can you swim?

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if so, how'd you learn? if not, is it ever a problem?

my mum took me to the Y when i was a wee lad.

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't. Is it ever a problem? Um, only when I see people swimming and think "gee that looks like fun".

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Similarly to oops. I do like soaking in a swimming pool, though.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes. Really well. It's like my superpower. I swam 365 days / year from the ages of 5-12, less frequently for a few after that, not much in college and now go down to the pond / beach at least 2x every week. I was a junior national swim champion but I false started and fucked-up the team. Most of my dreams are in some sort of semi-liquid environment.

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm incredibly excited about this thread.

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I was severely traumatized as a toddler and have a overwhelming fear of water. (not like if I see a glass of water or when it rains. you know, BEING in water, drowning, that sort of thing)

xpost yes I love being in a pool so long as my feet can touch the ground while my head and shoulders remain above water.

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

The ocean scares the living shit out of me. I love it.

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

yes! the best thing ever is swimming in the ocean with the object of your affection.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm kinda like jeremy, it's one of the only vaguely athletic things I'm any good at, but I'm ridiculously good at it. I never managed to not place in any of the swim meets I swam age 7-12, and usually did the best in the backstroke and whatever they call that one dolphiny thing (OMG I'VE FORGOTTEN!). One of my favorite things in the world is swimming with the current in the ocean.

I stopped about the same times the hormones kicked in, oddly.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I couldn't swim until I was about 10, when an uncle tossed me into a pool and said "swim!"

this is how I felt:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002KZ1.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― Gear! (Gear!), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm a pretty good swimmer thanks to the YMCA of North Hollywood and the gigantic Pickwick Pool.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Your uncle was buff.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

An x-post, perhaps.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm ok. I swam alot as a child, it was the easiest way to get to school.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I can swim like an otter. When I jump off a cliff, I'm more concerned about breaking something than I am about drowning.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm brilliant at it. I beat my friend silly in a race, and he's about ten times fitter than me. It's all about technique and confidence, I've just always felt at home in the water.

― Wooden (Wooden), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

i was on a kids' swim team briefly when i was little, but it didn't last because it was too early in the morning for me. i do remember being up on the board or whatever at a meet and having to piss really badly, so of course i let loose during the heat. it's kind of tough to concentrate on swimming well when yer peeing.

there was a pretty cool article in the new yorker a couple weeks ago about whatshername the cal/olympic swimmer and the mysterious biomechanics of moving a solid object through a fluid.

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Also a problem: I really wanna try surfing sometime, but will most likely never get over my fear of being in open water.

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

There was (is, but with neighbors in the way now) a little pond about half a mile from my house where I used to sneak away and swim with my sister. We'd be totally unsupervised, totally alone, and I don't think for at least a decade anybody else even knew it exisited. When I was 14 I'd get baked and go to it myself. It was little nirvana, and in my dopey state I'd float on my back and let the turtles and fish nibble at my legs and ponder the state of the universe and my weird adolescent preoccupations. I conceived of buying the land (it wasn't up for much) but when I mentioned it to my father he laughed. And then some schmuck bought it and turned it into the centerpiece of a subdevelopment o' McMansions.

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm an ok swimmer. I can't really do the breast stroke 100% right, but close enough that I can get around. The ocean is scary to me too.

― St. Nicholas (Nick A.), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:44 (twenty-one years ago)

it doesn't seem like it would be that hard to learn, but i guess it really is (swimming, i mean, not surfing)

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I've tried to learn a few times since my toddler traumatizing. Each time has ended with me freaking the fuck out and being on the verge of tears.

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I actually was in lifeguard training when I pretty much gave up my swimming obsession at about 13 years old. It's where I learned CPR and how to swim while dragging a limp body with me. It's pretty cool, because, what with the near-weightlessness/buoyancy (sp?), even a scrawny little 100 lb. kid like I was then can haul a 200+ pound person through a body of water at pretty fast speeds.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:46 (twenty-one years ago)

So yeah, if there's ever an ILX pool party/FAP, me and jeremy will play lifeguard.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

It would be a total speedofest.

