DVDizzy Forum

Posted: **Sun Jun 15, 2008 8:52 am**

I went with my family to Aquatica yesterday. We were in the wave pool. My daughter had a life jacket on, I didn't. I am a good swimmer and done the wave pools before with no problems. So my daughter wanted to go out deeper, so holding her, I went out deeper. With every wave, I jumped to ride it out. We did this for quite a while and we were having a lot of fun. Then on one jump, my foot slipped and I slipped under the wave. She didn't, she had her lifejacket on. My first through was to recover quick, I jumped again, directly into the next wave and that was it. My timing was so screwed up, I couldn't recover. I kept trying to get up, holding tight to my daughter, when my head got above water, my daughter was screaming bloody murder. Not anything like a fun scream. It was a horror-movie like scream. I yelled, "I'm fine, go!" and pushed her away. I know drowning victims will instinctively pull other people down, lifejacket or not, I am bigger than her, I was afraid I would hurt her if I kept going. I let her go, but she didn't let me go. I waved my arm in the air and tried to yell for help, but everytime I opened my mouth, I swallowed more water and then was sucked back under. I could hear my daughter crying and feel her clawing at me. Then I felt someone grab me. My father, and another visitor. My father pulled me out and back to shore. For several minutes I just kept coughing. I could feel water in my throat and pain in my lungs. Today my throat and chest hurt real bad.

One question you may all be asking yourself and I asked myself...Where the **** were the life guards?????? They have like 6-8 of them on that pool. Apparently the screaming of a child (a lifeguard should know the difference between a fun scream and a scared one), and me floundering not very far from one of them. We should have called one over, but at that point, I had already made a spectacle of myself and was on land and safe, so whatever. I was so aggravated they never showed up, I was just wanting to b**** at them anyways. Though after we left, I rethought about complaining...what if that was a kid and not me and wasn't noticed till they were doing the dead-man's float. If a total stranger and my father knew, they should have spotted me. So I am going to contact Sea World and let them know their lifeguards have lost my trust.

Posted: **Sun Jun 15, 2008 11:34 am**

Wow...horrible experience.

In a way, I can relate--I nearly drowned at a theme park when I was 7. But it would certainly be worse if I were around my children because they don't really understand what's happening. You would think that lifeguards are trained to recognize a drowning situation, what with the flailing arms and screaming child.

Posted: **Sun Jun 15, 2008 1:32 pm**

Siren, that's awful- I'm so sorry that that happened. You definitely should contact SeaWorld, because that's unacceptable. Especially with all of those lifeguards around...were the lifeguards talking to each other or something? I mean, if cashiers are socializing, that's one thing, but lifeguarding is such serious business...I understand that it must be harder to hire lifeguards than cashiers or attractions hosts, but they need to be picky about who they hire...these employees need to be serious.

I'm very glad that you're safe, at least!

Posted: **Sun Jun 15, 2008 2:47 pm**

Siren, I am so glad you are safe and nothing happened to you or your daughter!
You should definitely complain about those life-guards. Not spotting an emergency situation is absolutely not acceptable!!

Posted: **Sun Jun 15, 2008 4:19 pm**

I almost drowned once at a Ramada inn but i was also only 7...and there were signs that said NO LIFEGUARD ON DUTY... But at a place like that...I mean they give trips away on Lunchables.....(rarely win but thats not the Point) I think you should contact the local news station because that really was as you said unacceptable.... I mean my local small town (5000 people) lifeguards are better trained to know the differ......

Keep us Updated and thank goodness you and your daughter are safe..

Posted: **Sun Jun 15, 2008 6:22 pm**

I am glad your safe and would defintly contact Sea World, Who knows you may get a lifetime pass to it, specially since there is a a possiblity of a lawsuit

Posted: **Sun Jun 15, 2008 7:53 pm**

I don't want a cash cow out of this. I just want them to know. My friend is getting the right number to complain to the right person(s) about the safety issue. Guest relations would take a call like that, but I rather go straight to the source, the head of the safety team there. My friend's sister-in-law slammed her knee in the wave pool and got the number for them. So she's getting me that number to call.

Posted: **Sun Jun 15, 2008 8:22 pm**

Here's the email I sent to guest relations (still going to contact the safety team). And I am going to the doctor tomorrow. A friend of mine who is in the medical field explained how if I still have water in my lungs I could get sick, so I want to be sure

