Splash Without Cash

By Erin O’Hagan, City of Myrtle Beach

To start every summer, four days of free swim lessons are offered to anyone in the community at Myrtle Beach’s Mary C. Canty Recreation Center.

As long as their at least 5 years old, participants jump into the shallow end of the pool with a certified American Red Cross Water Safety Instructor to learn the basics of water safety. It’s called “Splash Without Cash,” to emphasize that it’s free. This program is important to the city’s Aquatics division because so many public activities at the beach revolve around water. 85% of Americans say they can swim, but only about half of can complete all of the basic lifesaving skills needed to be safe in the water.

The main purpose of these free swim lessons is to provide those skills. Even if you aren’t on the beach regularly, you might still find yourself enjoying outdoor water activities at the neighborhood pool, on a lake or in a local river.

The lessons include: stepping or jumping into water that’s over the swimmer’s head, returning to the surface and floating or treading water for one minute, turning around in a full circle to find an exit, swimming 25 yards to the exit without stopping, and safely exiting from the water – all completed without a lifejacket.

To cover as many scenarios as possible, swim instructors teach safety habits such as playing or swimming with a buddy, looking before jumping into any body of water, recognizing when someone is in trouble and how to find help.

Splash Without Cash also explains when and where it is appropriate to wear lifejackets, along with reminders about wearing sunscreen and finding shade to play in on hot days.

While kids are in the pool learning lifesaving skills, their adults are learning a few things, too. The City of Myrtle Beach recently added a requirement that adults whose kids are attending swim lessons must come to one session of a community CPR demonstration. Three out of the four lesson days, adults are welcome to watch their young ones from the viewing area. However, one day while the kids are in class, the adults are attending a CPR demonstration with a City of Myrtle Beach CPR/AED/First Aid Instructor. These demonstrations will not certify the adults a certification, but with the requirement the goal is to expose as many members of the community as possible to the basics of CPR. They will be better prepared for an emergency.

The hope is that this minimal demonstration encourages parents and guardians to sign up for an American Red Cross CPR/AED/ First Aid certification course in the future. The more people who know how to help in an emergency, the safer everyone will be in Myrtle Beach.