KENOSHA, Wis. — Kenosha’s Seth Weidmann is a member of the Kenosha Safety Around Water Coalition and one of the community’s most experienced swimmers.
Two summers ago, he was on a walk at Kenosha’s Pennoyer Park when he saw two kids swimming where the mouth of the Pike River meets Lake Michigan.
“I let a couple minutes go hoping they would stay close to the shore,” Weidmann said. “When I looked again after we had walked a little bit, they were probably getting pulled 10, 20 yards out.”
Going against the advice he commonly preaches to others, he went in after them.
“I almost didn’t make it,” Weidmann said. “I’m a strong swimmer to this day. I was an All-American in high school, a college swimming athlete. I don’t swim as much as I should anymore but I’m a strong enough swimmer.”
Using the Flip, Float, and Follow survival method for several minutes, Weidmann helped both kids to shore.
VIDEO: Kenosha Safety Around Water Coalition urging swimmers to use extreme caution
Kenosha YMCA Aquatics Director Stephanie Zuehls teaches the same survival technique to swimmers of all abilities.
“We want flip, float, follow to be as common as stop, drop and roll,” Zuehls said.
The coalition built two water safety kiosks at Pennoyer Park and Simmons Island Beach, educating beachgoers on the dangers of Lake Michigan.
They recently added a QR code for immediate access to beach conditions.
It arrives just days after a 40-year-old woman was drowning and rescued at Kenosha's Simmons Island Beach.
The goal is to keep swimmers safe and avoid those stories like Weidmann’s.
“It was a success story in some ways, but it was also a perfect example of how these things can happen in an instant and how more education about where we should be swimming in this community really needs to happen,” Weidmann said.
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