Do you know how to swim?

Awww lucky you I cannot swim for the win. I had tried to swim in our PE class back in high school but I wasn't good at it. The swimming skill is important especially being a lifeguard since you have to be near the waters. I usually don't travel so I am not thinking about water since I live in the valley.

 

Swimming is the greatest! I learned at an early age. When I was growing up in Houston, there was a swim teacher pioneering the method of just heaving your kid into the water and...sink or swim! Swimming is natural. Youngsters will swim easily if taught there is nothing to fear. It takes longer to learn fear than to just DO it.

And when you're camping? Choose your spot with a lake or river. And what better place to go camping than the beach? I'm ready to leave right now....

 

Like your spirit boardo35 - let's here more about your experiences.

 

That just requires practice to get the correct rhythm going. I mean I used to have the same problem, but one summer I decided to take advantage of the school pool and just did lap after lap until I had the forms down right.

 

Swimming is synonymous with canoeing and camping and I learned very quickly to develop the skill. Though not a champ I can handle myself in the water. I love the water spaces, especially when we go into the interior and find the waters more inviting and pure than those close to built up areas.

I remember once we canoed out into the middle of the lake on a full moon night and slipped into the water for a refreshing swim. Memories...

 

That's funny, I've never heard of a person that lived in Hawaii and doesn't know how to swim. It's part of our culture I suppose. What kid doesn't want to swim in the ocean?

 

We have more water than any other nation in the world - and it is shocking the number of swimming deaths in this country. Most will drown within ten feet [3 meters] to safety.

 

I've known how to swim since I was about 4 years old. I absolutely love swimming and spending time in the water...it makes me feel bad for people who don't know how to, they're missing out!

 

I learned how to swim with public lessons at the beach in Madison, Wisconsin probably around age 6 or so. Got my mile swim patch in Boy Scouts. Signed up for the swim team in high school just so I could swim more - although was was never particularly competitive. Got my divers card when I was 16. As an adult I have done a lot of lap swimming at the local YMCA. I occasionally swim when camping, but lately I've been too lazy to do that very often.

 

Alas....true campers are never lazy - "they just get tired of packing up their tents." You mentioned the word Scouts; are you a leader by chance?

 

My mom was a den leader in Cub Scouts and my dad was a troop leader in Boy Scouts, but I never had the urge to do that.

 

I grew up in a small Idaho town along the shores of beautiful lake Pend O'reilly, which has sandy beaches and clear water. In the summer there were public swimming lessons at the city beach; so most of the kids learned to swim at an early age. They had a little "Kiddy Pool" for the toddlers to paddle around in until we got old enough to get into the lake and actually learn to swim.

The first thing they taught us was called the "deadman's float". You laid face-down in the water while holding your breath. Gradually, we learned to relax while lying with our face in the water, and that helped us to overcome our fear of water, as well as teaching us how to float. After I learned to dog-paddle and float; I was sure that I was an experienced swimmer and could just float my way out of any swimming problems.
One episode of swimming underwater and coming up under the swimming dock (by mistake) soon taught me that floating was not the answer to everything.

When I was older, and had a horse; we used to ride our horses down to the lake, and take them out swimming in the water, which was a lot of fun, too.

My kids also learned to swim at an early age; so going down to the lake or river for a day of swimming was a usual happening many days in the summer. In the winter, we went to the Family Fitness Center, and swam in the pool there. I really enjoy swimming, and if a person lives where they have the opportunity to lean how to swim; it is an experience that will give you a lot of enjoyment in life.

 

Yes! I love to swim, I learned when I was a young kid. My mother has always called me a fish because I get in the water any chance I get. Pools, lakes, creeks, even puddles when I was a child! If you don't know how to swim, you're really missing out it is an amazing them to experience and do. It's a pretty easy concept to get a hold of once you're in the water, keep your legs and arms moving and just go with it!

 

I know how to swim, but I have incredibly bad eyesight, so I rarely swim anymore - I bonk my head on the ends of pools. I don't ever swim in a lake when we go camping, but do wade a bit if the water is clear..

I used to swim in the river that runs next to our house until we ran a trotline across it. After we pulled up a gar, I realized what I had been swimming with - those guys have incredible teeth and their scales used to be used by Native American as arrowheads. There are snapping turtles in that river, too.

So, now I stay in the jon boat when we go camping.

 

There are other places and I wouldn't be denying myself enjoying a good swim. It would be impossible for me to go tripping without being in the water. I wear regular eye glasses when I swim - I kept an old pair that I use regularly; and I have those holders just in case they should slip off - but they never have.

I don't know where you live but I can't believe there isn't a safe state park.

Even Reese swims - I can't keep him out the water.

 

I love to swim

@Northern Dancer Reese is way too sweet!

 

If you say so... Do you have any plans for the summer or are things just too complicated at the moment to plan ahead?