Water skills vital for all ages

IF a 93-year-old woman can learn to swim there should be no excuses from others - because it is never too late to take up lessons.

Yamba swimming instructors Ross and Helen Pye, of Water Confidence Australia, firmly believe anyone who wants to can and should learn how to swim and gain confidence in the water. They also believe age is no barrier.

Mrs Pye said after she and her husband moved to the Clarence Valley they soon recognised a high number of elderly residents in the area did not know how to swim.

Identifying a safety concern within the local community, the Pyes started giving swimming, water-confidence and water-exercise classes and have taught more than 200 people - three quarters of them adults over 55 - vital life skills.

"It (Clarence Valley) is a beautiful area to live in and a lot of retirees move here to enjoy the wonderful lifestyle," Mrs Pye said.

"But Ross and I soon found out many of these people cannot swim.

"A lot of them are also grandparents and often when they look after their grandchildren they take them to the beach.

"If a child gets into difficulty in the water, even if it is shallow, their grandparents can do little to help them because they never learned how to swim and unfortunately they can get into trouble trying to save them."

Mr Pye said many adults over the age of 55 did not know how to swim because swimming lessons were not available to them while they were growing up.

"A lot of them had parents who did not know how to swim either and they were scared of going into water," he said.

"The annual Royal Life Saving drowning report in Australia shows the greatest number of drownings that occur are adults over the age of 55.

"As a lot of people in this age group retire and move closer to areas with plenty of water such as the coast, it is important they know how to swim."

The Pyes said the news may come as a surprise to many who previously believed children to be at the greatest risk of drowning.

"Sadly, a lot of drownings occur when an adult who does not know how to swim, jumps in the water to save a child," she said.

"It is so important that everyone knows how to swim."

The Pyes hold water-confidence classes in Grafton on Wednesday at the splash pool in the old Grafton Brewery complex.

They also hold classes at the Maclean Hydro Pool on Thursday and Friday.

Their students range in age from 20 to 90. Their oldest student was 93.

"A lot of adults are embarrassed because they can't swim and it is an enormous thing for an adult to learn water confidence," Mrs Pye said.

"But I can't describe the feeling of seeing people regain and develop their confidence to swim. It is the most exciting, wonderful thing in the world."

One of Mrs Pye's students told her she had been going to Woody Head for more than 70 years before she joined a water-confidence class and learned how to swim and snorkel. "She would just sit on the beach. Now she goes into the water," Mrs Pye said.

Water confidence teaches adults how to hold their breath and sit on the bottom, how to float on their backs, dog paddle, as well as gliding, sculling, water safety and rescues.

"These are important skills and they are skills everyone should know if they spend time around water," Mrs Pye said.

Water-confidence lessons will resume next month.