The Perth Thread

[Off The Couch]

Guess growing up in a coastal country town, i could never understand people who didn't learn how to swim, looking back at it i go swimming lessons as a toddler.

Same - My dad put us kids on his shoulders down at the local foreshore and walked out as far as he could and then threw us off and told us to swim. May have only been dog paddle but it was the beginning of a long, wonderful connection with the ocean

 

[gaskin]

I'm 22. We all went to the lessons but if anyone didn't want to do them we were just allowed to sit them out. I can swim enough to get to the side of the pool but could never swim in the ocean or anything. Pretty crazy when I look back on it.

I wish I went to your school then. I'm the same age and ours was compulsory and could only sit out if we had a note from a parent or doctor.

 

[Kram]

I wish I went to your school then. I'm the same age and ours was compulsory and could only sit out if we had a note from a parent or doctor.

Why didn't you want to do the lessons?

 

[gaskin]

Why didn't you want to do the lessons?

Because as well as doing lessons with the school, I was also doing lessons outside of school at the same time.

 

[Scotland]

I wish I went to your school then. I'm the same age and ours was compulsory and could only sit out if we had a note from a parent or doctor.

Yeah I felt the same way in primary school. Grew up with a pool, spent holidays at the beach etc. but swimming lessons could farrrrrrrrrrrrk off. I was never a strong swimmer as a kid and swimming lessons just bring back memorys of early mornings, freezing over-chlorinated water and swimming from one end of the pool to the other feeling like crossing the English channel.

 

[FreoGirl]

Wow.

You're not exactly an old fella are you mate? That's pretty damn negligent, I had always assumed that every kid in Australia had to do compulsory swimming lessons. Does that mean you still can't swim today?

they should be but don't seem to be. My son's school has a pool and doesn't do compulsory swimming lessons - it has only just started offering them because a swim coach has started his own club at the school and you pay him privately. I don't get it! they then make it compulsory for all kids to participate in their swim carnival. They say the onus is on the parent, but not all parents value lessons like I do.

 

[Kram]

Mum said that at the school she's an assistant at, there is a parent that almost drowned as a kid so she makes absolutely any excuse to try and stop her kid from doing the lessons.

Yeah that really makes a lot of sense..

 

[Illinois Nazi]

Only thing that used to really put me off doing them sometimes was being a skinny kid on cold days, especially when a lot of the time at lessons you were standing or splashing around in the water it made it hard to get warm in the water.

Most kids quickly discover a simple solution to that problem.

 

[Scotland]

Exposure to water as young as possible is a necessity.

I'm pretty sure I never made it past Stage 6 in lessons so my technique was always pretty rubbish, but if I fall into a pool etc. I'm not going to flail around in panic because I'm comfortable being in the water.

 

[Keys]

Exposure to water as young as possible is a necessity.

I'm pretty sure I never made it past Stage 6 in lessons so my technique was always pretty rubbish, but if I fall into a pool etc. I'm not going to flail around in panic because I'm comfortable being in the water.

Yeah you only really need to be a strong swimmer if you plan on going in the ocean where there's some sort of surf

 

[Bacon Warrior]

Exposure to water as young as possible is a necessity.

I'm pretty sure I never made it past Stage 6 in lessons so my technique was always pretty rubbish, but if I fall into a pool etc. I'm not going to flail around in panic because I'm comfortable being in the water.

You and me both. I only completed lessons up to Stage 4. Didn't stop me from saving myself from drowning in a rip at Trigg.

 

[Scotland]

Yeah you only really need to be a strong swimmer if you plan on going in the ocean where there's some sort of surf

Or you are into competitive swimming / things like snorkelling and scuba diving etc.

If I was snorkelling 500m off Rottnest from a boat and the boat sank, I'm comfortable I could just swim back to shore (any massive rips aside), just don't ask me to swim 400m backstroke in 10 minutes.

I went kayaking just after winter up near Bells Rapids and the current was pretty strong in places. While we did have life jackets and helmets as we were negotiating rapids I felt comfortable from knowing what to do when I fell out rather than having any particularly great swimming prowess. I think that's probably the most important aspect of water safety, being comfortable in different situations and not panicking.

 

[Scotland]

Mum said that at the school she's an assistant at, there is a parent that almost drowned as a kid so she makes absolutely any excuse to try and stop her kid from doing the lessons.

Yeah that really makes a lot of sense..

Migrant parent?

I find it weird having grown up in Australia meeting people in their 20s and 30s (from overseas) who can't swim. It's a cultural norm here that pretty much everyone can swim, and I guess I just take it for granted. Europeans probably think it's strange that the majority of us are totally lost when speaking English is taken off the table...

I remember being in Kilkenny in Ireland and the river wasn't more than 10-20m across and didn't seem to be flowing at any great speed and there were orange life buoys every 50m or so along the banks. You'd never see that here, the expectation is that if you went in you'd just get out.

 

[Milang_Panthers]

That's strange, I'm a fair bit older than you and the only way to get out of doing lessons iirc was to have a note from a parent for a health reason.

