Knowing how to tread water correctly for long is compulsory for a person who spends a lot of time in the ocean, whether you’re just a casual traveler or a local surfer. There’s no telling when the waters may go turbulent.
Steps for Treading the Water Correctly
Keep Your Body Upright
Horizontal floating may appear like the proper manner to survive getting mixed up in the ocean, but it isn’t. Keeping your face level with water will increase the risk of water entering the mouth, nose & ears — which is very dangerous.
Therefore, the right thing is to keep your body upright & vertical. Ensure that your head remains above water & that it is directly aligned from the spine down to the butt.
Pace Your Breathing
Soon as your body is properly straightened & you’ve gained balance, the next step is to manage yourself emotionally & psychologically.
This is an extremely nerve-racking event that no one should go through. It is therefore understandable if you panic. However, doing so will cause more harm than good. So, what to do is calm down & regulate your breathing.
You need not rush yourself. Spend some minutes calming your nerves before getting right to it. It is better to tread for 20 minutes with your emotions in check than tread for hours with peak anxiety — that is, if you’re able to tread for that long.
Tilt Your Head Back
The waves can crash too much on your face if you keep it carelessly. Therefore, you have to tilt your head backward. However, do not bend the head so far that you’ll feel inconvenient. Remember that you don’t know how long you’ll be treading. Staying relaxed & comfortable must be a priority.
Start Moving Your Hands
With your head vertically aligned, balance settled, head tilted backward & more critically, calmed down, treading comes next.
And unlike what you’ve heard, treading is not just about your legs. It includes your hands too. All the limbs have to be involved in the process. Leaving your legs to do everything will lead to rapid exhaustion.
A technique you can employ is sculling. This involves moving the hands horizontally back & forth, such that your hands start looking like propellers rapidly making little downward circles.
Remember to be moving your hands back & forth. Going up & down will have your hands moving against the current, which is tiring after some time.
Move The Legs Too
You can use your legs for different movements, including rotary kicks, flutter kicks, leg circles (which is about swiftly moving your legs in circles) & frog kicks (which involves moving the legs for breaststrokes).
I think the best way to do this is the rotary kick because it saves energy the most. You can do this by rotating one of your legs clockwise, keeping the other in the opposite direction. This can be difficult to master, though.
Concluding How to Tread Water Correctly
Knowing how to tread water correctly is a very critical piece of skill. Remember that the tides can always turn against you. It would be best if you were able to save yourself.
Osie J
this is good to know because i find treading water very difficult and tiring.