Life Skills, Part One: Can you swim?

[Oliveloaf]

Can you swim?

[Rube E. Tewesday]

No. Regret it a lot. Putting my head under water panicked me as a kid, and I never gutted myself up to get past it.

[Orual]

I was never scared of the water, and always loved playing in the pool.

I can't really dive, though.

[Myglaren]

Sort of.
Spent every evening after school in the pool or the sea - mainly bravado going in the sea through the winter when the pool was closed (open air unheated pool), loved diving and snorkeling but still a poor swimmer. Lots of thrashing about but very little progress on the surface, much better below the waves. Don't do it much these days though.

[Oliveloaf]

This I am good at. Always a swimmer, from before I can recall.

My wife and kid, too.

[OneCentStamp]

Yes. I'm not an Olympic swimmer by any stretch, but I was the canoeing instructor at a kids' summer camp for several years in my twenties and you had to pass lifeguard certification for that, which included shit like treading water for two minutes while holding bricks. Ack.

[RabbitMage]

Well enough not to drown.

[Malacandra]

Yes, and I surprised myself years ago in Greece by finding out how far I could go and in what deep water in the balmy Aegean - in chilly home waters I don't trust my endurance for too long.

[Hatshepsut]

As a child I went to Girl Scout camp every summer, so yes, I can swim.

I forget the name of it, but there is a test they make you take where you jump in the water with all your clothes on. You have to remove the items that will drag you down (shoes, blue jeans) and tread water for half an hour. Pass that and the "tippy test", and you are allowed to take a canoe out by yourself, which I always liked to do.

Or so it was in the olden days, kiddies. Fear of lawsuits has probably discouraged camps from allowing children to expose themselves to such danger now.

[Elendil's Heir]

Yes, I can swim, and even taught swimming (and canoeing and rowing) at a Scout summer camp for five summers.

[Glazer]

Yes.

[Zuul]

I can swim, though I'm too muscular to be very buoyant so I'd better be swimming and not trying to float. I took swimming lessons when I was a kid and did some diving, though I never got into doing it competitively. When I was thirteen I went to a water park with a friend who nearly drowned. I managed to swim out to her, get an arm around her, pull her up so she could breathe, and get us both out of the deep water before the lifeguard got to her. I think that has more to do with the water park having shitty lifeguards than anything else, though.

[Sarahfeena]

I'm a pretty strong swimmer...my form isn't pretty and I wouldn't win any speed contests, but like Zuul, I saved someone in the water once. My younger sister and I were in the Atlantic ocean on a Florida beach, and we accidentally moved out way farther than we intended. She's short, and was pretty young at the time, maybe about a freshman in HS. She couldn't touch the bottom, and couldn't swim well enough to fight the undertow. I grabbed her and got us both to shore, eventually. It was pretty scary.

[Oliveloaf]

My family and I seek out dangerous wave conditions to swim in. We did some pretty fabulous body surfing in Lake Michigan one very, very windy day. My kid is a power swimmer. At 11 she's faster than me and indefatigable. My father-in-law, now 75, never learned to swim. I find that crazy.

[Ramses]

Yes. And hold my breath well. This allows me to pretend I drowned, frequently.

[Peeta Mellark]

I can swim and I love to do it. Doing laps in the pool is sort of meditative to me.

Yes, and I surprised myself years ago in Greece by finding out how far I could go and in what deep water in the balmy Aegean - in chilly home waters I don't trust my endurance for too long.

Oh, this sounds incredible. I'd love to try swimming in warm sea like that. I'm sure it's far more enjoyable than the Atlantic.

[Oliveloaf]

Did the "Mile Swim" in Boy Scouts a couple of times. This was across lake Saganaga in the Minnesota Boundary Waters. Was bit by something once.

[Trojan Man]

I was phobic of water as a child, for various reasons, and by my early 20's, got sick of being ruled by this neurotic fear. So I took out a membership in a gym, which had a rarely used pool. Rented every swimming book from the library, downloaded every swimming thing off the 'net. Started at the shallow end (for a week ) then eventually figured it out. So now, people laugh at how ungainly my stroke is, but ungainly or not, it's a victory to me.

[Oliveloaf]

I was phobic of water as a child, for various reasons, and by my early 20's, got sick of being ruled by this neurotic fear. So I took out a membership in a gym, which had a rarely used pool. Rented every swimming book from the library, downloaded every swimming thing off the 'net. Started at the shallow end (for a week ) then eventually figured it out. So now, people laugh at how ungainly my stroke is, but ungainly or not, it's a victory to me.

Good for you.

[Campionaki]

I took a few years of lessons through the Boy Scouts, and then went on to get my Swimming and Lifesaving merit badges, both of which are mostly in the water.

[Oliveloaf]

I took a few years of lessons through the Boy Scouts, and then went on to get my Swimming and Lifesaving merit badges, both of which are mostly in the water.

I have Swimming and Life Saving, and Printing!

[Elendil's Heir]

I took a few years of lessons through the Boy Scouts, and then went on to get my Swimming and Lifesaving merit badges, both of which are mostly in the water.

I have Swimming and Life Saving, and Printing!

Good to see some fellow Scouts here! I earned all the aquatic merit badges, did the Mile Swim at least a half-dozen times, and earned my Lifesaving BSA certification too. And while on summer camp staff, I got the "Best Legs" award the week that the Campfire Girls were there. Yeehaw!

[jali]

I was a Girl Scout and yes I can swim. I earned the badge.

[Claptree]

I learned to swim at a very late age (for my group), and struggled with it for a while. Now I'm a seal.

[Oliveloaf]

Congrats!

[Oliveloaf]

Just back from the pool with the family. My wife is a triathlete, and my kid is a fish. We had her in swimming classes very young. Glad we did it. She loves the water.

[Zweedo Rodriguez]

Yes, we had a pool. I can't remember not being able to swim.