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I went out on a boat the other week for the first time and, though I wasn't worried about falling in at all, the people I was with tried to quell my fears. One guy was a lifeguard and told me that if I fell in to not yell "HELP!!" but rather by holding my breath I'd effortlessly rise to the surface and that people usually drown when they struggle. Is that true?

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Like ooops and ned, I never learned how to swim. I like splashing about in the ocean though. It's only ever a problem for other people. "you grew up in california? and you can't swim?!!!"

― mouse (mouse), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

If you panic you're bound to sink yourself ... but buoyancy varies significantly from person to person. Your individual ratio of muscle mass to fat to weight may make you an innate sinker. A lot of drowning occurs from people trying to 'climb' the water and hold themselves on top. Holding your breath = good idea so you don't inhale water, but 'pushing' down with your closed hands is a better idea, since you'll give yourself far more lift than an open-fingered climb.

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

i love swimming. i can do it very well, although i'm not as fast as i used to be. i was one of those often-mocked synchronized swimmers as a child, although i never wore a silly cap.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

well I'm skinny (6ft 150lbs). Would you think I'd be very bouyant?

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

It's only ever a problem for other people. "you grew up in california? and you can't swim?!!!"

Haha -- I know exactly what you mean!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

took Y lessons as a kid. Love swimming. Used to swim laps every day a couple years ago but now am too lazy.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Badly. Even so, ocean swimming is one of the most exhilirating things in the world. Swimming pools bore me unless you count this one.

― Tag (Tag), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

are you in good shape?

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm kind of person-shaped.

― Tag (Tag), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

i am more buoyant than i used to be.

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Thursday, 29 July 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

that was to oops, an implied xpost.

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Thursday, 29 July 2004 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

like, am i muscular? not really, but I'm not flabby either. I can run a few miles no problem and play sports often, so yeah I guess I'm in good shape.

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 29 July 2004 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

then ... decently.

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Thursday, 29 July 2004 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

swimming in the ocean is one of the most amazing experiences. even being near it is great. i went to the beach in march for the first time in quite a while, and now i understand why invalids were sent to the seaside. it has a pyschosomatic healing power.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 29 July 2004 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I like flumes and high diving boards myself. You don't them at the seaside.

― Wooden (Wooden), Thursday, 29 July 2004 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Treading water: to tread water, hold your hands with your all your fingers touching in a vaguely scooped shape, and push and pull them simultaneously forward and back parallel to the water's surface, sortuv rounding the strokes off at each end, while scissor-kicking with your feet. I realize this description probably doesn't translate so well onto the screen w/o pictures, but hey.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 29 July 2004 19:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I hate getting sand in my ears/down my pants etc. hence don't like the beach.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 29 July 2004 19:07 (twenty-one years ago)

brrr...i'm partial to a bath, but that's as deep as I like water. Can't swim, will never learn. Should, but never will.
At least I live in New York and it's about the last thing anyone ever does, unless it's laps at their gym. God help me if I was Californian, Australian or something...

― paulhw (paulhw), Thursday, 29 July 2004 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm also ridiculously good at it - my stepdad tossed me in the pool when I was five, and I haven't looked back. (I can't - JAWS might get me).

― luna (luna.c), Thursday, 29 July 2004 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost - dude New York City has great beaches!

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 29 July 2004 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I can swim, but I've never swam in the ocean :( Actually I've probably been on a beach for 5 minutes of my life.

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Thursday, 29 July 2004 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

i can swim, just not particularly well. i still find it GREAT fun when i do, though (it's been a while) - beach or otherwise...

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Thursday, 29 July 2004 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost - dude New York City has great beaches!

I read this as "New York City has gay beaches" for some weird reason.

