Seniors, Do You Know How to Swim?

Like Davey, I learned to swim at Y, still swim several times a week! Love it, addicted to it, taught swimming & life guarded as teen & young adult, very brief competition because there wasn't much opportunity back then. I think it is probably responsible for my bad shoulder arthritis. We would swim anywhere there was water when I was younger, even in the creek with the cows, lol. Loved the ocean , but with 2 tin knees, can't take the chance on getting tossed around by waves any more. My apt has nice outdoor pool & my "Medicare Advantage Health Plan" gives us a free health club membership to keep us fit, & I go there the rest of the year. My mother made sure I got swim lessons because she never really learned & felt out of things & kind of nervous as a girl when her friends would go to lakes etc.
 

I just asked my wife if her family wore life vests on their boats, where they had a cottage at in Mich., and she said, "only water skiing." We've been on lakes south of Denver, CO, Lake Norman in NC and the waterways here in northeastern FL, and I don't think we've ever seen boaters wearing life vests........other than small children. We had a couple, my wife worked with the wife, take a ride on our bow rider in Colorado. The wife and her son wore life vests, but her husband, who use to own a sailboat, did not.

We've been to Water Parks before and loved it. Floating around in an inner tube was loads of fun.


Mrs. Robinson said:
My dad had several boats over the years, but still never learned how to swim. He always wore a life vest though. He wasn`t at al embarrassed about it that I could tell. My mom used to get nervous about it because some weekends she would stay home and not go to the cabin. He would either go alone or take one of us kids (usually me). She would worry that if one of us fell out of the boat (or if he did) everyone would drown for sure lol. Never happened though-and he always made us wear life vests as well.
Click to expand...
 
My mother, well intended as she was, always used to tell me as a child: be careful, don't get too close to the water, you might drowned. I never learned how to swim. :sentimental: I got over my fear or water, however (believe it or not!) when I first walked into the ocean off the coast of California... but I still shy away from the edges of a swimming pool!
 

I like to swim, and at one time, that is what I was doing for regular exercise. I would stop at the Y on my way home from work, and do laps. I am not a strong "over-hand" swimmer (or coordinated) but I love the back-stroke so I did laps that way;) I didn't mind the pool then, but read something recently that made me think about the water not being clean, so now I don't know. I like being up our rivers in Oregon, laying on a sandy, little beach and dipping in and out. I like being "on" water in my kayak, or some other boat, used to love water-skiing, it's now been years for that.

I am afraid of ocean swimming, no specific reason. I was in Hawaii, and couldn't do it at all, tried, my X wanted me to snorkle with him. But I had a fear of it I didn't realize until that trip, my first to a place on the ocean I could actually go swimming.
 
I love to swim. I learned to swim in the ocean but i love to do laps in the pool as well. I also like snorkeling and I wish I could learn to scuba-dive (i'm scared!).
 
I know how to swim, but can't stop, because I don't know how to tread water, so after I get tired during swimming, I drown.

I did have our kids take swimming lessons, and they were asked to join a swim team where they took the lessons and were also on a high school swim team.
 
I'm like Misty, I can't tread water. I made sure my boys took swimming lesson. The oldest could swim enough to get by, but the youngest swam like a fish. When he was 10, he made me understand that if I would turn over and relax, I would float automatically, because my lungs (and boobs) we're like ballons. It worked for me. :wave:
 
I was an avid surfer in high school, so I have had a lot of experience swimming in the ocean, both rough & calm.

Some people think the waves don't get big in Florida, but those people have never been out in a North swell in January.

They get huge!!!

And rough!!!
 
I recently joined the Y.M.C.A.. The pool water is kinda salty. I love to swim, but I haven't been able to go back into the pool. I asked if they added salt to the water. They don't. Maybe I will invest in a water test kit.
 
It's definitely easier to float/tread water in salt water. Falcon has a point with all the perspiration in public pools, I won't use them any more at all for many reasons. :sick:
 
I've been researching this on line. There are a lot of explainations but I'm not really cool with any of them. Yeah, I may just stick to the workouts. I'm disappointed, but until I understand exactly what's going on there and am able to be okay with it, it's just not worth the wild imaginings I'm having. There's a requirement that one has to shower before entering the pool. Hmmm. Thanks for the input.
 
Showering's not good enough for me anymore, I steer clear of public pools. The one at my gym sent us all a notice in April that there were 2 cases of Legionnaires' Disease at the gym, and they were urging anyone who swam or used their hot tub to go see a doctor and be tested. Aside from that, there are lots of bodily discharges from people's noses, mouths, etc.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cdc-finds-public-swimming-pools-rife-with-fecal-contamination/

Warning: Don't click on spoiler if you have a weak stomach. :p

 
Wow! and then she lets the kid down into the water. Yeah, Thank you SeaBreeze. I suspected there was something amiss. Swimming just isn't all that important...and to think I was primarily concerned with perspiration and urination. E-coli? UGH!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm done! Through! I'm also feeling pretty good right now about being a germaphobe.
 
I used to swim in public pools when I was younger, and many times I just didn't feel right afterwards, felt like a had a little cold or something. Older and wiser now, I'll pass on the swimming unless I can get to a beach and swim in the ocean. :shark:
 
I learned to swim when I was eight years old at the YMCA in Paterson, New Jersey. I swam competively in high school in California . I got certified for Scuba Diving in my 40's and have done many dives in Fiji, Tonga, Hawaii, New Caledonia, Tahiti and the South Atlantic. Now at 80 years old I swim daily in a pool at the apartment complex where I live, occasionally at a lake.
 
Lon, that is awesome! I could never dive. I have a morbid fear of diving although I am (or was) a really good swimmer. At my best, I would swim laps for an hour just because I could. On a dare, I once climbed a board to dive. I stood there as the line behind me grew. Finally I just turned around and climbed back down. I went back to swimming laps. I don't see it any more on tv, but I used to love watching cliff divers.
 
I'm like you Shamhat, I could jump into the water, even from pretty high up, but could never bring myself to dive for some reason. :eek:
 

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