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Anastasia Balezdrova

With a coastline longer more than 3000 km, Greece is one of the most attractive destinations for summer holidays. The crystal clear blue sea and the beaches are almost synonymous with the country and one would have thought that swimming is one of the favourite activities of its inhabitants. Ridiculously or not, however, the data show that one in four Greeks do not know how to swim, and the country is ranked the first in Europe and the second in the world by the number of drowned people based on the population.

GRReporter contacted the lifeguards’ instructor from the Greek Lifeguard Academy Dimitris Saliveris. He analyzed the causes of the negative statistics and repeated everything we need to know to have a relaxing and safe holiday on one of the hundreds beaches of Greece.

What causes this phenomenon?

It is due to lack of training and especially to the fact that the Greeks are offered no better training from an early age. The places where children can learn how to swim are not many with the exception of some municipalities, and the initiative is always private. As a result, swimming lessons are not compulsory at schools. Therefore, we have more adults who not only do not know how to swim, but do not know the basic rules of conduct at sea.

These are the simple things like not to go into the sea earlier than three hours after taking food and not to drink any alcohol. Even a beer that we often drink on the beach can make us dizzy. The sun is also a major factor for dizziness and can cause instability in man or dehydration, which causes muscle spasms and possibly drowning.

How many people have drowned since the beginning of the summer season until today?

Unfortunately, this figure is changing every day. The victims are about 100 - at the beginning of last week they were 67. The experience from previous years shows that we lose on the Greek beaches a whole school class, i.e. about 30 children, within one season from June 1 to August 31. The total number of drowned is about 400 per year.

The statistics also show that other frequent victims are the elderly. How old are those most drowned?

Yes, the two categories of risk are the children and the elderly. The reasons for this are two. The first is that small children have no images of fear in their minds. As a result and due to the poor ability to swim, they are unable to react to drowning as an emergency. In their eyes, drowning is almost like a movie, i.e. they are just following their drowning. Because they do not understand the danger, they can not react and call for help. Thus, a child could disappear under water in seconds and none of the people around could understand what happened.

In adults, the causes are related to cardiac problems and instability in their feet caused by reduced muscle strength. When a strong wave comes or their head swings, they end up under water and have no power to go to the surface to take breath again. Drowning in these cases is immediate.

Does the fact that the sea in Greece is quite accessible contribute to people’s inattention? On many beaches, we have to be much away of the coast to reach greater depths.

It is not necessary to reach great depth to drown. Good swimmers become victims because they overestimate their capabilities, but we should not underestimate the sea to a beach. We can not be sure about the dangers of a drift or a big wave that can form if the beach is near a port. This is the example of the beaches of Mykonos. High-speed ships are passing off quite nautical miles away from shore but the waves they are causing are often very high. In these cases, the role of the lifeguard is very important. First, he must warn the people to get out of the sea and to apply the rules of prevention, which he learned at a lifeguard school similar to ours.

A few years ago, there were children drowning in pools. Are large hotel complexes in cooperation with you to ensure protection for their visitors?

Yes, and I can say that the situation is much better than before. However, pools are also very dangerous when safety rules are not observed. Most drowning occurs just because of ignorance of basic rules. As an example, I can mention a recent case of Crete. The hand of a child was dragged and trapped in the gutter where the water in the hotel pool is circulating. They had to call the fire brigade to stop the circulation and to release the child's hand from the vacuum. Thus, the hotel management knew that it should place a mesh on that particular place. Therefore, we say that the application of simple safety measures and the presence of a lifeguard are the two factors that are likely to prevent drowning.

Which are the basic safety rules we all must comply with?

Firstly, not to go in the water at least three hours earlier after having a meal and to use sunscreens at least +15 for the skin of the body and over +30 for the face.

We should learn to swim from an early age, because a child takes the lessons more easily than an adult does. We all must participate in lifeguarding seminars. We also train people who are not lifeguards, but they can help anyone easily. For example, they can stretch a rod without going in the water and risking their own lives and the drowning to take hold of it. They can also use a rolled up beach towel, plain wooden stick, a paddle or a belt. Finally yet importantly, we must not forget that we should never swim alone.