Do you know how to swim?
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Yeah. Because in Australia they take swimming and water safety very seriously. I don't think I know a single person who can't swim at least a little.
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Glad you found the piece. Had to look what that item was. In a word. OUCH
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Yes, of course, it's a basic life skill.
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Yep, did survival skills when I was a kid. Treading on water with neck high for 15 minutes, diving in with PJs and plimsoles, and controlling our breath at the bottom of the pool, taking off our shoes and tying knots in our pyjamas to use as floatation devices. It was pretty intense for a bunch of 10 year olds to do, but yep we did it.
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yes, and i even got enrolled (unwillingly) into water polo courses by my older sisters. understandably, the coach hated me because i was overweight and a slow swimmer.
there was a bit of inappropriate verbal harassment from the older members of the water polo team for my gynecomastia. after that, i got self-conscious and eventually stopped swimming.
if i ever have access to a private pool, or after i get surgery for my moobs, maybe i'll try swimming again.
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Yeah, this is basically how it goes. It depends what country you grew up in. Canada is the same way, almost everyone who grew up in Canada can swim (not necessarily well, but able to manage). This is partly due to the number of lakes that exist near populated areas so swimming is a common passtime and boating accidents are a fairly high cause of accidental death. There are some countries where it is much more rare.
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No, it's not common for schools to have pools in my city, never travel to a beach, no paying for a club(I don't think that's the right english word for it but I can't think of another one) to go to a pool. The only few times I got to a pool in friends/parent houses was not enough to learn how to swim.
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Yes! I learned at the YMCA as a kid.
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Yes, because I grew up in an area where private pools were very common.
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i learned to swim by puking so hard that the puke leaving my mouth propelled me through the water
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Yes, but the sea is fucking cold as fuck so I don't.
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Yeah but not that well. I can yeet my body off the divingboard something goofy, plunge into the water, and make it back to the edge of the pool, and tbh that's all the swimming ability that I've ever needed. At least I know that I can backstroke fairly effortlessly
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Yes, and according to my parents I didn't learn how to swim, I just instinctively did it, in a similar fashion to how I just started running one day. I don't remember learning how to swim either.
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Nope. Couldn't afford lessons, no one had a pool and I lived in a predominantly black city. I'd like to one day just for safely but I usually just sink like a rock.
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Yes, I went and learned as an adult, even. I figured the world is 70% water and I really needed to have a chance in case of a surprise encounter with it.
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I learned to swim as a child. Haven’t swam, just been in a pool in years though.
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Yup, learned as a child and was absolutely bewildered as a teenager when I met people who couldn't. Made sure my kids knew how as well. Child drowning injury and deaths are sadly high in the US.
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Whoa. 100% ditto!
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Yes, my mom made us take swim lessons up through lifeguard lessons, and some of my brothers were competitive (like very competitive) swimmers. I got my kids lessons through the drownproofing, not more.
Kids drown here every year, it's not important to have paid lessons but very very important to know how to swim.
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I lived on an island in the North Pacific for years. I worked on the ocean in a floating house and working on aluminum catwalks a few feet above the water all day.
If course I don't know how to swim. If I don't have a floater coat on, I'm fucked. If I do, I bob and hope for rescue. But have your lines in place if you're out in weather because the ocean does not give a fuck. In the North Pacific, your lifespan is the water is measured in "well fuck"s.
I lived near a lake as a child. I could hold my breath for so long. I dove a lot. Never learned to swim.
Swim lessons were expensive and we were poor. Swimming is essentially a pastime of the privileged and we were not. Same with skiing. Same with hockey and football.
Meh.
