Poll: Do you know how to swim?

[yhelothar]

I can swim, for leisure. Never had formal training, but I can stay up on the water as long as I want, or go swim 100ft out into the ocean and make it back fine.

 

[Skeeedunt]

I don't really understand how someone wouldn't even be able to doggy paddle... you can basically flail around and stay above water. Am I missing something?

 

[Randum]

all american, and all state, nationals, just retired this past year at the end of college and havent touched a pool since....

 

[Stvfarmboy]

I can keep my head above water. Not the best swimmer by any means.

 

[F1shF4t]

I swim freestyle mostly, a couple killometers easily. I cant do butterfly at all.
Never trained as such, used to go to the pool once a week to do a killometer, i think i will start swiming again as part of my workout soon, maybe .

 

[Mrvile]

I voted "sort of." I know how to stay afloat, how to move around in water pretty easily, and I've gone snorkeling and scuba diving before. If someone asked me to actually "swim laps" in a lap pool it would be kinda weird.

 

[bersl2]

I started swimming at 2 or 3. I used to smile all the time while I was learning, even when underwater. I was on the swim team in high school for five years. My freestyle/front crawl sucks ass. I :heart: breaststroke, even though I never ended up breaking 1:15 in 100 yards. My best individual finish at state championship meets was 5th; my team won state championships three times (finishing runner-up once also). Going to a smaller school rocks, because you get these kinds of opportunities.

 

[pyonir]

Nope. Never learned. And for all those saying it's very important to learn, i've never had to know in my 28 years of life...so it can't be that important.

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: pyonir
Nope. Never learned. And for all those saying it's very important to learn, i've never had to know in my 28 years of life...so it can't be that important.

There are people who are 28 years old and can't read who would say the same thing.

 

[InlineFour]

i know how to keep myself from drowning. does that count?

 

[pyonir]

Originally posted by: notfred

Originally posted by: pyonir
Nope. Never learned. And for all those saying it's very important to learn, i've never had to know in my 28 years of life...so it can't be that important.

There are people who are 28 years old and can't read who would say the same thing.

Yeah, i saw your post and figured you'd say something similar to that. LOL. You don't need to know how to live and function in society effectively. I'm not going to be passed over for an office job because i can't swim. But i probably would be passed over if i couldn't read. Your analogies are pretty poor.

But, should one day i drown, i'll be sure to post from the dead, notfred, so you can say "i told you so".

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Yes.

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: pyonir

Originally posted by: notfred

Originally posted by: pyonir
Nope. Never learned. And for all those saying it's very important to learn, i've never had to know in my 28 years of life...so it can't be that important.

There are people who are 28 years old and can't read who would say the same thing.

Yeah, i saw your post and figured you'd say something similar to that. LOL. You don't need to know how to live and function in society effectively. I'm not going to be passed over for an office job because i can't swim. But i probably would be passed over if i couldn't read. Your analogies are pretty poor.

But, should one day i drown, i'll be sure to post from the dead, notfred, so you can say "i told you so".

Ok, be all self-righteous about the fact that you lack a basic skill that most 8 year olds can do, and you could learn in an afternoon, and could very well save your life someday. Never mind the fact that it's fun and lets you do all kinds of interesting stuff outdoors.

But yeah, you'd never need it to get an office job, because life is all about office jobs.

 

[pyonir]

Originally posted by: notfred


Ok, be all self-righteous about the fact that you lack a basic skill that most 8 year olds can do, and you could learn in an afternoon, and could very well save your life someday. Never mind the fact that it's fun and lets you do all kinds of interesting stuff outdoors.

But yeah, you'd never need it to get an office job, because life is all about office jobs.

Okay, so you are better than me because you can swim and i can't? The things i enjoy doing outdoors do not involve swimming or bodies of water for that matter, is that okay with you? You may think it's fun, when i was a kid and trying to teach myself, i didn't find it fun, so didn't further persue it.

I can't think of a job i'd like to do out there, where it is a requirement that i know how to swim. There are a lot of jobs out there that i'd like to have (not just in an office) where you do have to know how to read.

The likely hood that knowing how to swim would save my life someday, is about the same chance as me winning the lottery...guess I'll go buy a ticket and sign up for a class.

Talk about being self righteous...LOL

 

[compudog]

I can swim well enough to rescue a drowning person.

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: pyonir

Originally posted by: notfred


Ok, be all self-righteous about the fact that you lack a basic skill that most 8 year olds can do, and you could learn in an afternoon, and could very well save your life someday. Never mind the fact that it's fun and lets you do all kinds of interesting stuff outdoors.

But yeah, you'd never need it to get an office job, because life is all about office jobs.

