How Many of you Cannot Swim: Any Particular Reason?

I can tread water and kinda doggy paddle, but that's about it (after 3 years of childhood swim lessons!)

I dunno, I don't really like the beach or pools or any of that.

I can swim if I have to, but I've never been a strong swimmer. I run for exercise, rarely go to swimming pools, and usually go on vacation in the mountains, where swimming opportunities are rare.

I can swim, but I choose not to.

Everyone should learn how to swim, though. Even just knowing the basics can be a life-saver.

I can swim like a motherfucker, but I don't, because that would mean I would have to put on a swimsuit, and no one needs to see that.

I'm a horrible swimmer, but I can technically swim. It doesn't really matter in pools since I'm 6'2" and outside of gym pools none of the ones I recall being in have been deeper than 6 feet.

When it comes to bodies of water I tend to not want to swim in them or water ski. I'll ride a wave runner but that's because it takes a hell of a lot to tip those over.

I never learned to swim. Grew up in areas where there weren't really any beaches to speak of, and I guess we never much went to swimming pools. No one ever bothered to teach me, and it was never really a priority, so the time just went by without learning to swim. Now I generally just avoid swimming situations. For the record, though, I wish that I had learned to swim at a young age. I suppose I could take a class or something, but that would be pretty embarrassing.

Nonsense. You should be able to find a class for beginner adults by calling a few of your local rec centers, parks, health clubs. I worked summers as a lifeguard and can tell you that picking up just a few basics can save your butt.

I learned how to swim at a very early age. Everyone I can remember from my childhood here in So Cal also knew how to swim. I was actually pretty shocked when I discovered that my wife did not know how to swim, even though she grew up in the Philippines, which is surrounded by water (there was a river running behind the house she grew up in). So I talked her into taking some of the adult swim lessons they offer out here, which has turned out to be a great decision.
It's never too late!

I can't swim. Took one year of swimming lessons but that's it. I can kind of float on my back if I try really hard but I start to panic as soon as water gets anywhere remotely close to my breathing holes.

Well, I am black.






Actually, I can swim - as in kicking, pulling, and breathing to move in a direction or from one end of a pool to the other. But I have never been able to tread water.

I don't even understand how someone can drown in a pool. I mean, we're naturally buoyant and it doesn't take any skill to paddle your feet. Seems like doing enough to keep afloat is simple and instinctive. Dogs do it and nobody teaches them how to swim. I think people drown not because they can't swim, but because they panic and drown themselves.

It's really interesting to find this stuff out. I was just having a discussion about this last weekend when I discovered that there's a ton of people I know that are younger than me who can't swim at all (a group roughly of 17-24 year olds).

I just find it surprising that it never came up as a necessity for some people.

Is it an age thing, location thing or something else?

In regards to myself, I'm a great swimmer. I've got the horrible Diver's ear to prove it.

I'm not afraid of boating, I've done it a few times, but not that much considering I live in Central TX and the coastline is a good 6-7 hour drive away. Belton Lake is nearby (for the few people that know TX), but it's a disgusting polluted lake so even if I could swim I wouldn't go there much. Mostly swimming is just something that I never did at the right time (i.e. early youth) and then just never followed up on.

I was rasied in Florida. They pretty much drop you in a pool and expect you to fend for yourself as soon as you're born. I'm not kidding. I worked at a pool as a teen and there were babies well under a year just tossed in. I suppose since babies develop in fluid in the womb, it makes sense that they wouldn't be so opposed to water if you get them used to it early on. I really can't imagine living without being able to swim.* Summer is meant for hazy days at the pool or beach. Tropical vacations are the best!

I also think its wierd when I find out someone I know has never ridden a bike (my roommate). How can this be? It's a childhood staple!


*That said, I don't have my license and have only driven minamally with my permit. So I'm not one to talk.

You know for some reason I associate swimming with knowing how to "front crawl" which I have never been able to do.

People not knowing how to swim and/or not swimming every once in a while baffles me.

It's a fairly regular thing for me and pretty much everyone I know in the real world.

Here's something I had never heard before:
From the Boston Globe
Some universities (like MIT) actually have a swim test you need to pass in order to graduate. What a great idea!

Y'know, I hear all the time people say that anyone can float but I've never been able to get that. Is there a technique to it? Kicking your legs a little, arms spread, etc?

Lay on your back and arch your neck. You're going to get a little water in your ears, but it's cool.

Just go limp and your legs will naturally lift into position. That is unless you're morbidly obese.

I can't. Actually, I can backstroke a little for some reason, but I can't swim face down or tread water. My parents never took me for lessons when I was little and I never really tried to learn when I got older. Not a big beach or pool guy anyway, so it's not a big deal.

I took a summer of swimming lessons when I was younger.

Then I almost drowned when I was maybe 9-ish. That traumatized me for a while.

Then I started to get back into it as a teenager... but I injured my nose (not swimming related), and now I can't seem to go under water and not get large amounts of water coming up my noise which kicks in a bit of a panic reflex...

So... I can "technically" swim... but I can't really go under water without holding my nose, and I'm not a strong enough swimmer to trust myself swimming one-handed while holding my nose!

Also, I'm rarely by water. I've only had one real opportunity in the past 5 years to go in water, and I chose not to (for the above reasons).

