I do, I love swimming.

How about you? Do you love swimming? Yes[b] I do. I really, really love it!
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How often do you go? How long do you swim for? Not more than an hour.

I swim 3 times a week, for an hour each time. I do between 1km and 2km each time depending on how much energy I have.

It's so low impact and just the perfect activity when the weather is hot for both enjoyment and exercise.

What do you guys think about swimming? I love it.

Where do you go swimming? At the beach? A public pool?

Do any of you have your own pool at home?

What's your stroke of choice?

Are you a good swimmer?

Do you like to swim in the morning, daytime or evening?

PunkMistress said:

I never swim in freshwater ponds or lakes, although I have swum in waterfall wash pools, or whatever they're called. I'd be open to swimming in ponds or lakes though because I love swimming.

What's the side stroke?

Black people don't swim, for the most part.

I love swimming. I was a lifeguard for 8 years, all through high school (public pool) and college (University's rec. center). I was also certified as a Water Safety Instrutor so I could teach swim lessons, which I did for 7 years. I'm not necessarily fast (we didn't have a swim team) but technically, my strokes are very good.

Sadly I don't get to swim much anymore. I don't have enough money for a membership to a gym fancy enough to have a pool (in NYC). I never really liked swimming at gym pools anyway -- they are always too crowded. I only like to swim in chlorinated water, but not if it's overly so. For example, if when I ask the manager what the ph balance is or when the last time they backwashed and vacuumed the pool, they give me a blank stare, I don't swim in that pool.

My favorite stroke is the front crawl -- but instead of breathing on the same side with every stroke, I prefer to breathe every 1.5 strokes so you alternate sides.

Last week I saw another foreigner at the pool. This girl (I would guess English) was so lithe and tall but with some muscle definition too. She dived in and proceeded to swim non-stop at nearly double my pace for about 30 minutes until a whole load of kids arrived and made it tricky. I want to be able to improve to that level! I found out she's training at a Muay Thai place near here though so she's obviously super-fit.

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[Edited 3/7/10 18:16pm]

We have a pool but I rarely go in it to swim anymore, I mostly just soak in the cool water on hot summer days

Fauxie said:

i like to sit on my hand for a while, until it goes a bit numb and then i

oh wait.

I do, I love swimming.

How about you? Do you love swimming? Yes, I really do. It makes me happier than most other things, funnily enough.

How often do you go? How long do you swim for? I used to go 3 times a week but due to doing a course of study in the evenings, I only go once.

I swim 3 times a week, for an hour each time. I do between 1km and 2km each time depending on how much energy I have. I used to do a mile each visit, but now I prefer speed swimming to distance. I get much more of a high and my body is buzzing afterwards.

It's so low impact and just the perfect activity when the weather is hot for both enjoyment and exercise.

What do you guys think about swimming? I love it.

i like it, i just never do it anymore.

(see also: sex)

whistle said:

Roll on the World Cup

I loved it as a child. I don't do it anymore. The last time I went "swimming" was in 2007 in Miami, and that was more bobbing about in the ocean.

Before that was probably 2003 or 2004 in a pool in Vegas. And again, more bobbing about.

There are 11,000+ lakes here. It's not that there's no where to do it. I just don't wear a swimsuit in public.

CarrieMpls said:

but running naked around a campfire with other girls is OK?

(that was you, right?)

Wow, that sounds very interesting. Do you remember how many times you had to rescue people who were drowning?

I hate public pools but I don´t have any other alternative here, especially in the winter. In the summertime I often go to the lake or the river right behind my place but I don´t really like swimming there, either.
Nothing beats the feeling of swimming in the ocean, especially when you do it regularly.

Chlorinated pools are a must if you go to public pools but I have heard that people who work there are prone to lung cancer due to the chemical reactions when the chlorinated water contains too many germs and stuff.

By the way, how expensive are the gyms in NYC? I pay approximately 35 dollars a month (36.5 to be precise....27 euros) and I can use any public pool in my city as often and as long as I want.Plus sauna and steam room at my gym.But my gym is one of the better ones ( and more expensive ones) in my city. There are also cheapo gyms for 25 dollars a month or less.

KoolEaze said:

Well, I don't know about interesting, but it was a great job. I grew up in a town with 800 people, so summer jobs choices were limited to: babysitting, walking beans/detasseling corn (which I did the year before I was old enough to lifeguard), working at the convenience store, or lifeguarding. It served me well -- while other college students were assigned the cafeteria for work study, I got lifeguarding at the rec. center. The best shifts were afternoons when injured athletes were given water workouts.

Fortunately, there was only one occasion where I needed to save someone. At the public pool, a little boy, no more than 5 or 6, jumped in too far from the side and he couldn't get back. I saw the look in his eyes and knew he was in trouble. After I saved him, he said "Thank you." Very sweet.



As I said, my hometown had 800 people, so the fact we had a swimming pool was pretty impressive! In college, during the summer I worked at the public pool in a super fancy suburb, so it wasn't that bad. I would imagine that in larger cities like Chicago or NYC, it would be different. I never wanted to lifeguard at a lake or ocean -- I don't like not being able to see the bottom (not because I'm scared, because you can't see if someone is at the bottom/drowning).

If the chlorine is too high, then I suppose it would be bad for you; but at a good pool they should control it. I remember in college, every semester we had to vacuum and backwash (reverse the filtration system) the pool, and hose all the disgusting gunk off these giant filters. (The were probably 4-5 feet in diameter.) Lifeguards were required to check the ph balance every hour.




The sky is the limit. Even the YMCA is $90/month. If you want somewhere fancy like Equinox then it's like $170/month plus initiation fees and I think it costs extra to take classes. Sure, there are in between priced clubs like NYSC or Crunch, but they may not have pools. Plus I am the type who does not want to have to travel (subway/bus) to get to the gym. One of the reasons I live in NYC is so I can walk a few blocks to whatever I want/need. So if I have to trek halfway around Manhattan just to go to a cheaper gym with a pool, I know I won't do it. The closest gym to me (Crunch) does not have a pool.

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[Edited 3/8/10 8:12am]

TD3 said:

That never occurred to me.

One of my great regrets in life is never learning to swim. And now I feel like I'm just too old to learn. The odd part is that I'm not afraid of water at all. I'll be the first person in and the last one out, but I just don't know how to swim. My daughter loves to swim and I started her on lessons at an early age, because I wanted her to know how and to lesson my nervousness with her being in water.

sammij said:

How terrible.