Phil 10.08.2025

Navigating Neva

In this episode, Phil Waggott from SplashSave joins Nicole Fairfield and Wes King to unpack New Zealand’s groundbreaking drowning-prevention data system — one that now tracks hospitalizations as well as fatalities.

The results are eye-opening: for every drowning death, there are roughly ten hospitalizations — a hidden layer of water-related trauma that rarely gets measured or discussed.

Phil explains the challenge of proving prevention success when “near-miss” incidents go unreported, while Nicole shares her push to improve data collection in Georgia, where adults who can’t swim yet fish or boat remain one of the highest-risk groups.

Together, they shift the conversation from “How do we get people into our programs?” to “What would water safety look like if communities designed it themselves?”

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