do you know how to swim?

I lived at our city pool as a kid. They had three shifts daily and I often used two of them. My best buddy and I were there as often as possible. I am more comfortable in water than on land.
 

Keesha said:
What???? Nowhere in my training were we required to take off any clothing. What type of certification was this? It sounds highly unusual.
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One of the things we had to do for either the sr. lifeguard or water safety cert. was to jump in deep water with all of our clothing on, strip down to underwear and create a float/tow bag with whatever clothing we had removed. Girls too. This was about saving your life and others, not modesty.
 
JonDouglas said:
One of the things we had to do for either the sr. lifeguard or water safety cert. was to jump in deep water with all of our clothing on, strip down to underwear and create a float/tow bag with whatever clothing we had removed. Girls too. This was about saving your life and others, not modesty.
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I took lifeguard and water safety and we didn’t have to do anything like that. Having said that, it’s quite different than asking students to strip down naked. Of course saving lives is more important than modesty.
That wasn’t the point I was discussing.
If I had to strip naked in front on all my classmates in order to get my certificate, I would have walked. Call me a prude. I don’t really care. That was NOT part of our program. We were allowed to wear ‘swimming suites.’
 

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Probably the strangest and most humiliating thing I’ve ever had to do in college was to take the required phys. ed swimming test naked. I could never see any reason for that, but fifty years ago, one did not question authority if the same bizarre requirement was extended to everyone. I had a pair of swimming trunks with me, and even the guys who didn’t could have been allowed to wear shorts or underwear. I never told my parents or anyone else about this as it was too embarrassing...and the coach in charge is probably long dead, so he isn’t talking... 🙄
 
The criteria for scuba training is swim non-stop 8 pool lengths and float for 10 minutes, primarily swam on my back, no big deal.
 
dropped anchor in virgin islands during visit, water was clear enough to see the anchor on the seabed...had to be at least couple hundred feet...
 
wcwbf said:
this was the topic on radio earlier today. here in NJ, you're never much more than an hour from the atlantic ocean. tons of rivers and lakes for recreation. a zillion ways to drown.

seems a significant number of those who think they can swim probably couldn't save their own butts if required to. then they jump in to help a friend/child and TWO people drown.

i'm no michael phelps but i will say i can swim. back in stone age, being able to swim (and passing swimming test) was a REQUIREMENT in PE... in college... state college in PA poconos. you had to swim 2 lengths of pool and then stay afloat (any way you wanted) for something like 5 minutes... i chose to just float on my back.

my first job ever was as a day camp counselor. we had 4 groups of employee's kids for a 2 week stint of fun/games... included swimming. the first day of each group, kids could take the "deep water test" in order to play in water over their heads. test was back/forth across width of pool and a minute of treading water or doggy paddle. first kid jumped in and went straight to the bottom like a stone! he thought he could swim!?
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Absolutely! I'm former Marine Corps. We're lean, green amphibious fighting machines.
But i learned to swim as a kid.
 
Yep, I grew up in Florida never lived more than half a mile from swimmable water, and often closer. And the water was warm enough to swim most of the year. I was lucky that made it easy, everyone should learn to swim. For safety reasons if nothing else.

I had a few lessons, when I was young at the YMCA. They helped me with form, but I mostly just learned from my parents and from doing a lot of it.
 
wcwbf said:
this was the topic on radio earlier today. here in NJ, you're never much more than an hour from the atlantic ocean. tons of rivers and lakes for recreation. a zillion ways to drown.

seems a significant number of those who think they can swim probably couldn't save their own butts if required to. then they jump in to help a friend/child and TWO people drown.

i'm no michael phelps but i will say i can swim. back in stone age, being able to swim (and passing swimming test) was a REQUIREMENT in PE... in college... state college in PA poconos. you had to swim 2 lengths of pool and then stay afloat (any way you wanted) for something like 5 minutes... i chose to just float on my back.

my first job ever was as a day camp counselor. we had 4 groups of employee's kids for a 2 week stint of fun/games... included swimming. the first day of each group, kids could take the "deep water test" in order to play in water over their heads. test was back/forth across width of pool and a minute of treading water or doggy paddle. first kid jumped in and went straight to the bottom like a stone! he thought he could swim!?
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NO...I cannot swim but feel if need be I could do the dog-paddle?? When we were posted to Nfld many years ago, I found out that most Newfoundlanders did not swim so I was in good company. I did take numerous lessons in and out of school but to no avail as I am terrified of the deep water. I do not understand this fear.
 
i was HORRIBLE as a little kid. was put in swimming lessons at the Y and remember the death grip i had on the edge of the pool. my younger brotehr and sister were like fish.
 
Ruby Rose said:
NO...I cannot swim but feel if need be I could do the dog-paddle?? When we were posted to Nfld many years ago, I found out that most Newfoundlanders did not swim so I was in good company. I did take numerous lessons in and out of school but to no avail as I am terrified of the deep water. I do not understand this fear.
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i don't mean swim like Mark Spitz... just not sink like a stone.
 
My father taught me, my Mom and my 3 older sisters (whom he and Mom had just gotten custody of) all to swim at the same time. I was swimming by shortly after my first birthday. Don't remember learning process or not knowing how to swim. Then their problem was keeping me out of the water. It is main if not only thing i miss living where i do--no rivers big enough to swim in and not being short drive from gulf or ocean. (Can't do pools, issues with chlorine).
 
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Murrmurr said:
I'm a good swimmer and enrolled each of my kids in a swim school when they were about 18 months old.

But no matter how well you swim you have to learn how to swim your way out of undertows and weird currents. Even Phelps couldn't swim against those.
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True, and it helps to have sense to get out of the water before you're feeling tired.
 

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