Swimming thread

[ScottA]

Air Force Brat here too.

I knew I liked you.

[megoapesnut]

I am part fish. I have been swimming for as long as I can remember. We join our local pool every summer and we also get season passes to the Mt. Gretna Lake. Mt. Gretna is a teeny tiny "resort like" community about 15 minutes away from my house. It is very quaint and has a late 1800's - early 1900's charm. Many of the cottages were built in the 1800's. I actually used to own a little cottage in the one section for a few years but it got to expensive to have two houses. You would not believe what houses sell for in that area. Anyway, I digress. The lake is my second home in the summer. It has a very high dive platform and a low dive and a few docks to sun on, as well as the beach area, but the killer feature is a large platform out in the middle with an enormous swing. I hang out there sometimes then entire 7 hours the lake is open. I am either helping the kids get up onto the bar or pushing the older kids (and adults) HIGH, I mean like 15-20 feet in the air, so high that I am jumping 3 feet in the air to grab the bar and shoot it back up. Then I get a few of the stronger guys to push me that high and I get on backwards and do back flips off the bar. I am getting major league stoked just thinking about it. I am always depressed when summer comes to a close and the lake closes.

The other place we go is Typhoon Lagoon down in Disney. Best water park in the world. The wave pool is second to none. If you like swimming and you are down in Disney, do yourself a favor and get to Typhoon Lagoon.

Here is a photo I took of the lake last year when they had it drained. They drain it every spring to fix any damage from the winter.

[huedell]

I've always been the more inferior when it comes to physical kinda stuff
----I never was really good at "strokes"
---yet I always had a head for staying afloat. Water never scared me.
I mean "tides" and "waves" and stuff...that complicates things...but
as far as "regular water" like pools and stuff....well, that was no problem.

I can still remember being a 3-7 year old at day camp and being frustrated
that they wouldn't let me swim in th "deep end" of the pool.

[toys2cool]

D, you're in Miami and can't swim ?????????

yup, My mom almost drowned when she was a little girl so she's terrified of the water, she never took us to learn. My brother learned with my step father when he was like 10 and my sister learned in the Marines, i'm the only one who can't now

[HardyGirl]

I was a chicken baby as a kid too. And didn't learn until I took an adult class as age 22. My technique sucks, but I can steam shovel, butterfly, float and tread for almost 30 seconds. My problrm is confidence. I'm great when I get to practice and get my stamina up, but I don't swim as often as I used to, so I get kinda scared of deep water sometimes, (even though I have swam in 9 feet before).

Anyway, here in Oakland when I did day camp in the summer, I would take the kids to Live Oak Pool, Alameda Beach (before it was so polluted), Lake Temescal and Strawberry Canyon. As this will be the first summer in MNAY years that I'm not working w/ the older kids, I don't think I'm gonna get much practice this year.

[Sideshow Spock]

Most people who are afraid of water don't realize that the human body floats.
Keeping your lungs full even helps more.

I can't tell you how many times I've tried to completely relax my body and do the dead man's float or float on my back. It never works.. I sink like a stone

[huedell]

I can't tell you how many times I've tried to completely relax my body and do the dead man's float or float on my back. It never works.. I sink like a stone

I've heard people say that some people are "sinkers"
and some are "floaters"...but I don''t know if that's true
or just a funny thing to say.

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

yup, My mom almost drowned when she was a little girl so she's terrified of the water, she never took us to learn. My brother learned with my step father when he was like 10 and my sister learned in the Marines, i'm the only one who can't now

My Mum also nearly drowned when she was young...so she made sure we all learned to swim. She is still terrified if she can't touch the bottom.

[HardyGirl]

BTW, Cat, that beach looks breathtaking! What a view!

[Brue]

I swim at the city pool and a state park usually. My kids and I also use various rec centers. We use the pool or lake recreationally more than 50+ times a year. I swim for fitness and training an additional 50+ times a year. It was pretty much all we did as kids.

[toys2cool]

I can't tell you how many times I've tried to completely relax my body and do the dead man's float or float on my back. It never works.. I sink like a stone

same here

[HardyGirl]

I can't tell you how many times I've tried to completely relax my body and do the dead man's float or float on my back. It never works.. I sink like a stone

Here's a tip for the back float:

Get on your knees in shallow water. Roll backwards slowly w/ your arms outstretched on either side. Above all, relax! It's like you're laying at home in bed. Think too much and you sink.

[huedell]

Here's a tip for the back float:

Get on your knees in shallow water. Roll backwards slowly w/ your arms outstretch on either side. Above all, relax! It's like you're laying at home in bed. Think too much and you sink.

"Think and you sink"
I don't know how well that works...but it makes for a nice catchphrase.

[HardyGirl]

"Think and you sink"
I don't know how well that works...but it makes for a nice catchphrase.

Worked for me! And every kid who I've taught how to float. But their fave is the Superman float!

[huedell]

Worked for me! And every kid who I've taught how to float.

Honestly, I, myself could've learned that way---its just I was so so
young when I learned how to float that I forget just how I learned it.

But their fave is the Superman float!

I used to pretend I was SUPERMAN---I would go in the deep end
and get rid of most of my "breath"----it helped to sink faster.
Then I had a few seconds to walk on the pool bottom like it was
"the ground"----and THEN I'd "take off" and "fly" to the top
just like SUPERMAN!

I also pretended I was AQUAMAN a lot.
Aquaman used to manipulate water during
the FILMATION cartoon and I used to pretend
to do that too.....my favorite thing to do was
to spread my arms out and spin around quickly
creating a "whirlpool"