If not, why haven’t you learned how?
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.
How is living in a predominantly black city relevant?
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)
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.
Yes. My dad tried to tech me but he was not patient enough so he showed me some things and then just left me in the water to go sunbathing himself. But somehow this seemed enough so I kept at it and could swim a bit, then over the years always a little better and so on. Still today my technique is quite bad but I can swim forever, just not as fast as other people.
Yeah, I was swimming as a child and eventually took lessons later on. It’s like second nature now, not knowing how to swim seems like not knowing how to walk to me. I can’t imagine what it’s like. I never swam competitively or for exercise, just for recreation.
My parents made sure I took swimming lessons as a kid, and as a teenager I did a lot of water sports (sailing and rowing). I grew up next to a really good lake, so it would have been a waste to not be in or on the water.
Username checks out(?
That lake was mine and I peed in it.
For ~25 years I was too lean to float, so it’s a good thing I could swim.
Nearly everywhere in my country mandates lessons, so yeah
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/
Here in Denmark it is through school.
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.
Its harder to remember not swimming to be honest. School swimming lessons, beach holidays, leisure centres, holidays abroad etc. I actually used to swim competetively (for my age bracket in my teenage years) for a local team. Went on to do lots of scuba diving and was a pool lifeguard for a bit
I think not swimming here is pretty rare, I want to say that maybe 10 or 15% of my year were classed as “non-swimmers” and had lessons separately to the rest.
Yes I learned at a very young age.
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
I can swim. I just have a seriously hard time sinking. No joke. I have to work to go down.
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.
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.
You got that shit if you made it chest high. Keep going!
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.
Yes. My dad was an avid swimmer and scuba diver so he wanted to instill that onto us children.
Yes, of course, it’s a basic life skill.
Yes! I learned at the YMCA as a kid.