I don't remember how I learned to swim, but adults who can't strike me odd in the same way as people in their mid-20s who don't have a driver's license. Like, I know it's not unfathomable and that it doesn't really matter, but I take those things for granted so much that having to think of the possiblity of something different is weird.

― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 29 July 2004 21:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 120 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

When I was a child, I thought being a swim teacher was one of the grooviest jobs ever... I still dream of being a novelist.
I love swimming. I don't remember exactly how I learned, but it came very fast after my family had a pool built - sometime when I was 7. Even before I could swim properly, I always enjoyed the water.
Never competitively swam because I always felt too fat and unathletic, too ashamed to be seen in public in a swimsuit after I turned 14. Irony is that my fat probably made me very bouyant!
At the height of my physical fitness, I could swim a mile in 40 minutes -- took a swim course at Cal in the beautiful rooftop pool at Hearst Gym. I think Julia Morgan designed the pool.

― Melinda Mess-injure, Thursday, 22 March 2007 01:40 (nineteen years ago)

I taught swimming for a few years in my teens, but quit when I reached legal drinking age. The lingering stench of chlorine (even after vigorous scrubbing) coupled with green-tinged blond hair were not overly appealing to the opposite sex.

Now I live one street from the ocean so I get to be all salty & sandy every weekend. Hurrah. Winter bites.

― Hard like armour, Thursday, 22 March 2007 02:55 (nineteen years ago)

i can't do either!

You're not alone.

you guys are fucked come End Times.

swimming at the bottom of a waterfall = one of the best experiences of my life.

MMM this is true. we swam in erawan national park in thailand, there are 5 or 6 or 7 waterfalls one above the other and you can stop climbing and swim wherever you like. there were little fish that tried to nibble us. think i prefer the sea though, for the unutterable vastness fucking with my head.

I suppose it would be nice, but it feels about as valuable in my life to being able to touch type.

lol

god everything i said upthread is still so true. i've been wanting to get in the outdoor water for around a month now. hackney lido opens again soon but only for like a fortnight, while all the kids are off school, then closes again until end of april or sometime in may. take me to the river.

― emsk, Sunday, 25 March 2007 00:28 (nineteen years ago)

I say we start up a paypal fund to buy Ned and The Lex training wheels and floaties.

― Beth Parker, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:09 (nineteen years ago)

Possibly out-lex-ing lex: can't swim, can't ride a bike, can't drive a car.

― Bob Six, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:10 (nineteen years ago)

Ah, no worries Bob, you actually tie me there.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:13 (nineteen years ago)

Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water

― caek, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:23 (nineteen years ago)

It has ocurred to me re-reading this thread that my eyesight is now so bad, swimming would be even more diffucult for me than before. Its a pity really because I do love floating about gently in warm water like a good summers day in someone's backyard pool, or at a river. Haven't done so in fnyears though.

― Trayce, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:25 (nineteen years ago)

Public pools though... ew, no thanks. Esp indoors ones. That combo of rank humidity and chlorine and nasty little kids.

― Trayce, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:26 (nineteen years ago)

And their pee.

― Beth Parker, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:28 (nineteen years ago)

Can't swim, but have spent dozens of hours beside YMCA pools as my kids learned to swim. Now they have all moved away, and who--who-- will save me from drowning?

― M.V., Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:37 (nineteen years ago)

I have found prescription goggles in specsavers. It is a good thing.

― kv_nol, Sunday, 25 March 2007 02:00 (nineteen years ago)

my eyesight is now so bad, swimming would be even more diffucult for me than before.

I'm blind as fuck and it hasn't affected my enjoyment of swimming. I'm even gone scuba diving without prescription vision and been fine.

