After watching a man demonstrate how to rescue yourself when falling through ice into chilling water I want to say one thing, DUH. There’s no real surprise that people start to breathe quicker, their blood pressure goes up, and their heart rate goes up dramatically when they initially drop into the icy cold water. How this man goes about it is obviously as correct a manner as possible, but talking to people and telling them how to mitigate the shock response is something that is easier said than done. This man is obviously a survivalist or at the very least someone that has made it his business to know how to get into and out of such situations. My only criticism is that he’s done this often enough obviously that he knows what he’s doing. That would be why the disclaimer showed up before the video was necessary. It was almost enough to make me laugh because seeing anyone else doing this just to see what it was like and how to do it seems kind of silly.
Yes the cold shock will pass, and yes it is possible to kick yourself to the surface of the ice and then scoot along until you hit a more solid surface. But what he isn’t saying is what troubles me, and the fact that someone might have to face this alone is even more troubling. He has a camera man, or crew, at the ready if anything happens. He has a backup. Those that might fall through the ice, heaven forbid, might not have anyone with them and if they don’t know this information or don’t remember it then there might be a serious problem that occurs. Worse yet, if a person happens to fall through the ice covering anything other than a still pond or lake, meaning a body of water with a strong enough current, then there’s a chance that there won’t be time to get over the shock and a person will be swept downstream, possibly under the ice and unable to gain access to the surface.
Safety on any icy terrain is essential, and this man does in fact have a good point when speaking about how to calm ones self down and simply breathe. The cold shock will scare the living hell out of anyone at first since it is a sudden and very unexpected thing. But the act of breathing evenly as possible and keeping your head above the ice is of the utmost importance as it will help to remain calm and survive the ordeal. Of course after you reach a more solid surface it will be necessary to seek out whatever warmth you can find shortly after. The only problem with this is that it depends upon where a person is when they fall through the ice and how far it is to the nearest area where they can get warm.
He says a lot of stuff that makes sense but still leaves a few things out. But maybe I’m just being too critical.
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