I can't swim at all unless there's a snake on the water, then I become an awesome swimmer. Much like final fantasy 7 where it's as though I gained limit break.
I love swimming. When I bought my house I told the real estate agent that I didn't care if she found me a cardboard box to live in, so long as it had a huge swimming pool.
However, I am NOT a good swimmer. I plan on taking lessons this fall. In a pool, I can swim 2k no problem. But I tried a triathlon last month and, wow, swimming in a river against a current is so much different than swimming in a nice calm pool. I ended up panicking and pulling out. I hope to try again next year after having the lessons. I'm hoping that the lessons will also help me with my speed. During the winter I go swimming at the rec centre at 6am. Why 6am? Because that's when all the seniors are there and I can be almost the fastest one in the pool.
I love swimming. When I bought my house I told the real estate agent that I didn't care if she found me a cardboard box to live in, so long as it had a huge swimming pool.
However, I am NOT a good swimmer. I plan on taking lessons this fall. In a pool, I can swim 2k no problem. But I tried a triathlon last month and, wow, swimming in a river against a current is so much different than swimming in a nice calm pool. I ended up panicking and pulling out. I hope to try again next year after having the lessons. I'm hoping that the lessons will also help me with my speed. During the winter I go swimming at the rec centre at 6am. Why 6am? Because that's when all the seniors are there and I can be almost the fastest one in the pool.
Calgarypuck's humble brag quota for August has been reached in one post. No more humble brags until September, everyone. Sorry.
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Growing up on the west coast swimming was part of my culture and if you couldn't swim, you missed a lot. I had my choices of lakes, rivers, oceans and ponds formed when the river overflowed it's dykes.
When I was about 9 or 10 at a YMCA camp I earned what was called a master mariner certificate. This involved swimming a long distance, paddling a canoe and life saving by jumping in and swimming back with a drowning person plus reviving a drowning victim.
I grew up swimming in pei and went as far as getting my lifeguard certification. Right now my 8year old daughter is starting junior lifesaver program.
Of any skill to teach kids swimming should be one of the most important in my opinion. Being unable to swim or just uncomfortable in the water closes the door on a lot of really cool things in the world. That and it's a life saving skill
I grew up two blocks from the ocean. Learning to swim was mandatory.
I'm still nothing special, but drop me in deep water and I'll be fine for ten minutes. After that, all bets are off.
__________________
"For thousands of years humans were oppressed - as some of us still are - by the notion that the universe is a marionette whose strings are pulled by a god or gods, unseen and inscrutable." - Carl Sagan Freedom consonant with responsibility.
I can't swim. If you throw me in water over my nose I will die. Simple as that.
I had a couple of bad experiences when I was very young that created a fear of water - coupled with some very poor attempts to teach me that just made that fear worse.
Unfortunately, this is me too. A horrible bully of an instructor when I was 6 or 7 plus being forced to jump into the deep end put me off water completely. It gave me a slight phobia for a few years as a kid too.
This thread has scared/shamed me into wanting to learn soon though. Especially because I want my 5 year old boy to have that ability.
Here's a quick, dumb question. Neither my wife or I can swim, and we had been looking to take our son out on a canoe on the reservoir. Are life jackets enough if we did happen to fall in? Or should we just scrap the idea altogether?
[QUOTE=Cameron Swift;4882067]Here's a quick, dumb question. Neither my wife or I can swim, and we had been looking to take our son out on a canoe on the reservoir. Are life jackets enough if we did happen to fall in? Or should we just scrap the idea altogether?QUOTE]
Your question is not dumb at all. A few things to keep in mind if you choose to go on the reservoir:
1. Get the right pfd which will keep your head out of water.
2. Dress appropriate for the water conditions.
3. Don't travel further away from the shore than you are willing to dog paddle.
As a kayaker, I dress with the expectation that I may get in trouble. So, that means pfd, clothing to ward off hypothermia, etc.
For a better time and less stress, go with a group.
I grew up spending all my summers at a lake in Ontario. Swimming was an all-day every-day type activity.
But I hated swimming lessons. Hated them. The rule in the family was, once you could swim across the lake, you didn't have to take lessons. I remember the day when I had my whole, eleven-year-old summer day planned out and I was running out the door and my mom shouts "Don't forget you've got swimming lessons this afternoon!"
I was so mad. I told her I was swimming across the lake right then and there. She said okay, got in the canoe and paced along side me.
I did a fair amount of the distance with the "elementary backstroke" but I made it just fine and never had to go back to swimming lessons again. Google maps tells me the distance I swam was somewhere between 1500 and 2000 meters.
I have no fears of the ocean or lakes, jumping into the middle of a black ontario lake over and over and over again all summer when you're a kid will help you get over that, but I really dislike being in swimming pools by myself. I have an utterly crazy, irrational fear that I think stems from a childhood dream.
I'm honestly scared the bottom of the pool is going to open up and there will be a big friggin' giant squid in there. No problem going in the ocean, where there are squids, but a pool by myself freaks me right out.
I'm honestly scared the bottom of the pool is going to open up and there will be a big friggin' giant squid in there. No problem going in the ocean, where there are squids, but a pool by myself freaks me right out.
I cannot believe I'm not the only person with this messed up fear. I'll do it, but for some stupid reason I just don't really like it. All I see in my mind is the JAWS view from below. Unlike you however, I get it in the ocean too.