― chap, Sunday, 25 March 2007 02:59 (nineteen years ago)

lol @ people who can't swim

― Lovelace, Sunday, 25 March 2007 03:11 (nineteen years ago)

I can swim, but not well. We had a pool when we lived in Stanton (1970-75) but I didn't take much advantage of it. My parents wouldn't let us have friends over to swim because they didn't want to be liable for other kids' safety or have to play lifeguard constantly. Our best friends across the street also had a pool, and their parents wouldn't let us come over and swim for the same reasons. That kind of turned me off of swimming for good. :-(

― Rock Hardy, Sunday, 25 March 2007 03:18 (nineteen years ago)

I learned to swim in school, everybody did.. Whole class was off to the community indoors pool and got these pins, like the frog, the champ, in bronze, gold and silver etc. depending on how good you were. Almost everyone had like a small trophy-shield where you could put your pins. It was a big deal to collect the pins. Is it like this in the rest of the world?

― jonperson, Sunday, 25 March 2007 04:36 (nineteen years ago)

I can't swim.

I had lessons for 2 years, when I was 5-6 years old. I've always been pretty underweight, and I'm convinced that has something to do with it. Floating on my back is impossible.

I've nearly drowned 3 times.

1) I was in a hotel pool in the shallow side, and suddenly the floor started slanting down to the deep end, and I couldn't do anything about it for some reason. I suffered in the deep end for about a minute, spending most of my time underwater inbetween ocassional gasps for breath, before my sister rescued me and delivered me to the the side, where I rubbed Star Wars figures onto notebook paper for a while to cool down.

2) forgot.

3) Almost drowned in a friend's backyard pool for some reason, before being saved by his dad. phew.

Dammit!

― Z S, Sunday, 25 March 2007 06:24 (nineteen years ago)

So what are the chances of me barfing in the pool when I have my second lesson? heh. Just kidding. Morning sickness does NOT rule. :-( I also wonder how much I will be able to swim with a big pregnant belly. I'll have to adapt, I guess. :-)

― nathalie, Sunday, 25 March 2007 08:46 (nineteen years ago)

Possibly out-lex-ing lex: can't swim, can't ride a bike, can't drive a car.

oh obviously i can't drive either. can you imagine how dreadful i'd be? i have no means of transporting myself around apart from my legs.

― lex pretend, Sunday, 25 March 2007 08:56 (nineteen years ago)

The good thing is that being a pedestrian has had a massive change for the better in image , thanks to the carbon footprint zeitgeist.

― Bob Six, Sunday, 25 March 2007 09:32 (nineteen years ago)

I grew up next to Lake Superior, so swimming was just a thing that you did. I remember taking one swimmnig class, at the pool in the Paavo Nurmi Center at Suomi College.

― dan m, Sunday, 25 March 2007 09:53 (nineteen years ago)

Can you forget how to swim? It's been 17 years since I last did. I guess, I don't swim as it would mean being virtually naked in public, and that's not something I would enjoy.

I can probably ride a bike, but I haven't in about 20 years.

I'll never learn to drive.

― jel --, Sunday, 25 March 2007 10:02 (nineteen years ago)

I can swim. I also almost drowned three times, but I'm not afraid of the water.
However, most lakes and all ponds pretty much creep me out.
The ocean is the best.
This is so not swimming, but i took a "water aerobics" class a few weeks ago - i was at least twenty years younger than the other seven ladies, but it was so much fun! I broke my ankle several years ago, and the orthopedist has advised water exercise to keep it from becoming arthritic/more fucked up.
But some part of the ceiling fell in at the pool where the water aerobics was held, and now it's closed until next school year. (middle school pool).

― aimurchie, Sunday, 25 March 2007 11:10 (nineteen years ago)

I grew up right on a lake and still can't swim very well, get panicky feeling when my feet can't touch etc.
Lack of swimming destroyed Xerxes' navy and saved Western civilization!
"There were also Greek casualties, but not many; for most of the Greeks could swim, and those who lost their ships, provided they were not killed in the actual fighting, swam over to Salamis. Most of the [Persian] enemy, on the other hand, being unable to swim, were drowned."--Herodotus via Aubrey de Selincourt

― Bnad, Sunday, 25 March 2007 11:14 (nineteen years ago)

swimming is my only sport. learned how when I was abt 4/5 at the "Y" went on to competitive "aquatics" in the AAU and the state-champ high school team. bagged on it college when the twice-a-day practicing just got to be too much. started swimming laps again in my mid-twenties to counteract hedonism and weight gain. five or so years ago when my pool temporarily closed for repairs I started working out on exercise machine and realized how bored I was w/swimming, had been coasting for years. but I still swim a few laps after working out just to chill, and enjoy swimming in the ocean every chance I get.

