water. Immediately, he swum out to the vehicle and break the rear window in order to get them out. He recalled them screaming for help and telling him that they can’t swim. Luckily, Kevin managed to get them out from the car, held onto them and swim back safely to shore. If it wasn’t for him, even if they managed to get out of the car, they might not even be able to make it back safely to shore.

The main reason is because they are unable to swim. Can you imagine if Kevin wasn’t there at that point of time? It would have been another case of a tragic drowning. However, if they were able to swim and managed to get out of the car, they might still be able to swim back safely to shore. This explains how useful and crucial it is to have swimming skills. Somehow, Kevin was able to gather enough strength to get both of them back to shore safely in one trip. If he had to make two trips, one of them might not even be still alive.

This also shows that lifesaving skills can be helpful and potentially help to save others. The truth is that it isn’t an easy task to save someone from drowning and getting him/her back to shore safely, let alone save two people. Without the proper knowledge and technique, you might end up endangering their lives instead. Imagine what could have happened if Kevin didn’t have the necessary skills? He could end up in trouble himself as well.

With this, Happy Fish Swim School would like everyone to understand the importance of swimming and lifesaving. Always be prepared by arming yourself with swimming knowledge and skills. You will never know when they can come in handy for yourself or towards others.

http://www.friars.co.nz/accommodation.php?region=BayOfPlenty

As we all know, drowning can occurred for various reasons and without any warning. Eight of the drownings in the Bay of Plenty occurred during water activities such as power boating, rowing, free diving, boogie boarding or swimming. As for the remaining four incidents, they happened due to either accidental immersions or motor vehicle accidents.

Compared to a record low in 2010, the increase in 2011 of such magnitude was extremely disappointing according to the WSNZ chief executive. Last year alone, there were 66 drownings due to water activities, 24 occupational drownings and 30 due to other causes such as suicides, homicide and vehicle crashes. Of all these drownings, 80 per cent of them were men. There were also 14 cases of drowning for children under the age of five as well.

There’s always a saying that goes, prevention is better than cure. To prevent drownings from occurring, always remember the safety basics. These includes wearing life jackets, checking the weather forecast, staying within your limits, not swimming alone and avoiding alcohol.

For this year, it hasn’t really started on a good note for New Zealand. Up till today, there are already 15 drowning cases. Out of these 15 cases, a number of the them were swept out to sea. They range from 15 to 44 years old. This goes to show that drowning can happen to anyone. Even if you’re a good swimmer, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be able to escape from drowning as it can occur when you least expect it to.

http://www.bayofplentytimes.co.nz/news/2011-worst-drowning-toll-in-eight-years/1253369/

If you want to learn more about advance swimming programs, check out what Happy Fish Swim School has to offer. However, do take note that you should already know the basics of swimming and complete the beginner course at least. The advance swimming programs can provide you with more knowledge and skills in swimming. You could potentially save your own life or someone else’s life with these set of knowledge and skills.

http://www.boston.com

For Brendan, he was born with a congenital condition in which the tibia and fibula of his left leg did not develop. This led to a knee disarticulation on the leg to preserve the growth plate and ensure that his left thigh would develop normally when he was only 5 years old. Now Brendan is 14 and he doesn’t consider his condition to be “handicap”. He stated that since he has been living with it for his whole life, he doesn’t feel that his condition is that big of a deal.

When Brendan was younger, he would always complained about not being able to do sports and run. Once he found the motivation and pushed himself, he eventually managed to set records for track events such as the 100-, 200-, and 400-yard races. When there was an upcoming triathlon event, Brendan knew he would have to get into the pool. He persevered and eventually managed to set records in meets for disabled athletes last year.

Although Brendan isn’t as fast as some of the other competitors without any disability, he doesn’t gets pessimistic. Instead, he works on making improvements and envisions himself surpassing them one day or another. With an attitude like that even with a disability, Brendan has earned the respect of his fellow swim mates, coach and even the spectators. “My long-term goal is to go to the Paralympics, and to do an IronMan Triathlon,’’ he said. “With enough practice, anything’s possible.’’

