How did you learn to swim?

[PonoBill]

To stay on topic I learned at the local Y. But...

I have a business partner in his 60's who grew up in Illinois and told me they used to swim naked in gym class.  I thought he was full of sh@t but apparently that was a thing up until the 70's
http://www.chicagonow.com/open-heart/2014/08/swimming-naked-in-gym-class-really-happened/#comments

Absolutely. When I was a kid all the indoor pools required that you swim naked. No idea why, it was what they did. No co-ed stuff of course. Must have been a great place to work for pedophiles. I read some of the comments in the Chicago piece. I don't know why I ever do that. There are some remarkably sucko people walking around out there. Everything from grossly touchy-feely PC to gay bashers in one page. Uck. Like looking at a squashed possum.

[CascadeSup]

This is why I gave myself a 3, and maybe I was too generous at that. 

Woman swim length of Flathead Lake and back - 56 miles in 40 hours.  "On Sunday, huge swells began to form, battering the swimmers and making the water so choppy that their support crew became sick and had to be replaced."

She also swam the 55 miles in Lake Chelan in 2011.

[surf4food]

To stay on topic I learned at the local Y. But...

I have a business partner in his 60's who grew up in Illinois and told me they used to swim naked in gym class.  I thought he was full of sh@t but apparently that was a thing up until the 70's
http://www.chicagonow.com/open-heart/2014/08/swimming-naked-in-gym-class-really-happened/#comments

Absolutely. When I was a kid all the indoor pools required that you swim naked. No idea why, it was what they did. No co-ed stuff of course. Must have been a great place to work for pedophiles. I read some of the comments in the Chicago piece. I don't know why I ever do that. There are some remarkably sucko people walking around out there. Everything from grossly touchy-feely PC to gay bashers in one page. Uck. Like looking at a squashed possum.

I imagine the last post on that article was pure troll.  I have serious doubts that person is really trying to sue people from 1970 and possibly send them to jail.  Not to mention she doesn't quite look old enough to have been in high school back then.

[tautologies]

School. We had swimming once a week from 2nd grade (I think)...I pretty much learned by signing up for a swimming competition at my local school at the beginning of the year.

[NEplay]

Took swimming lessons as a kid all the way up to and passed senior life saving. I took Senior Life Saving with my buddies who i taught sailing with and it was a requirement for the job(I grew up a preppy. I was an over privileged kid who thought she was some kind of heiress, but turns out my dad was a delusional/Great Gatsby type so downstream effects were sobering but that is a story for another time, this thread is about learning to swim.) So one of my buddies was umm, how shall I say this, intimate with the lovely instructor for senior life saving.  When she signed my form  passing me she made me promise I would never be a life guard. I guess I was not a proficient swimmer in spite of my instruction. 

Anyway I went on to an obsession with Windsurfing and always assumed I was terrific swimmer, in spite of my pledge to the lovely instructor in her red swim suit.(delusional thing is a little genetic) Lots of year round New England winter windsurfing followed with me basically stalking the  likes of Nevin Sayer.  I learned to windsurf by attempting to do whatever I saw Nevin do. So there were many moments when i was just a TOUCH over my head Nevin being a world champion windsurfer in the era of Robby Naish and Bjorn Dunkerbeck(?). It is truly a miracle I did not drown.

Fast forward to 2008 and I fall in with love with a fetching Smithie who was a varsity swimmer, a triathlete and on going masters swimmer. I say "great we can do triathlons together". We go to the pool to do a workout with her Masters group and every single swimmer is passing me like I am going 30mph on the Autobahn and I am in the slowest lane. I am now thinking "huh, I thought I was a pretty darn good swimmer, a 'water women' even but everybody is on a different planet then me in this pool." Thus began a 2 year journey to actually learn how to swim and it was one of the mosts humbling athletic experiences of my life. I learned how to rotary breath, do flip turns, what "sets" were and basically put a lot of time to basically still be slow as fuck, just not as slow. The young Smithie is long gone, 11 years my junior(delusional remember) but I still swim. I love open water swimming. I have a membership at my town pool but it is by far the hardest sport I have ever tried to get fast at.

[supthecreek]

My Dad was teaching my older brother from a rowboat on Cape Cod. I was sitting in the boat, so I jumped out.

My Dad heard the splash..... he looked down and I was laying on the bottom, smiling at up at him.

He jumped in and dragged me up.... "What did you do THAT for?"
"I knew you would save me"

My parents were both excellent swimmers.... and not rich.
Summers were hot in Connecticut, even before Al Gore.

Air conditioning was not something most folks had, so in order to save us from melting, my parents organized a group of friends to build a swimming pool club from scratch. My mom found a cheap piece of land on a hillside, that was mostly cleared of trees from an DC 3 airliner crash in 1946.

My Dad arranged loans for each family, from a local bank and the club was built. Each loan? $125

Copper Valley Club, Cheshire CT.... still there... still awesome.

The pool was standard size for races, so after we learned to swim..... we raced.... and never stopped.

MY brother and I were on the Cheshire Academy Swim Team, which managed to stay undefeated State Champions for 3 straight years.
I swam the 400 yard freestyle.

I have to dogpaddle now, because my rotator cuffs won't rotate.
Mostly, I lay on my back and kick my feet. Thank God for leashes.

[mrbig]

On Oahu when I was three and a half. My Dad had gone to Japan and my Mom took me to the beach every day.

The beach boys liked the little blondie and taught him how to swim. Caught my first wave on an inflatable at Nanikuli.

Swam in pools, junior lifesaving, senior lifesaving, and experienced the freezing  waters of NE every summer.

Also learned to slalom ski on Lake Ossippee behind my Uncle's Yellowjacket.

My Dad and I used to see who could swim farther underwater in pools. Came in handy later.

