Swimming instructor Garth Fowler last week had a challenge convincing about 60 year 5 and 6 Arrowtown School pupils that the Kawarau River's icy waters were warm enough to jump into, as he took them through an emergency scenario which involved being thrown from the Kawarau Jet.
Kawarau Jet driver Fraser Gordon had no such trouble, winning over the pupils with a couple of high speed 360 degree spins on Lake Wakatipu as he whizzed them to the river and back.
The venture was part of Lakes Leisure's aquatic education programme, which aims to impress upon local children the importance of safe habits in and around water this summer.
Programme manager Alex Calwell said last week's drills were mainly about boat safety and putting those skills into practice in a realistic environment - the groups also made a simulated river crossing in the lagoon at Frankton marina.
Another feature was stressing the importance of life jackets: "We say to the kids 'Hey, chuck a life jacket on' and they go and tell mum and dad to put a life jacket on, so it's building life skills," Mr Calwell said.
Sink or swim
- Eight people drowned in the Central Otago region between 2004 and 2008. All of these drownings occurred while people were taking part in recreational activities such as boating, swimming or fishing.
- In 2008, just one in five 10-year-olds could swim 200m - the benchmark for being able to swim and survive in the water.
- Only 50% of year 6 children can swim 25m and just 37% can swim 50m.
- Proficiency in each of these measurements is down on average by 10% from 2001.
- This downward trend in children's swimming ability will result in New Zealand's drowning rates returning to levels of the 1980s by 2020 if action is not taken.
- By 2030, drowning rates are forecast to rise to between 150 and 180 drownings per annum if no action is taken. Schoolteachers believe the quality of children's swimming skills have steadily declined.
- Almost 50% of teachers have not had any swimming/aquatics training in the past six years and many question their ability to teach swimming skills to the level required by the curriculum.
*Source: Lakes Leisure/Water Safety New Zealand
