Games & Recreation Swimming

[Igloo]

Recently, I met someone who doesn't know how to swim. I don't know if it's very common for people to be unable to swim, but I've just never come across someone who can't. I guess because I don't discuss it with people outside of a pool or beach, and if they're there, they most likely know how to swim.

I can't recall a single moment where I haven't known how. I grew up swimming regularly, and am completely comfortable in the water. It's not something you even have to think about really.

So, can anyone here not swim? If not, can you put it down to something that happened in the water, or just through lack of trying?

 

[crownie]

i swim poorly and wouldnt last to long trying to keep a float in deep water.

im fairly tall and have always found it hard to since starting swimming lessons in primary school.

 

[Fevola99]

i can't swim because I'm a quadriplegic. I've tried to learn a few times but the life guards always get angry at me and now I'm banned from the pool

 

[Slax]

If you're looking for people who can't swim spend some time at the local senior citizens centre, you'll find that the vast majority in fact cannot swim.

 

[poweredup]

growing up in Australia, I think parents owe it to their kids to make sure that they can swim. Unless of course you live in some remote area away from beaches and pools I think it is Un-Australian not to be able to swim.

 

[Tulip]

Learnt trough primary school, but I'm only at a sub-adequate level.

 

[ioppolo]

I can swim, but very poorly, wouldn't last to well in deep ocean water. Surely being able to swim is a given if your living in Australian (exceptions being immigrants)

 

[fairdinkum]

IIRC a few years ago a bloke drowned in the Murray after falling out of a boat.

Reports were that he would have been fine had he known how to swim. Which he didn't, on account of being a relatively recent immigrant from somewhere in the Middle East.

We kinda take it for granted that adults should know how to swim but, really, if you haven't grown up in a culture where primary school kids are forced to do swimming lessons, people love going to the beach/river/local pool etc, then the water is probably a scary and foreign place.

Similarly, if I were trapped somewhere covered in snow and had to ski to save my life (for some reason), I probably wouldn't last long, either.

 

[MarcusP2]

I can barely swim a stroke. Did the lessons in primary school etc but I am hopelessly uncoordinated and I always hated it. The beach is for beach cricket. I could float for a bit but that's all.

 

[Jimmy1992]

I didn't know how to swim for quite a long time.
When I was younger, 3 or 4, not sure exactly what age, I fell in a lake, and struggled. That put me back a few years. Was only when I was about 11/12 or so that I said to the parents that I wanted to learn how to swim. I learnt, I became better, and loved it. Swam competitively etc.
Now I teach kids to swim, and recognise how invaluable a skill it is in this country. Being confronted by water very commonly in this country, everyone should know how to swim, in my opinion.

 

[jethro11]

I'm no good at actual swimming, swimming but I could stay afloat till the cows come home. Just one of those things you learn growing up I suppose.

 

[kfc1]

It's typically people who haven't grown up in Australia that cannot swim. Anyone who grew up here from primary school age should be able to at least keep themselves afloat, it's really not that hard (obviously different in heavy seas and if injured) and all schools do swimming lessons as part of the curriculum.

 

[MoscowHawk]

How do you define "being able to swim"? If you just mean "being able to keep afloat while moving in a certain direction through water and avoiding drowning", then yeah, can definitely do that. If you're talking about swimming 25 metres freestyle - no freakin way!

 

[kfc1]

How do you define "being able to swim"? If you just mean "being able to keep afloat while moving in a certain direction through water and avoiding drowning", then yeah, can definitely do that.

Basically, yes. That's about the extent of ability you need for survival, the rest is about as relevant as whether you can juggle a soccer ball or kick a footy 30 metres.

 

[BLPC08]

I'm limited to dog-paddle. I've challenged myself a few times to see how long I would last - my max is about 3 laps of a 50m pool.

Attempted freestyle and backstroke a few times - I felt more comfortable at a nude beach.

 

[GOAUS!]

Yeah, I can swim fairly easily, just not competitively. I can tread water for a fair time, however if I'm ever forced to swim butterfly for my life I'm a goner.

 

[kfc1]

Let's just say if Kieran Perkins was swimming behind me in the 1500 with a knife, i'd be farked

 

[fairdinkum]

Let's just say if Kieran Perkins was swimming behind me in the 1500 with a knife, i'd be farked

If you were a grand piano, you'd be safer in the water than on the land in the presence of Grant Hackett.

 

[The Big Sticks]

I know someone who cant swim and he isn't an immigrant.

My father learnt how to swim when his dad threw him in the river and yelled out "SWIM". Glad I didn't learn that way.

 

[j0rdy1]

I can swim (not that well) but I have a fear of deep water after I nearly drowned when i was young, I freak out once I can't touch the bottom. I still go to the beach and stuff but I make sure to stay within my limits.

 

[Selective Retention]

My father learnt how to swim when his dad threw him in the river and yelled out "SWIM". Glad I didn't learn that way.

My uncle was slow learning to swim so my grandad took him out in the boat, tossed him over the side, and got him to swim 100m back to shore. Fair to say you would be in a bit of trouble if you did that these days.

I could swim about 50m freestyle in a pool before I started to struggle. Never been a strong suit of mine.

 

[Full Wingspan]

My dad doesn't know how to swim. Probably because he has only one hand or the fact that he is Greek.

 

[Tadpole]

I can swim (not that well) but I have a fear of deep water after I nearly drowned when i was young, I freak out once I can't touch the bottom. I still go to the beach and stuff but I make sure to stay within my limits.

I'm the same way; my near drowning was in Year 7, when someone sat on me and held me under water in the school's pool. I can do a few strokes, but I don't have the lung capacity to be able to put my head underwater for even a short amount of time while doing it.

 

[Cthublhu]

My dad doesn't know how to swim. Probably because he has only one hand or the fact that he is Greek.

Coming from a landlocked nation like Greece that's freezing for most of the year would make it hard to learn to swim.

 

[Full Wingspan]

Coming from a landlocked nation like Greece that's freezing for most of the year would make it hard to learn to swim.

Let me clarify, my dad probably didn't adopt the culture of swimming australia puts so much emphasis on as he and his family probably had better and more important things to worry about.