This short article explains to us that anything is possible if you believe in yourself. If Brendan who has a disability is able to make it all the way to the swim team, then anyone with or without a disability has the potential of learning to swim! If you wish to learn more about swimming, check out Happy Fish Swim School and take a look at the various lessons that they conduct.

It was an unfortunate and tragic Friday for 64 year old, Earl Scofield, who drowned at a Blossom Athletic Center swimming pool. According to reports, his wife, Annetta Scofield claims that Earl was a strong swimmer and they would swim together two to three times a week.

The incident occurred on Friday when Annetta noticed her husband at the bottom of the pool. She called for help and three lifeguards came to her aid. They pulled Earl out and conducted CPR, but it was already too late. Earl did not manage to survive. There were many comments from the public questioning the lifeguards. There were three of them, but none realised the drowning? Were they sleeping on their job?

The truth is that we can’t judge such things. Drowning can occurred in just seconds. As mentioned in previous posts, drowning is a silent killer. Contrary to popular belief, you won’t see a drowning individual yelling for help or waving their hands frantically. Furthermore, there are many swimmers who stay underwater to improve on their breathing techniques. Although there were three of them in total, they are usually divided into different sections around the area. Hence, we can’t really fault the lifeguards for not doing their job.

This article highlights how quickly and silently drowning can occur. One should never underestimate how easily drowning can take place, even in a public swimming complex. In fact, it doesn’t even give you much time to think or react. Therefore, always be aware of your own limits and do not push yourself so far to the extend of drowning. If you’re unable to stay underwater for long periods, don’t push yourself. Give yourself time to practice and train, and you’ll be able to reach your goal in a matter of time. It’s definitely not worth risking your life.

If you’re looking for swimming lessons, do take a look at what Happy Fish Swim School has to offer. We have various types of lessons suitable for all ages and levels. You can even customise your own lessons if you choose to take up private classes. With so many kinds of lessons available, we’re pretty sure that you’ll find one suitable for your own needs!

http://www.heraldsun.com.au

We are all aware of what sharks are capable of. They crave for meat and aren’t afraid to go up against us, humans. It doesn’t even matter if the waters are shallow, like in Second Beach in the rural Eastern Cape. In fact, it is one of the deadliest spots for shark attacks despite it being just waist-deep.

On Sunday, an unfortunate and tragic event occurred. Lungisani Msungubana, a 25 year old from the Transkei region was attacked by a whaler shark. The sad thing was that he was minding his own business and bathing among a crowd of swimmers when the attack took place. It was an extremely bloody and messy scene according to witnesses. He suffered multiple bites from the shark on his torso, arms and legs. The doctor on the beach tried his best to treat him before paramedics took him to the clinic for further treatment. Unfortunately, Lungisani Msungubana didn’t manage to pull through and was pronounced dead.

This beautiful and scenic beach located in the town of Port St Johns is considered to be one of the deadliest spots for shark attacks. In the past 6 years, the beach had encountered 6 such incidents, 3 of which occurred in 2009 alone.

As breathtaking as it can possibly be, always avoid putting yourself in harm’s way. We would like to highlight this and bring it up for awareness, so that Singaporeans can avoid such incidents from occurring to them. Since you’re now aware of how dangerous this beach can be, perhaps you can consider visiting other beaches around the world instead? I’m sure you will be able to find better beaches elsewhere right? *hints* Maldives *hints* Remember, always do careful research of your destination before heading for a swim as you’ll never know what’s in store for you. It’s way better to be safe rather than sorry.

If you do intend to swim in the open waters, it would be ideal to arm yourself with the necessary knowledge and skills. This can be attain from Happy Fish Swim School’s Open Water SwimSafer Course. This is basically an advance course that is being conducted in East Coast Park. It teaches you proper swimming techniques and survival skills in the open waters. Hence, if you wish to better prepare yourself, we suggest that you register for this course!