Okay, so you are better than me because you can swim and i can't? The things i enjoy doing outdoors do not involve swimming or bodies of water for that matter, is that okay with you? You may think it's fun, when i was a kid and trying to teach myself, i didn't find it fun, so didn't further persue it.

I can't think of a job i'd like to do out there, where it is a requirement that i know how to swim. There are a lot of jobs out there that i'd like to have (not just in an office) where you do have to know how to read.

The likely hood that knowing how to swim would save my life someday, is about the same chance as me winning the lottery...guess I'll go buy a ticket and sign up for a class.

Talk about being self righteous...LOL

I don't think I'm better than you because I know how to swim. I just think it's stupid that you're so proud of the fact that you don't know how to do something so fundamental. I'd expect the attitude of someone lacking simple skills like this to be something along the lines of "No, I don't know how, I should really learn sometime, that'd be good to know" rather than "Nah, I don't need it anyway".

You might as well be saying "Psshh... I've been wearing sandals for 28 years so far, why should I bother learning to tie shoes, I've never needed it before." And yeah, I guess you could get away with wearing sandals, slip-ons, and velcro shoes if you wanted to, but that doesn't mean I'm not gonig to think it's stupid that you don't know how to tie shoes.

And I checked google, apparently 3,482 people drowned in the US in 2000. How many people won the lottery? That's in a country where 90%+ of people know how to swim. I'd imagine that the drowning rates are significantly higher for the small percentage of people that don't know how to swim. And it doesn't seem that far-fetched that sometime in your life you might possibly fall into water that's more than 6 feet deep to me.

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: notfred
Ok, be all self-righteous about the fact that you lack a basic skill that most 8 year olds can do, and you could learn in an afternoon, and could very well save your life someday. Never mind the fact that it's fun and lets you do all kinds of interesting stuff outdoors.

Fly to my area, and spend a week trying to teach me how to swim. If you succeed, I'll pay for your plane tickets and give you $1000. If you fail, you wasted your time.

 

[Stumps]

I can...but only enougth to save my life...I'm not much of a long distance swimmer....but lucky for me, there isn't much water where I live

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: GeekDrew

Originally posted by: notfred
Ok, be all self-righteous about the fact that you lack a basic skill that most 8 year olds can do, and you could learn in an afternoon, and could very well save your life someday. Never mind the fact that it's fun and lets you do all kinds of interesting stuff outdoors.

Fly to my area, and spend a week trying to teach me how to swim. If you succeed, I'll pay for your plane tickets and give you $1000. If you fail, you wasted your time.

Are you serious? Send me a picture of yourself, I want to make sure you're not missing your arms or something.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: GeekDrew

Originally posted by: notfred
Ok, be all self-righteous about the fact that you lack a basic skill that most 8 year olds can do, and you could learn in an afternoon, and could very well save your life someday. Never mind the fact that it's fun and lets you do all kinds of interesting stuff outdoors.

Fly to my area, and spend a week trying to teach me how to swim. If you succeed, I'll pay for your plane tickets and give you $1000. If you fail, you wasted your time.

You can attend the DrPizza school of swimming for about half that cost.
Day 1 lesson: Dump you about 75 yards from shore at a calm lake. "swim toward the shore!"

 

[JulesMaximus]

I can swim, I can dive and I can surf.

Yeah, simming is no problem for me.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: Stumps
I can...but only enougth to save my life...I'm not much of a long distance swimmer....but lucky for me, there isn't much water where I live

Dude, you live on an island...:laugh:

Well, technically it's a continent...but it's surrounded by water.

 

[Brutuskend]

Why yes, yes I do.

In fact I used to teach swimming to little kids when I was younger.

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: GeekDrew

Originally posted by: notfred
Ok, be all self-righteous about the fact that you lack a basic skill that most 8 year olds can do, and you could learn in an afternoon, and could very well save your life someday. Never mind the fact that it's fun and lets you do all kinds of interesting stuff outdoors.

Fly to my area, and spend a week trying to teach me how to swim. If you succeed, I'll pay for your plane tickets and give you $1000. If you fail, you wasted your time.

You can attend the DrPizza school of swimming for about half that cost.
Day 1 lesson: Dump you about 75 yards from shore at a calm lake. "swim toward the shore!"

Day 1 paperwork: OMG I thought he would swim, rather than sink! Don't arrest me, please...

 

[saymyname]

I helped my brother learn how to "swim" by throwing him in the deep end of the pool and not letting him touch the sides or bottom. He had to tread water for probably 45 minutes while spitting and swearing at me. He was taking swimming lessons at the same time. He's probably a better swimmer than me now.

At the very least you should be able to do that. That way you don't drown in the most minor of accidents like falling in a pool or off a dock. You want to be able to go fishing or canoeing.