Mayor Promises Public Tennis Courts, Olympic Pool

by Maureen Dietrich

9 Apr 14

mazmessenger.com

 

The Mayor also confirmed his promise to build an Olympic sized pool and weightlifting gym during his term in office.

With an investment of approximately 3,700,000 pesos, two municipal tennis courts will be constructed at Kilometer Zero (also known as Parque Héctor Peña Tamayo) beginning in June, announced Mazatlán Mayor Carlos Felton yesterday.

At the same time, the Mayor confirmed his promise to build an Olympic sized pool and weightlifting gym during his term in office. With respect to an indoor bicycle circuit, he said it will be constructed time permitting.

The Olympic pool will most probably be located at the Benito Juárez sports complex, while the tennis courts will be located in front of the Bosque de la Ciudad on the left side of the baseball stadium.

He told reporters he hopes the pool will open this year and the weightlifting gym in 2015. (from Noroeste)

Mazatlan- circa 1940

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning

By Mario Vittone On June 16, 2010
gcaptain.com



The new captain jumped from the cockpit, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the owners who were swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine, what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed.

“We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. ”Move!” he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not ten feet away, their nine-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, “Daddy!”

How did this captain know, from fifty feet away, what the father couldn’t recognize from just ten?

Drowning is not the violent, splashing, call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. The father, on the other hand, had learned what drowning looks like by watching television. If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that’s all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew knows what to look for whenever people enter the water. Until she cried a tearful, “Daddy,” she hadn’t made a sound. As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn’t surprised at all by this story. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for, is rarely seen in real life.

The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect.

There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening (source: CDC). Drowning does not look like drowning – Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard’s On Scene Magazine, described the instinctive drowning response like this:

1. Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. Th e respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.
2. Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
4. Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
5. From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.

(Source: On Scene Magazine: Fall 2006)

This doesn’t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble – they are experience aquatic distress. Not always present before the instinctive drowning response, aquatic distress doesn’t last long – but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in there own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.

Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are n the water:

 

• Head low in the water, mouth at water level
• Head tilted back with mouth open
• Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
• Eyes closed
• Hair over forehead or eyes
• Not using legs – Vertical
• Hyperventilating or gasping
• Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
• Trying to roll over on the back
• Ladder climb, rarely out of the water.

So if a crew member falls overboard and every looks O.K. – don’t be too sure. Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck. One way to be sure? Ask them: “Are you alright?” If they can answer at all – they probably are. If they return a blank stare – you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them. And parents: children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.

How to Identify, Evade and Escape a Rip Current - And Live to Tell the Tale

By Rick Freeland
ezinearticles.com

As you hit the beach, you notice that, as the power of the surf dissipates, the water is pulled back out to sea by gravity. This is not dangerous in itself - who hasn't stood in the surf, giggling, as the receding waters sucked the sand out from around our feet and tickled our toes.

That gentle surf looks benign, pleasant and cooling in the summer heat. But it's what you can't see that gets you.

Causes of Rip Currents

You don't notice that underwater obstruction - a submerged sandbar - parallel to the beach. Water is piling up on the shore-side of this obstruction. The stored (potential) energy in this water reservoir is tremendous.

And you don't see the breach in the sandbar, or the water being pulled from the reservoir in a concentrated stream flowing seaward at 8 feet per second. In this case, what you don't see can hurt you.

A rip current (it's not a rip tide) has formed here. They can also form off objects perpendicular or angular to the beach, like jetties and piers. This one, however, has manifested itself here, right where you want to swim.

The United States Life-saving Association (USLA) says that 80% of lifeguard rescues at ocean beaches happen when folks are caught in these current surges. They are also responsible for 80% of drowning deaths.

And the seas don't have to be rough. Rip currents can occur in relatively placid water conditions. As surf size increases, however, the effects of rips intensify.

But you came to swim - and you don't know what waits for you, beneath the sparkling waters.

Identifying Rip Current Conditions

The first step towards armoring yourself against rips is to recognize that they may be out there, and are usually hard to notice. But you can learn to spot the danger and avoid it.

First, try to swim where there are certified lifeguards alert and on-duty. That's not always the case, however - at some beaches there are no lifeguards. You swim at your own risk, and your safety is in your hands.

Right now, you're standing with your toes in the sea, yearning to bust the water. But you hesitate, and study the waves.

Is that an area of choppy, churning water? A strange break in on-coming waves? A spot where the water seems

discolored? Does that patch of seaweed and debris seem to be moving seaward?

Could be there's a rip current present, responsible for these phenomena.

Your safety is paramount. If the evidence of your eyes indicate there may be a rip current present, swim somewhere else.

Escaping a Rip Current

But no. You're hot. You want to cool off, dang it! So you run into the surf, and hit the water in a shallow dive.

And before you can think "This was a bad idea!", you're caught in a rip current. Immediately, you're drawn

seaward with what feels like the speed of an express train.
All is not lost, however. If you keep your wits about you, you can get out of the rip current fairly easily.

Rip currents are usually fairly narrow. Swim to one side or the other and you can break free of the surge. Panicking and trying to power straight back to shore is a losing proposition. You'll just wear yourself out and weaken, and will have accomplished nothing - you'll still be caught in the rip current.

If you get too tired to keep swimming, tread water. The rip current usually dissipates just past the breaking wave line. The feeling of being pulled out to sea can be terrifying, but once past that line you should be able to swim free and get back to shore.

This is why you should never swim alone, or at least make sure there are others on the beach. If you're exhausted and think you can't make it back to shore, tread water and raise your arms over your head to signal folks ashore that you're in trouble. When someone's in the water, others who care about that person should act as spotters, and keep an eye out.

Being snared by a rip current need not end in tragedy. A little forethought and preparation can go a long way. Knowing how to identify factors pointing towards the presence of a rip current will keep you safe. Knowing how to escape one if you've misread the indicators will keep you alive.