Do you know how to swim?
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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.
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Look at Sweden, again dunking dunking on rest of us without even trying.
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I started taking lessons about a year ago. I'm glad I have. At least I feel like I might have a chance if something happens and I end up in deeper water than I can just stand in.
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I was sort of with you on the ocean stuff, swimming there isn't really a substitute for a lifejacket, but swimming being for the privileged is a weird take.
If you don't have access to a body of water for free, then public pools are usually cheaper than a movie ticket. You don't need any equipment, all you need is one person that kinda half way knows how to swim and is willing to point you in the right direction.
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As an Aussie I remember meeting foreigners when I was a youngster, and just being totally bewildered that they couldn't swim. To me, it was as if they had said they never learnt to run, or how to open a door.
My next lesson came when I took a foreign friend who could swim to the beach. I swam out past the breakers and bobbed around wondering where they were... Turns out that not everyone grew up around waves, and they didn't know you could dive under them. So they were still back by the beach, waist deep, just getting smashed around constantly.
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No. I don’t feel comfortable being in situations where I’d learn. I’m pretty sure I’m to skin and bones to even float properly.
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How is living in a predominantly black city relevant?
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According to statistics they're less likely to know how to swim. Less swimmers means they'd have less places to swim.
But according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the fatal drowning rate of African-American children aged five-14 is three times that of white children.
A recent study sponsored by USA Swimming uncovered equally stark statistics.
Just under 70% of African-American children surveyed said they had no or low ability to swim. Low ability merely meant they were able to splash around in the shallow end. A further 12% said they could swim but had "taught themselves".
- Source: Why don't black Americans swim? (bbc.com, Sept. 2010)
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There is a relatively unknown (outside of the black community) bias against swimming. Slaves were traumatized to be hydrophobic to prevent escape from slave ships and then there was segregation of pools until relatively recently. This is fortunately fading now, last I checked.
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Yes swimming is a core part of the nz childhood. We had swimming lessons throughout school and my parents enrolled me in swim classes very early.
I'm terrible at formal swimming but I can survive and get around comfortably in the water