On Saturday, June 14, around 1PM, my family and I went into one of the wave pools. The rougher pool. I saw at least 4-6 life guards there. My daughter, nieces and mother wore life jackets. The rest of my family and myself did not, since we are good swimmers. I have been in similar wave pools numerous times with no problems. My 9 year old daughter wanted to go out deeper, so I held her on my hip and swam out. We were having a great time. I got the timing of the waves so I would jump and ride it out. We did this several times and then my foot slipped and the wave hit us. My daughter was above water, holding onto me and I pushed up to get my timing back and was hit with another wave. I got back up and my daughter was screaming. It was a horror-movie like scream, not a "having fun" scream. She was panicking, she knew something was wrong, I yelled out, "I'm fine, go", when I said go, I was pulled under again and swallowed more water. I was trying to push her away, afraid that as I now was panicking, I might pull her down. But she held tight to me. Every time I got my head above water and tried to yell the word "help", I only swallowed more water, the whole time hearing my daughter's screams. I waved my arms in the air, I could feel they were above the water. I kept expecting a lifeguard to grab me at any moment. And then other more negative thoughts of waking up in a hospital or not at all. I breathed in gulps of water at least 4 times. Then I felt someone grab my arm and pull me up. It was my father, and someone I thought was a lifeguard for a moment, because I saw red, but it was a visitor in a red Aquatica life jacket. They got me to shore where I coughed up water and sat on the rock at the shore line. When I could, I asked where the lifeguards were, my family said they would go get one, stupidly I did refuse, but only because I was angry. I was angry because they should have seen/heard us. I wished I did ask for one, so I could ask where the heck they were when I was floundering. A total stranger, who as far as I know, wasn't a life guard in all her life, saw I was in trouble. My family saw I was in trouble. Why not the lifeguards? I was so disgusted and feeling sick the rest of the day, I didn't want to stay at the park. We left soon after. I wasn't going to complain till I realized I should say something since something obviously went wrong. Out of all the attractions there, that wave pool is the most dangerous and should have the very best lifeguards there. They should be able to tell the screaming laughter of a child apart from the screaming bloody murder of a child and see her trying to claw at me to get me back up. My throat and chest hurt the rest of the day as well as today. After Aquatica, we went to Sea World to spend the rest of the day there, so it wasn't completely shot. We had dinner at Sharks and I couldn't eat very much due to the pain. I have been a passholder at Sea World for several years now. Sea World is my favorite theme park ever. So this is very first time I have ever had a complaint about it. I have always found the team members to be fantastic, helpful, educated, and so fun and sweet. I am not out for attention, nor to sue. Nor could I ever not go to Sea World again, like I said, it's my favorite park. I just wanted you to know about the life guard issue. They shouldn't have missed seeing me. It has killed all trust I have in Aquatica and they barely opened and it was only my second visit. If I ever go again, it will likely be just a few hours to go in the kid park and lazy river to cool off, but spend the majority of my time at Sea World. If possible, I would like to know how you plan to use my complaint, if the life guards will be told about this incident.
You can contact me three ways:
email: ---
address: ---
phone numbers: ---

Thank you for hearing me out,
---

Posted: **Sun Jun 15, 2008 9:08 pm**

First off, OMG this was terrible and I'm glad you're okay and in a way, it's a positive thought to know you lived through such a thing. You're a survivor, and I don't know what word I can use but it was good and smart of you to take control of the situation and try to let your daughter go. As you yourself no, it seems not many could do that.

Now, in this situation, It's one of the times to not be afraid of bitching. If anyone should be bitched out for something, it's failing to see someone losing their life when you're trained to save it (and see it!).

In your letter, I actually would not have said that I was returning to Sea World. It's sad, but since they don't know who you are or see you in person, they may not be as moved as they should be by just seeing text. They care the most when they realize they will lose customers (though technically they almost lost a customer, in a far worse sense). I'm not saying they wouldn't care at all, of course they will, it's that you could have made them think about taking action even more. Now I understand not wanting to lie and then be caught in one, but maybe you could have said you don't plan on returning to Sea World unless you know action is taken, or something.

Posted: **Sun Jun 15, 2008 9:13 pm**

Oh my gosh Siren, that is terrible. Sounds incredibly scary!! Glad to hear you are alright.

Posted: **Sun Jun 15, 2008 9:57 pm**

I'm so sorry to hear that, Siren! I went through a similar experience like that at the beach one. I went out a little deeper into the water fine, but the sand underneath me went down a steep slope. I slipped and lost my footing, and went under the water as a big wave came over top of me and pushed me down again. I was so glad that I was able to swim back up to the surface all right, but I remember how scary it was there for a minute when I had a hard time trying to swim back up.

I can't believe though that no lifeguard there seemed to help and ignored your daughter's screaming. They definitely need to be reported and up their lifeguard attentiveness there. I'm so happy to hear though that you managed to be okay after that ordeal.

Posted: **Sun Jun 15, 2008 11:13 pm**

Holy crap. I almost drowned when I was little because my dad's an irresponsible father. Anyway, I am glad you're safe!

Posted: **Mon Jun 16, 2008 2:09 pm**

I don't like to sound like a brokenn record, but Its good to know that you are okay.

Posted: **Fri Jun 27, 2008 7:17 pm**

I am so glad you and your family are all safe, and I hope things can be put to right. Good lords.

As long as we're sharing drowning stories, when I was two-years-old, I was near a swimming pool in a convention center where some lady and some men had just told me I was a "very self-disciplined little girl" and that they would "want me to do great things [there someday]". I was two. I completely misinterpreted that.

You see, the swimming pool looked like a GREAT THING to me. After the praises, I went into the room with the pool, jumped in with my clothes on, and started swimming.

Turns out that I hadn't learned how to swim just yet. The lifeguard wasn't paying a speck of attention.

"HELP! HELP!" And under the water I went. "HELP! HELP!" And under the water I went. "HELP!" Back under the water. "HEL - " Hello there, deep blue.

This continued until my father, lords know how he ended up in there, leaped into the pool to rescue me. The lazy lifeguard did nothing at all except say, "Oh my god! I didn't see the kid!" Dipstick, I was yelling my lungs out.

Posted: **Sun Jun 29, 2008 8:33 am**

Thank God your alright Siren.

I was also thinking where the f*** where those stupid life guards.

DVDizzy Forum

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