Can you swim?

boobar

ger vallely wrote: »

Only just swam properly for the first time last summer. I was 40 then!!It was a fantastic sensation,really enjoyed it. Got so excited that I'd laugh mid stroke and swallow loads of water. I was always the one sitting on the beach minding the gear but not anymore.I got lessons as a child but I must not have kept them up and never really went to the local pool or the beach very often. When I had children of my own I made sure they took lessons at an early age and kept them up for a few years. They are both great swimmers,very confident in the water.

Sounds exactly like me, I've only started learning to swim (40 as well). I have a 4 year old daughter learning to swim and felt that I should make the effort. It's not coming easy to me, haven't gone to lessons in a few weeks now (for money reasons) but going to go back and give it another shot.

Lex_Diamonds

Learnt to swim a few years back, but haven't kept at it like I should due to not being able to go at my own pace in the local pool. Get in the way of people who do lengths etc. Like learning to drive in a Micra during an F1 race.

Mint Sauce

Pretty much done every swimming award going up until the age of 16, done my Bronze Medallion for Life Guarding at 17, swam anyday I was working for the next 18 months when working as one.

Since that, the nearly only times I have swam is during odd trips to the gym or when on holiday.

Really must get back into it.

entropi

I done my pool lifeguard exam just over two years ago, so decent enough I suppose. Havent swam in a while though, must do that again sometime

Gloomtastic!

I very nearly drowned when i was a kid - twice!! Taught myself to swim when I was 9, always loved swimming. Thought I was pretty good until I had swimming lessons when I was 40. It's so much easier when you do it properly.
Just got back from hols last week and discovered I'd put on 1/2 stone. Went swimming the last four days and it's all gone. Swimming is the dogs'......

McChubbin

Sea Filly wrote: »

Yes, was dropped in the pool at six months old.

I'm not a strong swimmer though, and panic when my feet aren't touching the ground.

Same. I could never understand what the instructor was on about as I'm about 85% deaf without my hearing aids, let alone with my head under water. I also got left behind at the deep end by an over zealous instructor so now whenever I'm in a pool, I rarely leave the shallow end. I can barely kick my legs out as I have no sense of how to swim at all. I just wade around for a bit and chat to the life guards. :pac:

Wibbs

Can't swim, but for some reason can float for Ireland. No treading water required. Must be all the buoyant hot air I produce internally.

Technique

For those who learned to swim later in life, how difficult is it?

I can swim a length with my head out of the water, but it's not pretty to watch. I'd love to be taught the proper technique, but I have a bit of a fear of not getting the breathing underwater right and water going up my nose.

I made sure my kids got lessons. It was a joy to watch them in the pool during our holidays, but I'd love to be able to join in.

EoghanIRL

Yeah fairly good . Did all the levels and things. I hate the butterfly stroke. I never could get it properly

NoQuarter

Mother used to make me go to swimming lessons during school in second class because I couldnt swim. Every monday I used to come down with a mysterious illness, different thing every week until she realised my "illness'" coincided with swimming class and she forced me to go.

One night I had one of those dreams you could swear was real, dreamt I could swim and was swimming. Woke up (still only about 8/9 years old here) so pissed off that it was only a dream that I though "today I am going to swim". went to the pool, grabbed one of those stupid foam pads you hold to help you and swam there and then.

27 now and I'm a SCUBA diver

Uriel.

Have only learned in the last 12 months (in my late 20s). Learned in the sea.. thrown in at the deep end so to speak. I am still not a great swimmer by any stretch of the imagine but being in the sea and not being able to "touch the bottom" (of the sea that is) and not drowning is great.

Funnily, I swim better (and more confidently) in the sea compared to a pool. Apparently there's a scientific reason behind that one though

EoghanIRL

Uriel. wrote: »

Have only learned in the last 12 months (in my late 20s). Learned in the sea.. thrown in at the deep end so to speak. I am still not a great swimmer by any stretch of the imagine but being in the sea and not being able to "touch the bottom" (of the sea that is) and not drowning is great.

Funnily, I swim better (and more confidently) in the sea compared to a pool. Apparently there's a scientific reason behind that one though

You float better in salt water?

Galwayguy35

No never learned to swim.

Sea Filly

Why is there not an "I'm a fucking deadly swimmer" poll option? I wouldn't check it myself but surely there are some fucking deadly swimmers here? :pac:

kfallon

No I can't, have to wear armbands and a snorkel having a shower :P

Not much of a water person anyway, pool or sea

Uriel.

EoghanIRL wrote: »

You float better in salt water?

That's the one!

le la rat

I can swim as well now as I could the day I was launched from me old boy

Washington Irving

I never got lessons, I just jumped into the deep end, managed not to drown and kinda just knew what I was doing

Reoil

I respect water enough to not get into it. Unless it's it has warm bubbles. (Not the fart type of bubbles)

SusieBlue

I can swim, I used to do it competitively up till about 4-5 years ago. I still go once or twice a week if I can.

Lia_lia

Yes, I'm a pretty good swimmer. My Mother dropped me into a pool when I was a few months old and that's how I learned to swim. Never got any swimming lessons or any of that. Was in a swimming club in France when I was a kid. Still swim a few times a week! Love it.

I'm also a qualified lifeguard.


Loads of people I know can't swim. At all. Like they can't even do a doggy paddle I don't know why any parent wouldn't teach their child to swim/get them swimming lessons. It's so important!

gammygils

Chuck Stone wrote: »

I can't remember not being able to swim. My Dad took us to the pool regularly as kids. In a family of 7 all but two can swim well. As a kid I even used to go swimming in the local river with my friends - used to jump off this bridge actually (brag).

I'm not really into the swimming pool any more because you're not allowed to dive or jump in (yes, I'm a big child). Anyway, enough waffle. Do you like swimming? Can you swim?

Nice Bridge Tarzan. Very impressive!
Yes.I learned to swim when I was 8. Was a member of a Swimming Club from 8 to about 13

rainbow kirby

I can swim, my technique is still pretty poor because I haven't taken a lesson since I was about 13, but I can swim 60 lengths (1.5km) in about 40 minutes. I don't get to swim anywhere near as much as I'd like to - hard to fit it in with work and running.

dermiek

kfallon wrote: »

No I can't, have to wear armbands and a snorkel having a shower :P

Not much of a water person anyway, pool or sea

I hate washing myself, I generally avoid having a shower or a bath.

FYP

:pac:

flyswatter

I can swim well, had lessons as a child, can't remember the last time I took a dip though.

Mickeroo

Only learned in the last 5 years.

Chuck Stone

I much prefer the sea to the swimming pool. Haven't been in in a while though. I have a wetsuit and body board I take out every so often. Great craic so 'tis. Swimming alone isn't enough stimulation for me - there has to be some sort of more to it.

unkel

Mars Bar wrote: »

I joined the swimming club and was eventually doing 60 lengths in a session.

1,500m - I'd say only 1 in a 100 people here can do that - very impressive

Where I grew up, everybody learned to swim. For donkeys years I used to do this thing in August where you had to complete 20 lengths of a full size Olympic pool (20 * 50m = 1,000m), 4 nights in a row to get a medal

My little sister finished it when she was 5 - she broke the record and made it into the local newspapers