Volume 10, Number 1 (December 2016) First IJARE Online Open Access Issue!

In This Volume 10

Welcome to the first open access volume and issue of the International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education (IJARE)!

In This Issue 10(1)

This first issue in Volume 10 will continue to grow over the next months before issue 2 begins. One of the fascinating aspects of online, open access publishing is that we are not bound by the timeline restrictions normally associated with print media. As a consequence, each issue will continue to grow until we decide to close the issue and begin the next one. It also means that authors whose manuscripts and studies are accepted for publication will be published almost immediately online without waiting several months (or more) for another issue to come out.

Our first article in this first issue is authored by Mary Sanders and her group of co-authors as they examined an unique shallow water exercise program for older adult women in Japan which demonstrated important gains among the women on several activities of daily living (ADL). It comes complete with illustrations and photographs of their activities.

The second article relates the impact of SCUBA experiences on movement response time. The report comes to us from Christopher Kovacs (Western Illinois) and Trevor Paulsen (from Arkansas State).

The third research article comes from "down under," authored by Drs. Lauren Petrass and Jenny Blitvich from Federation University in Ballarat, Australia. In their study, they examined a multiple case study of children who had drowned in swimming pools to investigate the predominant reasons behind the fatalities.

The fourth research article by Teresa Stanley, WaterSafe Auckland, and Kevin Moran, University of Auckland, reports on a survey of the perceptions of parents of their own and their child's swimming competency. It should not be surprising that their findings cast doubts about the accuracy about what kind of competency really represents adequate levels to reduce the risk of drowning.

The fifth research article in this issue is an unique survey report also out of New Zealand, authored by Kevin Moran, University of Auckland, and Duncan Ferner, of the New Zealand Search and Rescue Council. The authors surveyed both NZ residents as well as tourists on their beliefs and perceptions about a wide variety of water safety topics. This article adds to the literature in further documenting that certain beliefs and behaviors reported by tourists support why they are more likely to suffer fatal or non-fatal drownings than residents of a country.

As always, good reading!

Steve Langendorfer

Editor, IJARE