Swimming is a great life skill that everyone, even older people should learn. Considering 97% of the earth is water. It’s not if you will be in a large body of water, it is when.
The mixup / other percentage might have been here:
The ocean covers more than 70 percent of the surface of our planet. It’s hard to imagine, but about 97 percent of the Earth’s water can be found in our ocean. Of the tiny percentage that’s not in the ocean, about two percent is frozen up in glaciers and ice caps
I actually did kinda force myself to learn to swim back in July 2014, just days after my father passed away. At that point, I felt if I couldn’t make it back up, I didn’t deserve to be alive.
Hell, I treated it as if it was a BMX flatland trick of sorts, just go at it fully determined to make it through. I picked probably the worst possible spot in a deep river with a heavy current, and swung off of a rope right into the deep drink.
It wasn’t my intent to die that day, it was my intent to prove to myself that I can survive even the unknown scary situations in the world.
I won’t claim to be the best swimmer out there, but I’m still here today…
In my honest opinion, this is a reckless way to learn to swim. You could have died. Plenty of civic centers that you can swim for free or damn near free. You don’t even need lessons.
I know. My ex girlfriend’s son had almost drowned only 20 or so minutes earlier, and someone else saved him. Though he wasn’t my kid, I felt really bad that I wasn’t the one to save him.
There were lots of people around, and I did give someone a heads up that I was about to take the rope swing, made them aware I didn’t actually know how to swim, and asked a stranger to hold my glasses for me.
It was at that moment I basically turned off my fear switch, as I would when trying a new BMX flatland trick. Already being a fairly athletic guy, the only real difference for me was the difference of the dynamics of the water.
I figured it out pretty quick though. Not in any hurry to do it again though, unless it becomes necessary for whatever reason.
Swimming is a great life skill that everyone, even older people should learn. Considering 97% of the earth is water. It’s not if you will be in a large body of water, it is when.
The percentage is off (~70%), but I agree that swimming is something that everyone should learn.
The mixup / other percentage might have been here:
It’s also an extremely good low stress way to get exercise as you age, in a way that, say, running is not.
Sorry, they didn’t offer lava swimming at my school. Private classes are all too expensive.
Water. Water. Not lava.
Like 40% of the Earth, by volume, has gotta be lava (or otherwise superheated metal): invest in the lava swimming course.
I actually did kinda force myself to learn to swim back in July 2014, just days after my father passed away. At that point, I felt if I couldn’t make it back up, I didn’t deserve to be alive.
Hell, I treated it as if it was a BMX flatland trick of sorts, just go at it fully determined to make it through. I picked probably the worst possible spot in a deep river with a heavy current, and swung off of a rope right into the deep drink.
It wasn’t my intent to die that day, it was my intent to prove to myself that I can survive even the unknown scary situations in the world.
I won’t claim to be the best swimmer out there, but I’m still here today…
In my honest opinion, this is a reckless way to learn to swim. You could have died. Plenty of civic centers that you can swim for free or damn near free. You don’t even need lessons.
I know. My ex girlfriend’s son had almost drowned only 20 or so minutes earlier, and someone else saved him. Though he wasn’t my kid, I felt really bad that I wasn’t the one to save him.
There were lots of people around, and I did give someone a heads up that I was about to take the rope swing, made them aware I didn’t actually know how to swim, and asked a stranger to hold my glasses for me.
It was at that moment I basically turned off my fear switch, as I would when trying a new BMX flatland trick. Already being a fairly athletic guy, the only real difference for me was the difference of the dynamics of the water.
I figured it out pretty quick though. Not in any hurry to do it again though, unless it becomes necessary for whatever reason.
Ummm… We don’t live on Waterworld. Only like 70-76% of the surface is covered in water.
Well, we are all getting there.