Swimming thread

[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.

[HardyGirl]

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

[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.

[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.

[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

[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.

[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

[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.

[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.

[ScottA]

Air Force Brat here too.

I knew I liked you.

[BlackKnight]

Growing up on Air Force bases we swam at the base pool.

Air Force Brat here too.

Nice Pics Cat ...., If I had that, I dunno if I would ever Need a Job.

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

That is just too pretty Cat.

I feel so blessed...the light makes it a different view each time I go there...so refreshing for the soul.

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

Cat, don't you all have to worry about poison jelly fish and crocs ?

I live in Sydney Mike, and there are no crocs roaming around there.

Occassionally there are sharks, but most beaches have shark nets. I once got some jelly fish stingers around my arms whilst surfing, but that's pretty unusual for my area. The crocs and jellyfish are mostly thousands of miles north. The jellyfish get so bad there you can't really go in the water in summer. Bleh.

[ScottA]

I have a pool out back, as do most of my siblings, and I have the ocean about 8 houses down from me at the end of my street.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs504.snc3/26505_1386048580556_1512293169_30983917_722398_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._1901361_n.jpg

That is just too pretty Cat.

[Mikey]

Til this day I still have never swam in deep water. I love to swim laps and can do various strokes, but it's the treading water that does me in.

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

People that drown make themselves drown by struggling.