This summer I challenged my wife to a race (front-crawl) while we were camping near Nakusp. All in all, it was probably a distance of 200 meters. While it was completed fine by both of us, I was blown away at how winded I was by the end of it. I'm not in great shape, but I'm not in need of an intervention either. It struck me how somebody who didn't swim very much, was super drunk, or was wearing clothes could have a very hard time after only a short distance.
My memories of being a kid involved swimming all day long. I was pretty humbled to find it as hard as I did. Also humbled because my wife kicked my ass in the race.
Fotze: When I snorkelled for the first time I found the initial few minutes *very* uncomfortable. Breathing regularly in a situation where you've never breathed before can be a little jarring. I would kind of stutter breathe, so it was a mix of panicked gasps. After a while it went away. I would imagine if I wasn't a strong swimmer it would take a while longer (and most certainly a life-jacket).
I'm a decent swimmer, but surprisingly not as good when I'm drunk, which almost led to drowning a few times.
At nature's hideaway where there's at least one drowning per summer, due to the strong current, I once was swimming across to the cliffs drunk and holding a beer I just opened.
I used all my energy to hold my beer above water, then felt myself going under, yet I still used my last ounce of energy to hold that beer above water, then I slipped under and had nothing left to get back to the surface.
A dozen meters or so down river I kind of resurfaced, but not really under my own power, it was weird. There was about a dozen people running after me, including friends that had seen me go under.
Literally almost died trying to save my beer. Moral of the story, always try to save your beer in any situation, it's what seperates us as Canadians from the rest of the world. We will die for our beer, those other cowards would preserve their own life first.
There were a couple of turning points for me as a kid. First was when taking swimming lessons and a kid named Duncan, no less, would hold my head under water. Second was a near-drowning experience in a local lake where I required rescue. Consequently I never really felt comfortable in the water, which is true to this day.
I really didnt konw if I could swim in fresh water so headed to the pool to test and found i really could only swim about 100m before being exhausted. Could still tread water for over 30 min (quit after 30).
I dont understand not wearing life jackets. Even if you know how to swim cold water gets to people fast. Too many people die with a lofe jacket on their boat.
Used to be a lifeguard and swim instructor... so yes.
It always broke my heart when I had kids in class that were terrified of the water. Tried my best to get them to like it! Others would not go on their back which was equally as challenging.
I had a bad experience when I was younger. I don't think I was actually in danger of drowning, but it still scared the crap out of me. As a result, I can swim perfectly fine so long as I'm in water that's shallow enough that I can stand up and have my head above the water. If I get into anything deeper, I tense up and sink.
It's the only thing that I have that's close to a phobia, and it sucks.
This basically sums up my swimming situation. I can do fine if I'm moving in a straight line but if I stop, then I sink pretty quick. I can't dog paddle more than 1 minute tops and that's a struggle. Going in water deeper than my neck scares the #### out of me.
I was a competitive swimmer as a kid and swam on a couple of National Youth teams to International meets. Quit swimming at the age of 16 and didn't really step into a pool until I was 7 months pregnant with my daughter(helped with the swelling of the feet)and decided that swimming was my first love. So I recertified my lifesaving and swim instructor and started working at a city pool. In the last 5 years I've been training pretty hard and am in the best shape I've been in 20 years because of swimming! In 3 weeks I get to compete at my second World Lifesaving Championships in Montpellier, France at the age of 40. Swimming rules! My daughter just did her first 25 meters all by herself last month, I almost started crying, I was so proud! She's got a mean little backstroke for a 5 year old.
Those that we're asking about adult lessons, we gave them at Glenmore pool on Wednesday nights from 7-8pm. The instructor that teaches it is very good. He has taken people that start freaking out just getting in the water and in 7-8 weeks even had them jumping of the diving board. He manages his classes very well, because he may have such a range of levels. But always has someone working on something. I don't know about any of the other instructors with in the city, but Vaughn is awesome! It's a registered class: Learn to Swim. Our next session starts in October(our pool is shut down for 6 weeks starting next week) his class always fills up quick, so if you want in, register now!
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I learned how to swim as a child (did the whole thing with green, yellow, maroon, blue, grey badges, etc.) from whatever organization it was (what was that?) since my immigrant parents insisted it was a skill I needed to have. It was hard. It was painful. They really push you and test you, even if you are an undersized kid. I hated every moment of it. The only solace was after showering and drying off and getting to buy some potato chips from the vending machine.
20 years later on, I hadn't swam in maybe a decade and I was in Hawaii. It just came back naturally and I was keeping up with wild dolphins in the open ocean that we chanced upon (I had fins) and even managed a few deep dives holding my breath (while remembering to blow out the air as the pressure increases!).
It was like riding a bike. You are a bit rusty and nervous but your instincts take over. These are life skills every child should learn, even if it's tough and he/she hates it, it has a huge pay off.
I can't swim swim with any grace or skill, but I wont drown or anything. I haven't been in a public pool since I was a kid: chlorine is really hard on my skin (my swimming lessons ended quite quickly as a result). In fact, I don't think I've been swimming since I did the whole Great Barrier Reef thing ~25 years ago where I just floated around with my head in a snorkel mask.
