Flume pool fun – confident swimming with the Splash About Float Suit

Swimming with kids is not only good exercise (for me and them!) it’s an important life skill too, in my opinion. From three months old, the Wee Man has been going to swimming ‘lessons’, and has learnt how to be confident in the water, jumping in and climbing out, swimming (mostly under the water rather than on top) and to have no fear of getting his head wet. Something he does very frequently, bobbing up and down without even blinking, to the amazement of his Auntie Tooie who always manages to drink about half the pool every time she attempts to stick her own head under.

But it’s not all about safety – it’s a lot about fun too. The Wee Man enjoys going to a normal pool quite a lot, but then we took him to Aquasplash at Christmas time (a fun pool with lots of slides, waterfalls and bubbly bits) and he was over the moon. Well, mostly, except for the fact that he was just under the height limit for most of the rides – and even if he had have been big enough he isn’t quite confident enough to go down on his own.

‘I’ll go on the blue chutes when I’m four’ he whispered sadly as we left.

Then, at his last hospital appointment he was measured, and told he was 1m tall – he obviously had a little post Christmas growth spurt! So that was the height sorted – but there was still the problem of the confidence…

Suddenly, inspiration hit me as I recalled happy times bobbing up and down in the wave pool with my sister at Center Parcs. We could get him a float suit! It should provide just enough buoyancy that he’d feel happy coming down a chute alone, as well as helping me feel less worried too. It’s a better option than arm bands as he’s never worn them and doesn’t like the idea of them at all, and would also be much less likely to get in the way as he’s whooshing down.

So that’s what we decided to get. And when his starry Splash About suit arrived last Thursday he was very, very excited. When I told him we could go to Aquasplash on Sunday, the excitement level ramped up tenfold. Huge grins and lots of squealing went on all weekend, and he insisted on wearing the float suit in the bath in readiness each night, until finally it was time for us to go. Luckily, it’s very easy to take on and off, with a nice sturdy zip and a little Velcro tab at the top to stop the zip being snagged and unzipped accidentally. The buoyancy is adjustable, as the floats inside can be gradually removed to aid independent swimming as the Wee Man gets more and more confident. They slot in and out thanks to stretchy pillowcase slip type design, which allows easy removal but doesn’t allow the floats to come free on their own. (I didn’t tell the Wee Man this, as there would have been floats being popped in and out and bobbing up and down in the bath all evening!)

With his starry float suit zipped firmly on, the Wee Man marched out into the pool, and immediately demanded to go down the slides. Wading through the splash pool and into the deeper water, suspended by myself and Auntie Tooie, despite his excitement he was initially quite clingy and cautious. No amount of cajoling could persuade him to stop acting like a limpet and find that the float suit really was holding him up.

So we went around the slow river, down the slides…and then he decided he was ready to try the Abyss. Which is actually quite a scary slide for a three year old – since it goes dark in places. Waiting at the bottom to make sure he got out safely, while his Auntie Tooie took him up the steps, I half expected to see him come down them again a couple of minutes later.

But he didn’t and after a few minutes, there he was, whizzing down to the bottom with a smile. The float suit kept him up in the pool at the end and, although he admitted he had been a bit worried in the black bit, he was really pleased to have gone on the blue chute all on his own.

Then it was time for the rapids, where he took great delight in pushing me down all the slidey bits, bobbing up and down in the current himself, and after that he overcame his fear of the ‘donuts’ (think giant inflatable rings) and went on one along the donut chute with me, which I managed to overturn at the end meaning we both went plunging into four feet of water in the slow river. I was a bit disorientated, but the Wee Man was not fazed at all, and came back to the surface with a grin.

And then, he finally let go of me, and of his Auntie Tooie, and had a little swim all by himself. Which he was very, very pleased with himself about.

‘If you wear a float suit, you can go on the blue chute when you’re THREE’ he whispered excitedly, before declaring loudly: ‘Mummy. We need to get Bubby D a starry float suit too!’