― m coleman, Sunday, 25 March 2007 11:35 (nineteen years ago)

One of the greatest things that ever happened to me was when Mister Monkey taught me how to snorkel. I love it so much, I want to do it all the time. Although sadly Ireland's not great for the auld snorkelling, and places to go and snorkel are far away and hard to get to and expensive to get to, so we haven't been for about four years.

am the only sucker who learns to swim here? :-(

Nath, my mam didn't learn to swim till she was in her 50s.

― accentmonkey, Sunday, 25 March 2007 14:10 (nineteen years ago)

My husband refuses to believe it, but apparently the breaststroke is one of the hardest ones to do. Apparently if you master the butterfly technique it's less taxing (?) than the breast stroke Who knew? Not I!

breaststroke is the least efficient stroke but the easiest to do if your form is off. butterfly is the most efficient if you have the strength to maintain your form, but if you don't, forget it.

― lfam, Sunday, 25 March 2007 14:54 (nineteen years ago)

i think i had swimming with blue and humpback whales dreams last night

― rrrobyn, Sunday, 25 March 2007 14:55 (nineteen years ago)

i swam competitively from ages five to eighteen. i love to swim, but i rarely do it anymore because i dont belong to any health clubs... anyway, last time i tried swimming for fitness, my semi-chronic joint pain returned from swimming too much in the first place. i am pretty sure that i dont have any cartilage left in my elbows.

i havent been to the beach in over ten years now... i would love to go back.

― t0dd swiss, Sunday, 25 March 2007 16:45 (nineteen years ago)

I can swim. I grew up on an island so had to learn at a fairly early age. I'm pretty sure my technique is crap though. I've never been swimming in a lake but the idea of it really freaks me out. I just don't like the thought of being so close to fish and whatever else may be lurking down there. That said, I love swimming in the ocean. Strange.

― ENBB, Sunday, 25 March 2007 17:58 (nineteen years ago)

I'm not the strongest swimmer but I can spend an entire day in the water, esp since I learned to float.

― Michael White, Sunday, 25 March 2007 18:12 (nineteen years ago)

[i]Can you forget how to swim?[i/]

I don't think so. A big part of being able to swim is knowing you can do it and that your body is naturally bouyant. It's all the random thrashing about that makes people sink.

― chap, Sunday, 25 March 2007 18:16 (nineteen years ago)

holy shit i love swimming. also: flipping into water from cliffs :D

that ppl can't swim AND ride bikes AND drive cars is totally baffling because at least two of the three are pretty much the best things to do in the world.

then again, growing up in MN means lakes and lakes mean swimming. i sort of take that for granted.

― river wolf, Sunday, 25 March 2007 18:19 (nineteen years ago)

ENBB, what island did you grow up on?

― Beth Parker, Sunday, 25 March 2007 19:42 (nineteen years ago)

I took my second class. FIrst ten minutes I thought I was on a devolution course: swimming worse than the previous time. But by the end the teacher claimed I had swum better. I am not really sure what to do when I know breast stroke, should I go for the other strokes as well or just stick with this one stroke? My husband recommends just sticking with breast stroke or maybe do crawl as well. What about butterfly? hahahahahahaha AS IF. I do want to continue even though I'm crap at it.

― nathalie, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 08:40 (nineteen years ago)

crawl is easiest i think. unless you're one of these mentalists who refuses to get their hair wet when IN THE WATER but i suspect you're not one of them.