Can swim forever using my Grandma's modified one armed sidestroke. Very very slowly!!

[supdiscobay]

Competitive swimming since I was 5 through college.  Played water polo in High school, junior college and college.  Swam all those college years, because, well you had to if your were playing water polo. Always hated swimming after high school.  Now I love it because I have choice.  Of course I was a pool life guard in high school, cause that's where the girls were.

Recently retired from coaching water polo, high school and year round club, and now just assist on the pool deck.  But there are those days when I get in the water with the boys and I have to perform.  So I swim about 3,000 yds several days a week in a lap pool, with some water polo oriented drills too.  Workout changes every day to make it fun.  I tried to swim morning conditioning workouts with the boys.  But holy crap they are fast.  We have several mid 40 second 100 free, and a backstroker in the upper 40's and he is a junior.  So I do my own thing when they are not around.

Hats off to those of you who open water swim.  It is a whole different world.  Definitely an adjustment for me when I get out in unruly conditions in the ocean. Every year when we go to Maui, it takes a few days to really feel comfortable getting worked.

[TallDude]

Can swim forever using my Grandma's modified one armed sidestroke. Very very slowly!!

That's funny. My mom totally. If I'm tired swimming, I do the same thing. Her little side stroke so she wouldn't mess up her hair. CLASSIC! 

[lucabrasi]

^^ yeah, too funny x2, moms and sidestroke.
 My mom described her side stroke as picking dandelions. Reach out, pick one and bring it back and put it in the pail and reach out and get another. I still will swim that stroke. One arm? Never thought about it but I think it is. Switch sides then the other arm.
I not sure how I learned to swim tho. I remember flailing around in a lake (Flathead actually) when I was 3-4 and my dad had to get me. When I was 6-7 and had moved to Cali many of my friends had pools and I would swim/play in those. When I was 7-8 my mom stuck me in swim lessons. She told them I had never swam and they stuck me in the first timers. I jumped right in and swam and they moved me up a few notches right then. I guess I had learned something being in the neighborhood pools. Ended up getting our own pool and swam lots. Did a few years of lessons and did all the boy scout stuff others have mentioned as well. All the local reservoirs, lakes, etc. Just something about being in the open water than in a pool.
I do pretty good but I couldn't be over a 5 or 6.
I am amazed how many adults I have ran across over the years that say they can't swim. I just can't quite wrap my head around it.
Swimming is one of the things I made sure my kids knew how to do at an early age.

[Beasho]

My parents were both excellent swimmers.... and not rich.

Creek: I have heard you mention this before - I am not buying it.  Now I learn that your parents started a swim club, you have been to Heron Island, started a Surf Bar, are sponsored by one of the best SUP companies on Planet Earth at the age of . . . . . ~70  , spend 5 hours a day surfing glassy conditions 5 days in a row, probably more often than you can comfortably share with us, you claim to turn harder backside than front side AND HAVE THE VIDEO TO PROVE IT and I am sure this is just the tip of the iceberg.  Who does this?

You build, share and promote Stoke like you did last weekend at Ocean Mist. 

You are richer than you know and make those guys with fancy cars and mansions in the Hamptons feel like they have been sent down a bait-and-switch life path. 

Thanks for sharing your riches.  Don't ever Stop. 

PS: I no longer swim.  I wear float and pull on my leash.  Float should be mandatory for surfers it might save lives but would increase surfing ability by 30% across the board. 

[pdxmike]

It's funny--everyone learns sidestroke when they take kids' lessons, then almost everyone but moms drop it.  But it's the stroke that could save your life if you ever need to swim in open water for a long time or distance.  Your eyes and mouth stay out of the water (without crimping your neck up and making your body sink like the Tarzan crawl), it's efficient because the power comes from your large leg muscles, you can switch sides...It's also what you learn in lifesaving because you can hold someone you've rescued without their interfering with the stroke, and you can really hold them firmly against you so they don't flail.


I also read the dry-hair breaststroke was common long ago, when people (including distance swimmers) wanted to swim without putting their heads or mouths in questionable water, and your arm stroke would sweep away the floating leaves, dead rats, etc.  That was before it was taken over by moms in the 1960s at the 12-2 PM Ladies Lap Swim at the pool, to keep their hair dry that didn't fit under their 3D flower bathing caps.  It's another really efficient, practical stroke for open water--all legs, and full visibility.

[seadart]

Re Sidestroke and Breaststroke for survival swimming.

At our scout camp there was mile swim event every year.  When you are 11 or 12 a mile is a long way.  Our scoutmaster made sure each one of us could swim a mile doing the side stroke and breast stroke. We always thought he was a bit over the top dedicated to knowing how to swim long distances.   My scoutmaster was my Dad's best friend growing up and he clued me in to a story about our scoutmaster.  He was in the Philippine Islands during WWII when the Japanese took the island he was on,  he and several others sneaked down to the beach in darkness and swam to US Navy ships many miles  off shore to escape, many of his friends left on that beach never made it home. 

[ford]

My grandparents had a pool and lived just down the road so I started early.

I'd say I'm around a 7 as a swimmer. Completely comfortable in the water swimming above or below. Decent technique though I never swam competitively.

[Roundhouse]

I really learned to swim in the days before leashes. I can still remember as a grom about 10 swimming in over and over on big days. Learning how to deal with rip tides and foot cramps, where I pulled on my toes and swam in with one arm, kept me in shape. My parents like most others were oblivious what danger we were exposed to but it made me good swimmer. This worked out for me since my career ended up being a professional diver.

Parents today are much more engaged. One local mom puts a shark repellent bracelets on 3 kids' ankles and herself before going out. Each bracelet costs more than my first board that I had to mow yards to pay off.