Lifesaving

A reach rescue is the one you should try first. The Red Cross Lesson 8 PDF walks through it in plain steps: call for help, stay dry, brace your legs or lie flat on the deck, then extend something the casualty can grab. A reaching pole, a shepherd's crook, an oar, a branch, a beach towel: any of these counts. Once they have hold, keep low and lean back. The bracing is so your weight is behind the pull, not over the water.

It applies when the casualty is conscious and within reach of an extended object. The document is explicit that entering the water is not the lay person's job. Read it as orientation, not training. See Get trained for hands-on practice under an assessor. Reading a lesson plan will not give you the feel of a panicked adult on the other end of a pole.

Most drowning doubles start with someone going in to help. The ILS 2014 Chain of Survival says why plainly: a bystander who enters the water without a flotation aid, and usually without training, becomes the second casualty. A drowning person is not the waving figure films put in your head. They push down on anything that keeps them up, including your head and shoulders. That is why 'Go' sits last in reach-throw-row-go.

Push the aid forward on approach. Do not touch the casualty until they have got hold. The tow happens only after they stop fighting, and fighting is the default state for someone who thinks they are about to die. Reading this paper will not teach you to do any of this. SLSS, RLSS, and ILS courses will. See Get trained.