― emsk, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 08:46 (nineteen years ago)

I didn't learn to swim until I was in my 20s. As a kid I almost drowned twice and was shit scared of water as a result. I think Mrs O got sick of swimming alone on holiday so she bought me a dozen swimming lessons and I kind of amazed myself by swimming a fairly passable front crawl after three lessons. I still can't swim butterfly and my breaststroke is a bit wonky but I'm good enough to get by. Being comfortable that you can tread water when your feet can't touch the bottom is a big step.

― onimo, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 08:50 (nineteen years ago)

xpost: WAH? There are people like that? Silly fools.

I don't know if I'll go as far as learning to dive. Eh, no thanks.

― nathalie, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 09:16 (nineteen years ago)

People who swim with their chin held at a forty-five degree angle from the water obviously don't enjoy it and probably shouldn't bother.

― chap, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 12:06 (nineteen years ago)

crawl is easiest i think.

...apart from the fact that I keep trying to breathe underwater.

― peteR, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 12:12 (nineteen years ago)

usually well-to-do middle-aged women with high barnets who look as though there is something unpleasant under their nose (words coming out of their mouth)? it is SO MUCH FUN to splash around wildly near them pretending you don't see them. dude, you're in the water. if you don't want to get wet, get out of the water.

― emsk, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 13:01 (nineteen years ago)

also NO NATH LEARN TO DIVE!! it is EXCELLENT fun... every summer i test if i can still do it backwards... so far i still can...

― emsk, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 13:01 (nineteen years ago)

i have spent entire afternoons getting out of the water, diving in again, getting out of the water, diving in again...

― emsk, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 13:17 (nineteen years ago)

(it just takes me a really long time to get out of the water)

― emsk, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 13:18 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, usually when I go to the pool I have great and worthy plans to do loads of lengths but just end up going off the diving board all day.

― chap, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 13:26 (nineteen years ago)

I'm always kind of surprised there's anyone who can't swim. I'd always thought it was an essential life skill in case you, like, fall in a lake or something.

Me, too! Me, too! Probably because for the most part, I grew up near a beach. I learned to swim when I was wee via my dad's old "toss 'er in and she'll swim out method," at least according to my mom. I have a distinct memory of swimming in a pool wearing a mask that was too big for my face and kept letting water in, much to my annoyance. My first job was as a life guard, although my school didn't have any sort of swim team (made extra tragic by the fact that the school was in a beach town - we would have won all the swim meets, I am sure!) so I never swam competitively. It's my preferred brand of exercise these days due to orthopedic issues, but I don't have many places where I can go, except Lake Michigan but that's full of bird poop and probably really, really cold right now.

― Jenny, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 13:38 (nineteen years ago)

Beth - sorry, I didn't see your question until just now! I grew up on the shore of Long Island but spent summers on Fire Island because my parents worked there.

― ENBB, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 14:13 (nineteen years ago)

Me, too! Me, too! Probably because for the most part, I grew up near a beach.

Hey, so did I. Anything's possible. I'm actually not alone in such a scenario; my good friend Y. was born and raised in Costa Mesa not all that far from the beach but swimming isn't her thing either. We just like to contemplate, I guess!

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 14:20 (nineteen years ago)

I live ten minutes from the coast (by train). I dislike the sea water. Also, the sense that you can't tell where the bottom is (once you swim a bit further into the sea). It's the same in the pool: I really have to *forget* that I'm actually swimming in the deep side of it. Like yesterday. I didn't have as much anxiety.

Just read that for pregnant women it's actually a GREAT idea to swim 30 minutes EVERY SINGLE DAY. WAH? I can't do that. But maybe I should up the amount of times I swim per week? Hmm, very tempted.

― stevienixed, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 14:40 (nineteen years ago)

Ned, my husband grew up in NC about an hour or so from the beach and he can't swim, either. I just never knew anybody who couldn't (or who was willing to admit it) until I was an adult.

― Jenny, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 14:41 (nineteen years ago)

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