One of my stepsisters grew up in the Phillipines. The wedding of my father and her mother was filmed on the beach. My sister could not swim even the teensiest bit.
Thing is, she wasn’t from the poorest end of the spectrum there - she was always expected to go to university; they always had a maid; she has only one younger brother (as do I - much younger than either of us and he loved in a different country to her from when he was 2) so it’s not like she never learnt to swim because she was always looking after younger siblings, doing chores or working. I wondered if maybe there were a lot of sharks or something around their island. Apparently not. But she never learnt to swim, and neither did most of my step-Mum’s relatives.
Yes, I know how to swim, unless it is a skill that you forget. I haven’t been swimming in about 15 years. Swimming bothers my sinuses really bad, so I have stayed out of pools, lakes, rivers and oceans for a long time.
But I am pretty sure if push came to shove that I could swim. When I was a kid, I probably went swimming 6 out of 7 days during the summer.
I know how to swim - all the major strokes except butterfly.
Chalk this up to YEARS of swimming lessons forced upon me. I never liked swimming that much but mom had it in her head that I would be a great swimmer.
Sigh.
I burned through all the classes for grade-school age kids. I thought I was done then (phew).
Nope. Next was a life-saving class. Being wrestled under water by man in a speedo fifteen years my senior (I had approached from the side, not the back) was not my idea of fun.
I passes that class and then foolishly thought I was through with this nonsense. Nope. Next I was signed up for a diving class.
I hated, hated this class. I could handle the front dives, but anything starting backwards just terrified me immensely. Took me a week or two to manage a simple back dive. Then the damn instructor made me start doing somersaults and twists from the back position. I hated this class so much.
Finally - on one unfortunate back dive I misjudged significantly and the board raked my side on the way down. I got a nice gash and bled all into the pool. Not a serious injury, but certainly looked gross. This was finally enough for me to be able to say “I’m done with this shit forever.”
Swimming is useful but I’ve never enjoyed it much.
I didn’t learn to swim until I was nearly 30 (which was nearly 30 years ago! :eek:), although I could float on my back and dog paddle before then. But my swimming skills are rudimentary. They were just good enough to complete the Red Cross beginner’s course at the time.
