Halifax man warns drowning can occur within minutes or seconds

A Halifax man is speaking out about his near drowning last weekend, hoping to prevent others from getting in trouble while enjoying the water.

"It all went really wrong, really fast and it wentfrom me swimminginto shore, within a span of acouple seconds to really feeling like Iwas fighting for my life," Trevor Adams said Tuesday.

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Adams spent many summers swimming in Ponhook Lake in Queens County.

He was there last weekend, enjoying the tranquility of the lake ona floating chair, when he decided to swim back to shore.

"As Iwas trying to make my way back to shore, I gota charleyhorse. Atthe same time, my face went down and Igot a mouth of water and then Igot another."

Panicked and was struggling

Adams said he panicked and was struggling, andunable to think clearly. Thankfully his wife Tammy saw he was in troubleand told him to grab the floating chair.

"If Tammy hadn't been there to get my attention... and tell me what Ineeded to know, my family would be planning a funeral today, I'msure," Adams said.

Paul D'Eon,director of the Nova Scotia Lifeguard Service,saidit doesn't take long for a swimmer to get into trouble.

"People, particularly children, can slip under the water anywhere between 20 and 30 seconds. They'll struggle and adults, most adults will struggle up to a minute so it happens very quickly and often without warning," he said.

D'Eon has beenteaching life-saving techniques for 40 years. He saysthere are many more near misses than drownings.

Fatigue cancause drowning

He said people often don't call for help because they're just trying to breathe.

'If you haven't swam for awhile, don't go out of your depth. Overestimating ability and using new muscles and getting into a situation where you're fatigued is often times the cause of drowning."

He also advised swimmers to be cautious of big waves and strong currents as hurricane season is now here.

Adams now knows howquickly things can go wrong.

He'surging people to always have some sort of flotation device nearby and no matter what your age, have someone on shore watching you.