If not, why haven’t you learned how?
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Whoa. 100% ditto!
Yes. Am Dutch
I couldn’t swim until I was maybe 10 or 11 and it was awful. Thankfully my parents moved and my school mandated lessons - but I wasn’t confident until maybe my late teens/early twenties?
I think kids should learn as early as possible and it makes me a bit sad that my niece and nephew haven’t learned yet (and are unlikely to as their schools don’t teach them and my sibling doesn’t seem interested in getting them lessons or teaching them). We live on an island with a lot of water inland - it’s more important than other stuff like riding a bike!
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.
Yes, of course, it’s a basic life skill.
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.
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!
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
Here in Germany we learn that in school in 3rd or 4th grade (ca 9-10 years of age).
For some reason I don’t remember ever doing such a course. I never got a “Seepferdchen”. I learned to swim on my own at some point or with help from my parents.
… unless there are not enough teachers, or not enough public pools, or…
The indoor pool I learned swimming closed a decade ago and since then there is no public indoor pool in the city anymore.
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.
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.
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.
EDIT: I just had a core memory resurface. We got in trouble in my senior year because we did a team photo where we all dropped our speedos to our ankles and covered our junk with our swim caps that had our high schools name on them.
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.