Only thing that used to really put me off doing them sometimes was being a skinny kid on cold days, especially when a lot of the time at lessons you were standing or splashing around in the water it made it hard to get warm in the water.

I know it wouldn't be easy as an adult but you really should try and get someone to try and teach you to at least be competent, you are really missing out especially in Australia, not to mention who knows if you are ever in a situation where you have to swim for your life..

Na was fairly easy. All I had to do was say I didn't want to do it and they didn't push me, really strange looking back on it

 

[Righteo]

Yeah I felt the same way in primary school. Grew up with a pool, spent holidays at the beach etc. but swimming lessons could farrrrrrrrrrrrk off. I was never a strong swimmer as a kid and swimming lessons just bring back memorys of early mornings, freezing over-chlorinated water and swimming from one end of the pool to the other feeling like crossing the English channel.

I hear that, we were very lucky though that Melville pools had a heated pool we were allowed to jump in at the end of the lessons.

My worst swimming memories would have to be in highschool though when inexplicably we had to go to Bicton Baths and dive to the bottom/practise rescue methods in the ****ing middle of winter. The Swan is like clear spring water compared to the Yarra but it gets pretty rank in winter sometimes.

Being a kid with not a trace of fat on me it was genuine torture, the teachers would stand around acting like smug bastards too.

 

[gaskin]

I hear that, we were very lucky though that Melville pools had a heated pool we were allowed to jump in at the end of the lessons.

Lucky you. We were always at Freo in the outdoor pools and that water was always freezing.

 

[blueboy25]

.
My worst swimming memories would have to be in highschool though when inexplicably we had to go to Bicton Baths and dive to the bottom/practise rescue methods in the ******* middle of winter. The Swan is like clear spring water compared to the Yarra but it gets pretty rank in winter sometimes.

I remember in high school we use to swim at the beach which was only a couple of hundred metres from our school. We use to have to swim out past some bouys which were at least 150-200m from the shore.

There is no way a school would allow that these days with the shark problems here in WA.

 

[Righteo]

I remember in high school we use to swim at the beach which was only a couple of hundred metres from our school. We use to have to go swim out past some bouys which were at least 150-200m from the shore.

There is no way a school would allow that these days with the shark problems here in WA.

That's pretty crazy, I struggle when I get 50m out let alone 150m!

 

[blueboy25]

That's pretty crazy, I struggle when I get 50m out let alone 150m!

The teacher would just point out to the bouy and say off ya go and we didn't even think to question it

 

[kfc1]

I remember in high school we use to swim at the beach which was only a couple of hundred metres from our school. We use to have to go swim out past some bouys which were at least 150-200m from the shore.

There is no way a school would allow that these days with the shark problems here in WA.

U went to beehive?

 

[The_Reaper]

I wish I went to your school then. I'm the same age and ours was compulsory and could only sit out if we had a note from a parent or doctor.

Same.
Except swimming lessons were awesome.

And in year 7 we had our swimming lessons at Cottesloe

 

[Freofalcon]

Most kids quickly discover a simple solution to that problem.

Still works for me.

 

[Silent Alarm]

I can't trust Aussies who can't swim.

I'd do swimming lessons in winter at school and then at the beach in summer. Pretty miserable weather sometimes but it was always a nice feeling to finally get out the water and have a water and some chips. In high school it was the choppy, freezing grey water in June and we'd swim out to buoys as well – probably 100, 150 metres off-shore for at least 400 metres. This was only about four years ago as well.

I was always a good swimmer and it's the one thing I miss about WA. Such great beaches and that's a state who get it. These Victorians on trams to shitty oil-stained beaches at 1pm on 40 degree days, and their bragging about summer houses "near the sea..." so lame.

Going to the beach is also so formative. You see so much about the teenage and adult world for the first time there. They're still profound childhood memories, but the first time going to the grassy knoll because you were finally in high school, attempting talking to girls you didn't go to school with... it was like a Robert Drewe novel.

 

[Thistle]

So anyone going to animal house tomorrow???

 

[Hellgood]

I can't trust Aussies who can't swim.

I'd do swimming lessons in winter at school and then at the beach in summer. Pretty miserable weather sometimes but it was always a nice feeling to finally get out the water and have a water and some chips. In high school it was the choppy, freezing grey water in June and we'd swim out to buoys as well – probably 100, 150 metres off-shore for at least 400 metres. This was only about four years ago as well.

I was always a good swimmer and it's the one thing I miss about WA. Such great beaches and that's a state who get it. These Victorians on trams to shitty oil-stained beaches at 1pm on 40 degree days, and their bragging about summer houses "near the sea..." so lame.

Going to the beach is also so formative. You see so much about the teenage and adult world for the first time there. They're still profound childhood memories, but the first time going to the grassy knoll because you were finally in high school, attempting talking to girls you didn't go to school with... it was like a Robert Drewe novel.

Fond memories of doing yearly beach swimming lessons at Middleton. Always seemed to be the same kids each year. Annoyed me at the time though, would head down to the beach with all the family and I'd be the only kid amongst my cousins who'd have to go off and do the lessons.