# Do You Swim?



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Do you swim? I'm curious.


----------



## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

It's illegal not to swim in California, USA (unless you live way up north).


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I do, and I enjoy it! I swam yesterday, 5 breast-stroke, 8 freestyle. I would have done more had kids in the pool not gotten in my way.

In the summers, I like to do a real swimming exercise routine, and this year I've done the most swimming I've ever done. My Flute Professor actually suggested swimming to me, to build both stamina and breath-control. I build up my stamina more and more as I go to the poll a few times each week, and I add more and more laps. Although yesterday was an exception, I had been doing 16 laps (8 each of the 2 styles mentioned above) as my highest number, and that takes about 20-25 minutes. It's been really good, I totally prefer this to running or any other exercise that's as sweaty.


----------



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I enjoy swimming but I haven't swam for about four months now, and suddenly I realised that, hence the poll.


----------



## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

mmsbls said:


> It's illegal not to swim in California, USA (unless you live way up north).


This is definitely true


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I learnt to swim when I was about 11 but I've never been keen. Perhaps I'm being a bit peculiar here but I've never liked the idea of sharing the same water while in the relatively close proximity of other people so my visits to the public baths were quite rare. I didn't mind the sea so much but never had the confidence to go too far out. Confidence undermined further when I was stung by a dead jellyfish when in some Gulf of Naples shallows when I was 16.


----------



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I like swimming and in my childhood Mum would dole out money for the public baths to me and my five siblings just to get us out of her hair. We'd spend all afternoon in the water until our fingers went crinkly. 

But now I hardly ever go. It seems such a palaver to get up there, take your clothes off, lock them up, walk out in public in your cozzie, swim up & down with all the other elders (cheap rate & special time) and get out of the way of all the earnest ones; then climb out, faint from the unaccustomed exertion, dry yourself, struggle half-damp into your clothes, deal with your rat-taily hair & set off home, to have yet another shower to take the chlorine off ... 

Just saying!


----------



## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I don't like being wet. I tolerate showers for hygiene purposes but I will not go out of my way to drench myself for no conceivable reason.


----------



## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Since I was at least five.


----------



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

My one and only sporting achievement was coming fourth in backstroke by less than a second when I was ten years old at a school swimming race.


----------



## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

I can float.

Sometimes I can swim under water. Very fast, actually. 

Straight to the bottom.


----------



## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

I'm actually a son of a fisherman. I learned to swim at very young age. Now, I'm in the city (Manila, it is), I've missed the beach and the cool ocean lapping in my brown skin.


----------



## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

I've got a handful of these, a Swedish state guaranteed proof that You can swim 200 meters in the swimming method of Your choice, I've passed every time since I was seven!








/ptr


----------



## rarevinyllibrary (Aug 9, 2013)

beach Culture in CA is overwhelming


mmsbls said:


> It's illegal not to swim in California, USA (unless you live way up north).


----------



## Guest (Aug 15, 2013)

ArtMusic said:


> Do you swim? I'm curious.


Yes, I can swim but haven't swam for more than a year.

And you know what they say about curiosity!


----------



## Wicked_one (Aug 18, 2010)

I like to replicate that scene from _Immortal Beloved_ when the kid lays on his back in the water and watches that starry sky.

Yes, I do swim. I actually just came back from the sea side.


----------



## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Yes, I really enjoy swimming. We live near some nice lakes, but I don't swim in the lake often enough.....I'm usually at the beach with my children aged 1 and 3, so it's hard to swim then, I need to take care of them. Plus the pool is climate controlled, lol. My routine in these past couple months is to get in a good workout on every day off (I am off on Wednesdays and the weekend). Two of those three days, that workout is in the form of swimming, usually preceded by some strength training (abs, handweights, etc) Chlorine is doing a number on my skin though :/


----------



## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

Living by the sea in times of no money is better than no sea in times of money. 

(dubiously successful Freak Bros. paraphrase)

In the maritime provinces --Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, plus Newfoundland-- the % of people who actually swim in the ocean & lakes is probably 5%, tops. (pool people, that's something else) Because the Atlantic. But the cold is the price of admission. We swim from early June to late October and feel out of sorts on a missed day. 

