Keep Everyone Safe At Your Lake Home With These Water Safety Tips

Buying a lake home gives you more than a breathtaking view out of the window as the sun rises over the water each morning. With a home so close to a body of water, your family and friends can also enjoy a multitude of water activities, from swimming to boating. As the homeowner and host of the get-togethers, it's important that you take charge of ensuring that everyone stays safe while in the water. At large gatherings, it's a good idea to recruit a couple adults who can serve as safety monitors and keep an eye on the situation. Here are some important tips to keep in mind.

Nip Dangerous Competitions In The Bud

One the ways that people become hurt while playing in the water is getting involved in competitions that are constantly increasing in risk. For example, if people are jumping off a cliff near your home, they might constantly be egging each other on to jump from higher points. You don't want to be a killjoy, but you do need to be responsible — and the reality is that when competitions start to escalate, the risk of someone getting hurt also climbs dramatically. Discourage competitions of this nature and, instead, encourage your guests to enjoy a healthier competitive spirit with a game of water volleyball or something less risky.

Install Swim Buoys

If people are swimming right off your waterfront, it's important to ensure that they stay relatively close to the shore. Instead of trying to keep people within an arbitrary boundary, place several swim buoys to mark off the swimming area at the start of the season. This leaves nothing to interpretation — your guests must remain within the buoys whenever they're swimming. This will keep them in an area in which the water isn't too deep and where there aren't any watercraft zooming nearby.

Don't Let Your Guard Down With Life Jackets

It's ideal to have the young swimmers in your group wearing life jackets, but the presence of these flotation devices doesn't mean that you should simply ignore what's going on in the water. For a life jacket to work, it needs to be worn properly. Make sure that you're constantly keeping an eye on how your young swimmers are wearing their life jackets; it's easy for someone to remove or undo the jacket to dive underwater, for example, but you need to be vigilant about making sure these safety items are always worn as designed.

Lake houses are a fun place to get together with friends and family, but keep responsibility and safety in mind as you host guests at yours.