It is an age-old story for many Australians – the cicadas constantly clicking, the cool water soothing yesterday’s sunburn, and the blissful sting in your lungs making that final lap underwater, without taking a breath.
And then comes the head spins when you finally pull up out of the water. You’re determined to do it one better next time.
But under the surface, the body’s systems are failing, and the warning signs stop coming. The last seconds are spent silently suffocating underwater, the body doesn’t even call out to remind you to breathe.
Member of Shallow Water Blackout Prevention Australia, Gary Washbourne said it was unlikely his nephew, Jack Macmillan, would have known he was drowning, until it was too late.
“He was a 12-year-old boy who was fit, active, played sport, he was a competent swimmer,” Mr Washbourne said.
“He thought he could have just stood up, but instead he blacked out and sunk to the bottom of the pool.”
Jack drowned in the family backyard pool in Cordeaux Heights on January 29, 2013, two days before he was due to start high school.
Celebrating the Australia Day long weekend, and the end of the school holidays, Jack drowned in just one metre of water while being supervised by his mum who, without any signs of struggle or panic, didn’t notice that he had fainted underwater.
“His mother struggled to get him out of the water, and when she did she started CPR but it was too late,” Mr Washbourne said.
“They couldn’t revive him.”
Shallow water blackout, or hypoxic blackout, is a specific category of drowning that is quick, silent, and lethal – the opposite of what many Australians understand drowning to be. And, unlike other kinds of drowning, it’s the competent, confident swimmers who are most at risk.
“In a normal dive, your carbon dioxide levels will increase to a point where it triggers the urgent need to breathe – it’s not the fact that you’ve lost oxygen,” Mr Washbourne said.
“If you hold your breath for a while and come up hyperventilating, you’re not necessarily able to have more oxygen in your body, but you’re quickly reducing the carbon dioxide levels in your body to an abnormally low area.
“The drowning happens because, with low levels of carbon dioxide, the blackout point from lack of oxygen occurs before the trigger point for the urgent need to breathe.
“Obviously, blacking out in the water is particularly dangerous because you’re unable to stop yourself from taking in water, so unless somebody responds to you really, really quickly, there’s a low likelihood of resuscitation.”
“It happens to the confident swimmers because they’re the ones intentionally going underwater for a long period of time, and pushing themselves to the limits.”
Jack is one of many Australians who have lost their lives in a drowning over a holiday period.
A study by the Royal Life Saving Society Australia found that Australians are twice as likely to drown on public holidays than other days of the year.
Surf Life Saving Australia reported that last summer, 27 per cent of coastal drowning deaths occur over just a few days between Christmas Eve and New Years Day and the Australia Day long weekend.
That trend tragically continued over this year’s Easter long weekend, with the ABC reporting another six drowning deaths.
But these holiday tragedies are not a coincidence, as many Australians take extra risks around unfamiliar waterways during public holidays.
And it’s young men who are the most likely to take these risks.
According to a study supported by the Royal Life Saving Society Australia, all 22 confirmed hypoxic blackout drowning victims between July 2002 and June 2015 were male, with 77 per cent of those victims aged between 18 and 34 years old.
In addition, this year’s Royal Life Saving Summer Drowning Report further reported that 81 per cent of all drowning victims were male.
Lifesaver Bailey Krstevski said the holidays are especially difficult times for rescues.
“Christmas and the holidays are already hard because alcohol and people having time off introduces new risk factors,” Mr Krstevski said.
“But there’s also just a lot more people on the beach, so from the lifeguard perspective it’s harder to keep an eye on the people in the flags.
“If someone goes to a random, unpatrolled spot on the beach, you can’t really see them or get to them so that leads to more drownings as well.”
Though hypoxic blackouts often occur because of risk-taking in the water, Mr Washbourne said there is also a severe lack of education about its risks.
“People don’t realise that they can’t just come up for air if they’re drowning, or that they might not even realise they’re drowning at all,” Mr Washbourne said.
“The weekend before my nephew drowned, I was sitting on the bottom of the pool holding my breath with him, encouraging him to do it.
“If he had known about the risks, he would have never unnecessarily taken them.”
Jack’s family has felt the enormity of his loss each day since his passing in 2013.
For them, missing Jack isn’t just about remembering the light that was his life, but mourning the experiences he never experienced – a 21st birthday he didn’t get to celebrate, a graduation ceremony he didn’t get to attend, and all the in-betweens.
“Jack was a great kid,” Mr Washbourne said.
“He loved his three younger sisters and his cousins, and he was always running around and so outgoing.
“He was just so fun to be around, and he did everything and anything but always involved everyone else as well. The kids talk about Jack still, missing him heaps – they’re a bit lost without him.
“We make sure we try and make celebrations around the things Jack would have done. Unfortunately now all of the other children are older than Jack was when he passed. It’s really hard to see them hit milestones that he’s never going to hit.”
Jack’s family has urged the community to educate themselves on the risks of hypoxic blackout to stop it from happening again.
“These deaths are 100 per cent preventable,” Mr Washbourne said.
“We don’t want this happening to any other family.”
For more information on hypoxic blackout, see the Underwater Hypoxic Blackout Prevention page. In an emergency, call 000.
If this article has been distressing for you or a loved one, reach out to Lifeline Australia on 13 11 14 for support.