I swim in the sea every New Year's Day. There's a usual gang for this kind of thing. They're either 15-25, or 50-80, no middle-aged people in between. 

Glad you asked: it feels like you don't know whether you're freezing or being boiled. It's a sensation you can't really get any other way. Believe it or not, it's surprisingly doable, and nobody who survives ever regrets it.


----------



## Forte (Jul 26, 2013)

So if you swim every 364 days, that counts as regularly?

I can swim, I don't swim too often, but I do go to the swimming pool or the lake more often than once a year


----------



## Chrythes (Oct 13, 2011)

I just float around. .I.p.I.


----------



## Rangstrom (Sep 24, 2010)

I used to swim 5/week when I was still doing triathlons, but that was a good 15 years ago. Swimming was the worst part for me; I pushed a lot of water. But the years (and chronic bronchitis--non-smoker type) have caught up to me and I stick to walking and yoga.


----------



## Bix (Aug 12, 2010)

MacLeod said:


> And you know what they say about curiosity!


Nooooooooo! Not kitty death! No more curiosity pleeeaaassseeeee?!!!


----------



## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

You know what I'm curious about is our good buddy the Crudmeister. Do you still find girls yucky, too?

Being immersed in water brings up many a reaction from me but not a single one, negative. So refreshing,...so healing...water is life.


----------



## Wicked_one (Aug 18, 2010)

Water is life, indeed. We are made of water, we drink water, we shower with water, we enjoy water when it's just right so we can swim in it and we love water when we see the little ducklings first starting to swim... yet, people can't stand it when it rains. It's still water!!! 

Swimming under a grey sky... that's Romantic.


----------



## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

kv466 said:


> You know what I'm curious about is our good buddy the Crudmeister. Do you still find girls yucky, too?
> 
> Being immersed in water brings up many a reaction from me but not a single one, negative. So refreshing,...so healing...water is life.


I find girls about as yucky as I find boys. Both are marginally preferable to being soaked.


----------



## OboeKnight (Jan 25, 2013)

Went swimming in a lake yesterday...nasty water but was still fun!


----------



## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

Yes, and I could do so rather well at one point long ago. Beaches and pools are nearly unavoidable at my age, anyhow, given the bodily exhibitionism they attract and propagate. One particularly pragmatic guy told me he went to pools regularly only so he could 'see girls in bikinis' :lol:


----------



## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

I don't like getting wet because my hair takes so long to dry; and it I don't style it, it looks weird. So I don't go out of my way to swim.
Plus I wear contacts, and I do wear them in the water, so my eyes always have to be closed underwater.


----------



## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Wow, I haven't been swimming in over 20 years. Reminds me of a clip from Einstein on the Beach.


----------



## Guest (Aug 16, 2013)

Bix said:


> Nooooooooo! Not kitty death! No more curiosity pleeeaaassseeeee?!!!


Actually, in the case of one of our two mongrels, it was kidney failure took her away just a couple of weeks ago.

View attachment 22939


Jess RIP.


----------



## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

Tangentially to swimming; are there any sandy beaches in the British Isles? Admittedly, I didn't go to all the beaches when I was over there, but it seemed like all the ones I went to were pebble beaches.


----------



## Guest (Aug 16, 2013)

drpraetorus said:


> Tangentially to swimming; are there any sandy beaches in the British Isles? Admittedly, I didn't go to all the beaches when I was over there, but it seemed like all the ones I went to were pebble beaches.


Yes, there are, plenty. Try Pendine Sands on the coast of South Wales - 7 miles long!

View attachment 22940


I was brought up on the south coast of England (near Southampton) and all our local beaches were pebble, but I discovered sand when I went to the bigger resorts such as Weymouth and Bournemouth. When my sons were small, they enjoyed nothing more on summer holiday than playing on the sandy beaches of Cornwall and Devon.

View attachment 22941


----------



## Bix (Aug 12, 2010)

MacLeod said:


> Actually, in the case of one of our two mongrels, it was kidney failure took her away just a couple of weeks ago.
> 
> View attachment 22939
> 
> ...


