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The CDC has issued nearly a dozen tips for swimmers and boaters. Whether you swim or boat on the ocean, in a lake, or on a river, these safety tips may seem obvious but the reminder could one day save a life.
 1. Learn to swim.
 2. Watch swimmers in or around the water. When selecting who is in charge,            designate a CPR-trained adult who can swim. And do not read, play with your       iPad, or do anything else distracting when it's your turn to watch the children.
 3. Learn CPR.
 4. Use buddy system. Regardless of your age, swim with a buddy. 
 5. Heed warnings. If you don't know what they mean, find someone and ask. If           many people suddenly are leaving, ask one of them why everyone is leaving. If       the beach is deserted, don't go in the water at all.
 6. Know the terrain. Beware of sudden drop-offs. Always enter water feet first.           (One of my high school friends became paralyzed after diving into a flooded           quarry and hitting his head.)
 7. Avoid currents. You can identify them by looking for water that is discolored,        choppy, foamy, or filled with debris and that is moving in a channel away from       shore. If caught in a current, swim parallel to shore until you get free of the            current, then swim toward shore.
 8. Use life jackets.Do not use "noodles," inner tubes, or water wings in place of         life jackets, as they are toys and not designed to keep you safe.
 9. Avoid alcohol while swimming, boating or water skiing, as well as when                 supervising children.
10. Learn boating safety; take a formal safety course.
11. Know the weather before you go swimming or boating. Avoid strong winds            and thunderstorms when lightning strikes can be dangerous
Safety Tips for Swimmers & Boaters
1. Life jackets are never optional. Jackets should always fit well.
2. Put an orange flag on your boat. This is an official sign to other boaters that you have       a skiier behind you somewhere.
3. The driver should have a mirror on their boat so that if they need to, they can see the skiier behind them. In addition to a mirror, there should always another person on the boat besides the driver. The driver is not supposed to be the one watching the skiier; they are supposed to be focused on driving. It is the job of the second person to watch the skiier and tell the driver if there are problems.
4. Before beginning, the driver should assess any potential dangers in the water. A driver should know exactly where bouys, pilons, other boats and any other potential obstacles are at all times. They should also make sure that they are not getting too close to swimmers, other boats, or the shore. Since a driver cannot turn suddenly with a skiier in tow, they may have to slowly cut the engine in emergency situations in order to avoid a danger up ahead.
5. Don’t go out when there are too many other boats. Each boat needs to have its own 200-foot wide “ski corridor,” and will need to have a 2,000-3,000 foot long ski area.
6. Never ski at night. No matter how much fun you are having, don’t keep skiing if the sun has already gone down. Visibility gradually diminishes, increasing the risk of accident. Skiing is actually legally prohibited if it is over a half an hour before sunrise or after sunset.
7. Don’t go waterskiing when visibility is bad, whether it be due to light rain, smog, or any other cause. Also avoid choppy water.
8. Learn basic communication signs. If you are the waterskiier, and you go down, there are several signals you can make to the driver of the boat. Putting both hands behind your head means that you are okay. A salute type hand signal from the head means that you want to go back to the dock. A thumbs up means speed up, thumbs down means slow down. A flat, open hand means stop. Also, when you are the skiier and you go down, you should hold up one ski so that other boats can see you.
Safety Tips for Water Skiing