SWIMMING INSTRUCTION AID

Hawera Star, Volume L, 9 January 1931, Page 4

SWIMMING INSTRUCTION AID

HELP FOR BEGIN NEILS.

HAWERA BATHS DEVICE

Visitors- to the Hawera Municipal Baths during the past two days have expressed keen appreciation of the facilities afforded t>y a contrivance which has been designed by the popuJar custodian, Mr J. Dowdle, as an aid to beginners in swimming. Placed in operation on Wednesday afternoon for tne first time, it has already proved a medium of instruction to a large number of juveniles, together with adults, and Mr Dowdle has received merited congratulation on the success of ihis latest effort to encourage the useful and beneficial exercise of swimming. - . A light though powerful cable of wire steel, together with a number of pulleys and belts, have been designed for use in the simple yet effective device. The cable, which is capable of resisting a strain many times greater than it will be called upon to hear in its usage at the baths, is, when placed in position, stretched across the width of the pool at the shallow end some four feet above the water level. Screw terminals permit of its being tightened to eliminate sagging when weight is placed upon it and, though the baths buildings provide secure anchorage at both ends of the cable, it may he erected or taken down within the space of a few seconds. Along the cable run steel pulleys, suspended from which by stout cords are belts fashioned from wide, strong webbing. These rest at swimming level in the water and are strapped with buckle fastenings round the chest or the user. Swivels on the belts enable the user to turn at will in the water and. employing the approved breaststroke, trudgeon or “dog-paddle,” the beginning swimmer, with the support of the cable, may traverse the pool. Demonstration has shown that six users of the belts may he accommodated at the one time. "While the sup- , ports render risk negligble, even to diminutive learners who are out of their dentil in the 3ft 6in of water at the shallow end of the pool, the maximum margin of safetv is ensured by the supervision of such juveniles from the edge of the hath end. which is only some two feet away, or by an instructor actually in the pool. Yesterday afternoon a . “Hawera Star” reporter saw the device in use by a number of enthusiastic-learners, none of whom was able to swim. Through the support afforded each was able, however, to obtain the necessarv elementary practice in free application of recognised principles and to progress materially towards the attainment of confidence which is usually reached onlv after much longer periods. With the resumption of organised instruction of school classes Mr Dowdle intends to make the device available to the teachers. In the meantime it. is proving verv popular with mnnv visitors to the pool and, besides learners, its admirers include practised swimmers who are anxious to attain higher standards of perfection in the employment of particular strokes.