Safety
Safety is a paramount concern with swimming in natural settings. These are usually informal (unofficial) swimming places and usually there are no lifeguards. Currents can be swift and, in larger rivers, are often hidden beneath the surface. Being unregulated places, there may be alcohol consumption and rowdiness which lead to careless behavior. Diving in such places is especially dangerous as the depth may be insufficient or there may be hidden rocks below the surface resulting in broken necks or backs and paralysis or death. Broken glass is sometimes present and can cut feet if old sneakers or other footwear is not used.
Read more about this topic: Swimming Hole
Famous quotes containing the word safety:
“There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind.... Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to.”
—Joseph Heller (b. 1923)
“To emancipate [the slaves] entirely throughout the Union cannot, I conceive, be thought of, consistently with the safety of the country.”
—Frances Trollope (1780–1863)
“[As teenager], the trauma of near-misses and almost- consequences usually brings us to our senses. We finally come down someplace between our parents’ safety advice, which underestimates our ability, and our own unreasonable disregard for safety, which is our childlike wish for invulnerability. Our definition of acceptable risk becomes a product of our own experience.”
—Roger Gould (20th century)