WATCH: Former Olympic swimmer Dr Shane Gould and Sandon Point Surf Club president Ken Holloway talking about the Float to Survive program at Sandon Point Beach on Tuesday, January 15, 2025. Video by Adam McLean
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00:00Float to Survive is an initiative to give a simple message to people who are struggling in deep water.
00:07They have to resist their natural instinct to thrash around and waste energy and simply float.
00:15By floating you conserve your energy and that maximises your chance of survival.
00:21The message of Float to Survive is important because it's an in-water message.
00:25What do you do when you get into trouble?
00:27It's not just something you think about when you're out of the water.
00:30So when you're in trouble, stop swimming and float.
00:35But float isn't like your scared cat X float.
00:40It's an active thing that you can help yourself to survive.
00:44People drown between the flags also.
00:47And especially when there's surf during summer like on the Australian Day weekend
00:53when we get large sets of waves and they get washed off the sandbank where the flags are into a deep channel.
01:00And it's most important that they don't freak out and struggle.
01:05They just float, put their hand up and either a surfer or a board rider or the lifeguard on duty
01:14if they're swimming between the flags will come and get them.
01:17The worst thing they can do is to try and swim back against the rip or struggle.
01:23That just accelerates the drowning process.
01:26So even someone who's good at swimming like me can drown.
01:30I can have a dizzy spell, I can inhale some water and panic.
01:40So you need to know where your buoyancy is, your built in buoyancy device
01:47and use that and try to remain calm until you get washed back into shore or someone comes and rescues you.
01:54So it gives you time and it gives you the ability to control the situation in the moment.