It's summertime!  It's hot outside!  It's so hot that you just want to jump into the water feet first and feel the cool waters.  Hold on to that thought!  Before heading out, we want you and your family to get ready with a few safety tips around diving at pools and natural settings where dangers can lurk.  It's about learning how to survive so that you can be back out there tomorrow!  Isn't that what life is all about!

Teaching your children and teens the 4-Key Survival Skills on diving fact sheet will help your family be safer in their outdoor activities. The first step is to always ask: Are u Ready?

When diving, who is most at risk? Young adults are more likely to sustain a life changing injury from a shallow dive. Did you know that you need at least 2 meters or 6.56 feet for a shallow dive? Most serious injuries (spine and head) happen in the shallow end of pools or in shallow water in natural settings.

Taking diving lessons from a certified instructor is recommended to prevent learning bad habits. Learning how to position your arms and hands, assessing your diving skills, checking the depth before you dive and having a positive attitude will help prevent a dive that could seriously hurt you.

Your physical environment is one of the 4-Key Survival Skills to understand when diving. Knowing that the water is deep enough where you enter the water, and deep enough when you are under the water for the duration of the dive is part of your physical environment. It's you in relation to your surroundings, including your equipment.

Parents need to understand that your child's ever changing height and weight also plays a key role in diving. For example, if your child or teen has grown taller and weighs more, their dive will be deeper and faster. If your kids or teens head out to familiar swimming places they need to be aware that their usual dive in their usual place may cause a serious injury as they may hit their head on the floor of the pool or go headfirst into a sandbar when in an outdoor setting.

Another key survival skill is knowing you attitude. Do you respond to pressure from your friends? (You don't have to dive just because someone else thinks it's a good idea.) Having a positive attitude will also help you check the depth before you dive, locate the slope in the pool, and know which end of the pool is shallow.)

Learning how to dive in shallow water will help prevent a devastating injury while creating summertime memories.

Photo Credit: Mary Ellen Lower