My sympathies, beautiful cat.


----------



## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

As a kid, we had our own swimming pool at home ... was in it everyday ... well, almost everyday in the spring/summer/fall. It was not heated, so winter swimming was out of the question. 

In my more senior years, I use the lap pool at the gym several times a week.


----------



## LindnerianSea (Jun 5, 2013)

I have developed what could be called a trauma after my near death experience while swimming in Bodensee. Since then I have lost all courage to swim...


----------



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

MacLeod said:


> And you know what they say about curiosity!


What do they say about curiosity?


----------



## Guest (Aug 16, 2013)

ArtMusic said:


> What do they say about curiosity?


"It killed the cat (but satisfaction brought it back)"


----------



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

MacLeod said:


> "It killed the cat (but satisfaction brought it back)"


Oh I see. And you know about how many lives they say a cat has, right? So I guess I can have eight more polls. One more on its way right now.


----------



## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

ArtMusic said:


> So I guess I can have eight more polls. One more on its way right now.


7 to go. It feels better when you know there's an end in sight


----------



## Guest (Aug 16, 2013)

ArtMusic said:


> Oh I see. And you know about how many lives they say a cat has, right? So I guess I can have eight more polls. One more on its way right now.


I think you already had your eight...possibly more!


----------



## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

Ok, so now we know who swims and who does not. the next question is, "do you skinny dip?"


----------



## Ryan (Dec 29, 2012)

Yeah, finished arm bands like 30 years ago now. not good a deep water mind


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Yesterday and the day before, I swam 5 sets of 1 breast-stroke/2 freestyle (15 laps total). It definitely challenged me, because I hadn't done 10 freestyle laps in one session before.


----------



## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

Yes I swim.... But while we are on the subject on a classical music forum.... 

Anyone know composers who swam??? (I know, "composers swimming" does seem like a pretty weird combination of words at first sight....)


----------



## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

mstar said:


> Yes I swim.... But while we are on the subject on a classical music forum....
> 
> Anyone know composers who swam??? (I know, "composers swimming" does seem like a pretty weird combination of words at first sight....)


Bruckner spent three months in 1867 undergoing a cold-water cure at Bad Kreuzen during the passage of an existential crisis.

Film at eleven:


----------



## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

Composer turns advanced wave tank into swimming pool-sized instrument.

http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/pages/view.asp?page=39479

Uh-huh. Cool. The new aesthetic, 'le n'importe quoi', the 'whatever'. 
Somewhere Xenakis is grinning.


----------



## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

Ah! Which reminds me-- On holiday in Corsica, Xenakis would pilot his canoe into the teeth of the biggest storm he and his paddle could manage.

http://gallerycrawl.typepad.com/gal...pring-2010-sea-marks-at-the-drawing-cent.html


----------



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

mstar said:


> Yes I swim.... But while we are on the subject on a classical music forum....
> 
> Anyone know composers who swam??? (I know, "composers swimming" does seem like a pretty weird combination of words at first sight....)


Ravel loved to swim in the beaches of Saint-Jean-de-Luz...


----------



## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

aleazk said:


> Ravel loved to swim in the beaches of Saint-Jean-de-Luz...


Wow.... That just made my day!!! Can't look at it without laughing....


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

aleazk said:


> Ravel loved to swim in the beaches of Saint-Jean-de-Luz...


LOL what happened to his hair? :lol:


----------



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

mstar said:


> Wow.... That just made my day!!! Can't look at it without laughing....


lol, I think it simply displays too much!... if you know what I mean...


----------



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> LOL what happened to his hair? :lol:


It seems as if he had a kind of swim cap.


----------



## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

Researchers found they were able to train goldfish to indicate whether they could hear compositions by either J S Bach or Stravinsky, claims poorly-written article.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/10276759/Goldfish-are-music-connoisseurs.html

Ordinarily this might rate its own thread. However, swimming.


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

aleazk said:


> It seems as if he had a kind of swim cap.


Ohhhhhh thanks for the clarification. I thought either his hair was extremely slicked-back, or he was balding. :lol:


----------



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I wonder if any of the great composers swam. Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Schubert - did they swim?


----------

