Do you know how to swim?
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Yes I learned at a very young age.
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Nearly everywhere in my country mandates lessons, so yeah
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I was varsity swim team in high school.
It was what all the freaks, weirdos, and gay boys did for a sport because no one came to watch our swim meets but our families. It gave us a sense of privacy and community at the same time.
I miss it a lot sometimes. I haven't had access to a pool to do laps in in like twenty years.
It's my favorite type of exercise.
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My dad watched his brother drown when he was a kid and was unable to save him Ray Charles style and made sure he taught me to swim before dipping out
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Yes. My dad was an avid swimmer and scuba diver so he wanted to instill that onto us children.
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No, almost drown when I was a kid and have massive panic attacks getting into the water. In the last few years I've been able to get chest deep without hyperventilating but can't really seem to float out anything like that without letting go of the side.
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You got that shit if you made it chest high. Keep going!
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Yes, and I learned to float to swim further
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How does that work, is it done through school?
There was some discussion about it here (Canada) last summer
https://globalnews.ca/news/10610765/bc-mandatory-swimming-lessons/
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Despite living in a country surrounded by water, no, I can’t swim. I don’t go in water I can’t stand in
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Have you tried emptying your lungs? It sounds crazy, but you actually don't have to completely fill your lungs with air, just enough so that you can last a good while underwater and so that you're no longer buoyant. It takes some practice, and you might panic a little bit at first, but once you get used to that, it just becomes second nature.
The only times I hold as much air as possible are when I'm trying apneas (holding my breath as long as possible), but I stay near the surface for that and I remain inmobile. (Also, make sure there's more people with you and that you're signing that you're fine)
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Username checks out(?
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Nope, I had no school option, and no lake or river around home where I could learn. I went with my parents to the seaside a few days every year, but my dad didn't teach me. When I had kids of my own, it was on the "must" list: teach to ride bike, make sure they can swim.
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Yes - after I nearly drowned in the ocean as a child, I was promptly enrolled in swimming lessons.
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Trusting the float on the back makes sense to be a hard one. It's counterintuitive, the water comes over your face when you start, and you can't hold on to anything. Might be worth getting a personal coach for a session just for that if you haven't already. Someone supporting you might help with the anxiety as long as they're encouraging and not pushy.
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Yes. In sweden every child has been taught to swim for almost 100 years.
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My school gave us swimming lessons but they were not very accommodating to me, I came out of them not knowing how to swim. When I lived with my brother, I taught myself to more or less be able to swim in his pool. It's just very tiring.
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Here in Denmark it is through school.
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Me, too. I've got some extra buoyancy on account of being fat.
While servicing my sailing yacht I dropped a part of the furler in the water while docked. A new piece was stupidly expensive and would take two weeks to get, while I was cruising on a schedule.
So I dropped the anchor and climbed down the chain to look for it. At the end my wife found it. We probably spent a good three hours diving and feeling around in the soft mud for it.
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Yep.
Part of schooling in NZ.
A lot of kids also get extra lessons, because well it's NZ.
note: the furthest from the coast you can get in NZ is 119.44 km (74.22mi)
