The shore looks different when it is the place you are trying to reach.

The same coastline is scenery from a hotel window and a destination from the water. Position changes what a thing is: how far, how kind, how urgently it matters that you get there. Descriptions made from safety are not wrong, they are simply made by someone for whom arrival was never in doubt. That is why advice about a difficulty so often sounds strange to the person inside it.

When you describe something you have already come through, say where you were standing. And when someone offers you their view, it is fair to ask whether they were swimming or watching.