So, if I fell out of a boat or into a pool, I would not likely die... if I had someplace nearby to swim to. I can float on my back pretty well, but I never got the hang of treading water. I can do it at a high energy cost for maybe 5-10 seconds.

Also, I prefer frozen water! Yay for skiing, ice hockey, and broomball! Huzzah!

I find being chubby lends itself to be extremely buoyant, more so than when I was skinny. I'm like a human raft.

I grew up in Southern California and the beach was a staple of my childhood. In the military I met many people who never swam a day in their life. It was funny for a few minutes when they were thrown into swim tank with full gear and told to tread water for an hour. They learned quick.

UNC-Chapel Hill required a swim test at least through the mid-90s, and may still.

I also went to school in the Boston area (Brandeis) and we had to pass a swim test to graduate, too. It was pretty minimal - tread water for 20 seconds, maybe do one length in any fashion possible. Something like that.

But I guess if you can't swim at all, or like Micah, tread water, it would be a different story.

I can't swim especially gracefully or well, but I can move in the intended direction. I thought it was mandatory for kids to spend a certain amount of the summer in the water.

I remember in High School we had a tread test in P.E. It was for 10 minutes. Outside of a couple Geometry finals no test in High School made me more nervous beforehand and more relieved when it was done.

I can swim fairly well, but my daughter's like a fish. She's really good at it.

Reading the Globe article, our test must have been more involved than I remember it. I do recall thinking it was easy, but I'm a pretty capable swimmer, and was more so then.

lessons unnecessary. Just think of your arms and legs as paddles and use large sweeping motions to generate friction against the water. however if you're teaching yourself to swim in the ocean or a wave pool all bets are off.

What's weird is that I can swim but I can't skate (weird because I live in Canada... where I guess everybody can skate).

Similarly all treading water is, while "standing" vertical kick your feet back and forth and move your arms side to side (as if you are gathering water and hugging it and then pushing it away).

Haha. In an alt uni this thread-starter reads "Someone posted a message about Karen Carpenter, and I started wondering just how many people have eating disorders."

Because there is not a pool in my parents' basement.

Hopefully not after hearing you're a 'human raft'.
Things become FAR too literal in the military.

Glad to see you still here , though.

Thank you.

Lines from that sketch go through my head on a weekly basis still.

Good god man, when do you break out the material about lousy airline food?Wokka wokka.

I'm a good swimmer, and learned how to as a child. At my first swim lesson (about age 4) my asshole self told the instructor I was ready for the deep end (without even getting in the shallow end) and he picked me up and threw me in. I made it back to the edge in some panicky frantic way, but after that stuck to the shallow end until I learned how.

My brother and I were just talking about this subject yesterday, wondering how an adult could drown in a pool or relatively still body of water where there is land not too far away. It seems that dog-paddling or something should just come naturally.

Of course, I can't dive, for some odd reason, nor float (because I'm too skinny and have no bouyancy)

That's because you relieved yourself in the pool.

That was easier to conceal than relieving myself in Geometry class. Even in black Levis people can tell.

My mom threw me in a river when I was three to teach me to swim. I think.

Nerd Alert!

I've lived in San Diego my whole life and never realized until I was older that there were people that couldn't swim.

When I was young we'd have arguments playing D&D. If a character fell into the water and they didn't know how to swim they would drown. We would argue that everybody knows how to swin, you shouldn't have to take it as a skill. "That rule is stupid."

I'm hoping to go through lifeguard training in a week or two. I'm a decent to good swimmer, although my casual smoking habits have damaged my lungs a bit. Also, because I have a big ass.

I've been a swimmer all of my life (8 years with several competitive swim teams, and two years as a life guard) so this is very surprising. You should at the very least be able to tread water and dog paddle just in the interest of your own safety.

Why do people die in 4 feet of water? They die of shame.

I can kinda paddle retardedly, but that's about it. And I have a very simple reason for this: water is fucking freezing! And even as a kid, I never understood why people put themselves through that sort of torture. Whenever we had swimming practice at school, I'd always have some excuse why I couldn't swim that day. I did almost drown once in the sea as a result of this, but fuck it.

Anyway... off I go to buy Alone With Her on DVD

Allow me to open up.
I always liked being in the pool as a kid but I'd freak out if I went to the shallow end. By the time I was like, 9 or something I could survive in the water. None of that olympic swimming shiz. I can keep myself afloat, doggy paddle, whatever. I can basically swim, but I don't really like to. Pool parties confuse me because I'd rather sit and eat and talk with friends than splash water on friends and giggle like a bunch of seahorse riding aqua-elves.
Anyway, in freshman PE we had to swim. I was like "big deal at least I don't have a gut". Treading water wasn't a big deal (until the test where I somehow held onto the edge without anyone noticing) but when we had to swim laps? I thought I would be ok but, like I said I can't do much but doggie paddle. I went like 3 feet before I started panicking and waving my arms like an overacting stuntman in mid-air. I kinda said "help"... some girl who was sitting it out on the edge was like "are you serious?" and I just managed to pull myself out. Nobody noticed. I must have been pale that day. Anyway my friend and I went to the shallow end and acted like we couldn't swim at all. All we had to do was walk back and forth in the water.