Swim or no. Be careful if you’re around water this weekend.
I certainly worry about children the most.
But, adults and the ability to imbibe on these occasions always worry me.
I learned at so young an age that I can’t remember learning. I know that I could swim the length (25 yards almost 25 meters) of the pool when I was in kindergarten.
Can I still swim? Yes basically however, my medically induced exhaustion means not very far. I’m sure I could still do a pool length, but I could not swim laps to any extent.
I can swim. My mother enrolled my sister and me in swimming lessons. I hit a snag because I was afraid to put my face in the water. My mother lived in the mountains in Italy when she was little and on the west side of Chicago after age 10. her parents didn’t know how to swim. They were dirt poor and couldn’t afford swimming lessons, so Mom never learned. However, she got in the pool, had me hold onto her hands with my face in the water while she walked backward. It worked.
In a way, I learned how to swim from a non-swimmer.
Sort of. I managed to pass the swimming test at Navy boot camp 42 years ago, and haven’t been in the water since.
Ha ha yes! I was in the Navy and we had to pass a swimming test in boot camp.
I had taken swimming lessons when I was a kid and was always in some kind of water growing up. Pools, creeks, ocean, rivers…
I still love the water.
The proper way to swim? No. Took lots of lessons as a kid to learn the front crawl with the face down in the water exhale with the head turn inhale but it never worked. The coordination to time the breathing always left me out of breath and choking on a half mouth full of water.
Did much better on my own with the head above water method and have swam like that successfully for over 40 years.
^ This.
Of course, I can swim.
I learned to swim when I was five, and we went to the beach (San Diego) often. I used to swim a mile a day (in a very small pool) when I lived in L.A.
My parents wouldn’t let me go to the local pool alone until I could swim the length of the pool. Learning at the swimming club led to a few years of competitive swimming and later a Bronze Medallion. Mind you, in my current state of fitness, I imagine I wouldn’t swim far without a break.
A camp I went to when I was somewhere between seven and ten gave me an award: because by the end of the summer they’d finally gotten me to put my head under water. They called it a “most improved” award. I still have the thing somewhere, but mostly because I hated that they gave it to me; I was the worst swimmer at the camp, and I damn well knew it. I keep it as a reminder that good intentions can backfire.
I did learn to like swimming, though; we had ponds at the house I grew up in, and I spent a lot of time messing around in them in the summers. And I was able to use swimming to get me through a gym requirement at college. I got reasonably good at it, for an entirely casual swimmer who basically just wanted to play around in the water, though I never developed fantastic form or any ability to win races – and never particularly wanted to.
Yes, former competitive swimmer, lifeguard, and swim instructor. After my separated shoulder 2 years ago my butterfly has suffered, but I can still swim long distrances.
I’m out of the habit but yes.
I could probably swim a mile if I had to, and it was in still smooth water of a comfortable temperature, and I could see my destination.
My Mom, on the other hand, was one of those people who could probably swim the English Channel when the weather was tolerable. Slow, but efficient and tireless. She colluded with my Dad to include an indoor pool when they built their retirement house, and she swam in it at least 5 times a week for an hour or so up until her death at 82 a few years ago.
I can swim passably. Coaches used to scold me on my bad form, but I can do breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle, etc. The goal isn’t to look good, it’s to burn calories and get from point A to point B.
My mom was very petite. (Fat = buoyancy.) I don’t know if she ever learned to swim. When I was little, water skiing was a thing. She water skied… but she wore a ‘life belt’ and a wetsuit that probably provided some buoyancy. Once I learned to swim, I took to water like a fish. I wish I could swim today. The water in the bay is warm in Summer, but it’s very shallow (hence, the warmth). There are no public pools around here. I long for the sandy beaches and the surf of SoCal. I got rid of my boogie board because it’s useless here. 
I can move around in the water with my feet off the bottom and could make a laughable attempt at formal strokes. If I fell out of a boat, I could keep myself at the surface and move to the boat assuming it was nearby. You wouldn’t want to watch me in the swim lanes at the YMCA. So I guess it depends on how flexible you’re being with “Can you swim?”
Learned as a kid, not what I’d call a strong swimmer, but good enough.
I have a friend who never learned until she was in her 30s. She now does the Polar Bear New Year’s Day Swim every year. (My daughter did it exactly once.)
My mother was never able to get the hang of it, trying to learn as an adult.
It’s a crime that all kids aren’t taught as a matter of course, either through school or some such. My daughter has pointed out to me that lots of families just don’t understand the importance, since the parents never learned and they haven’t drowned yet - especially new immigrants. And while the park district offers lessons, someone has to be available to take the kids there every week, and the parents have to work.
Like a fish and several times a week.
I started swimming with the dog paddle. I knew how to keep myself up and move around in the water before i had to put my head under.
Also, i learned to swim in the ocean, where skinny-kid me could float, and it apparently took awhile before i was able to swim in fresh water. Of course, now i am old and fat, and can effortlessly keep my nose out of the water. So if the temperature is okay i can swim indefinitely, i just lie back and rest if i need to.
Truth be told, i still hate the crawl. I do a mean side stroke, though. Less splashing around my face. I’m perfectly competent on my own, but i really prefer swimming with flippers on my feet. I just steer with my hands and get my propulsion from slowly wagging my feet up and down.
Yeah, I can and “strongly” in the sense I can (or could) make decent time for short distances. Not strongly in the sense that I never mastered proper breathing technique while doing a breast-stroke and have to slow and raise my head every once in awhile or I’ll get water in my mouth.
But to be honest I haven’t been swimming in a couple of decades. Just not a big interest of mine as I dislike both chlorinated pools and sandy beaches (I like shale/pebble/rocky beaches for walking, but they’re rougher on the bare feet for swimming).
This is me. My reflexive answer to this question is always " yes". I frequented the beach, loved pools and even had a friend with a pool. But in reality, I never properly swam, like laps or something. I never had lessons so I guess I sort of mimicked what I saw others do, which obviously didn’t work too well.
I can swim underwater like Shelly Winters on the SS Poseiden. Does that count?
I was going to say earlier that I prefer to swim underwater.