Can you swim?

[Ripley]

One thing to remember...is, when at rest, to always keep your lungs as full as possible...

This is exactly what I teach to every child I am together with in the water (nephews, whoever...)!
:thumbup:

 

[Artlav]

but I'm confident that, if dumped into the ocean without a flotation device, I'd be able to stay afloat well enough that I'd die of exposure, starvation, or the sharks being hungry before I drowned.

Can you sleep on the water?
Can you fight the weather (why else did your ship sank?) for long enough? Imagine swimming in with two-meter waves, constant spray and sharks making dinner of the non-swimming part of the crew around you.

 

[T.Neo]

It is really... irrational, to have an irrational fear of water. It is all about understanding the dynamics of you, the environment that you are in, and the relationship between the two. Yes, people drown in rivers and oceans, people get bitten by sharks, people step on stingrays or whatever, yes people drink seawater and it doesn't do them good. But that is all a matter of stupidity. If you are mindful and cautious, you will not need to worry about such things.

It is all about understanding how one can manipulate the water around their body to both stay afloat and move oneself around. Your lungs are basically a floatation system. I discovered this not trying to stay afloat... but trying to submerge myself. With my lungs full, I have to exert far more energy trying to stay submerged than I do trying to stay afloat.

I really pity it people who cannot swim, it is good excersise and great fun. Like the poor man's weightlessness, almost. :lol:

 

[Turbinator]

You know what my favourite part of the day is, after a full day of swimming in sea water?
Drinking a bottle of water. The drinking water tastes so sweet, after swimming in slat water.

As for sleeping in water, it is one of the most relaxing experiences ever, and a bit scary if you totaly fall asleep because you could end up anywhere.

 

[T.Neo]

Isn't there a risk of turning one's head to the side and inhaling water?

That would be pretty bad.

Would be an interesting analogy to sleeping in microgravity though. A weird feeling explained by people who have slept in microgravity, is if you leave your arms floating out in front of you and you close your eyes, it feels like your arms have "disappeared".

Normally, your arms are either hanging off your shoulders, in contact with something, or pressing/lifting/holding something. But in microgravity, in that posture, they're just floating in space.

I've experienced the same thing in a still pool by making use of the neutral buoyancy of my arms. It is a really weird feeling.

 

[Turbinator]

This seems quite appropriate here:

 

[RisingFury]

Isn't there a risk of turning one's head to the side and inhaling water?

One of Slovenia's top swimmers who had a medal from ether the Olympics or a world championship (I can't remember right now) drowned in his bathtub after falling asleep.

 

[Linguofreak]

Can you sleep on the water?

True, I might drown after falling asleep, or die of sleep deprivation (depending on whether the sensation of sinking woke me up when I started to doze), but that would still give me several hours at the very least, during which time exposure or sharks might get to me first. The point is that being dumped into the ocean without a flotation device would not kill me in and of itself. Any number of related other things might.

Can you fight the weather (why else did your ship sank?) for long enough?

That would likely depend on the exact weather details.

Imagine swimming in with two-meter waves, constant spray and sharks making dinner of the non-swimming part of the crew around you.

I don't think that would do me in too quickly, except for the sharks. Hypothermia might also become a problem, but I think I could stay afloat.

 

[Quick_Nick]

When I was little, I could swim just fine. But for most of my life, I haven't been able to float, and could only swim if I had to and with a lot of effort. However, as of a couple weeks ago, I seem to be able to float just fine.

 

[Macgruber]

Like a fish! A good thing too, considering that I sail competitively.

 

[Eli13]

I swim very well, I just don't get many chances to swim. I want to do lifeguard training soon, if I can find a good course nearby.

 

[Izack]

Meh, I don't know. I can stay afloat for short periods of time and I like swimming around, but I don't think I could survive if you put me in the middle of the ocean.

I don't think there are many people anywhere who could survive if put in the middle of an ocean.

 

[Chub777]

I can float and swim but after a while I tend to sink.

 

[Tex]

I swim for a living, well I'm a scuba diver. I've always been more comfortable in the water than on land, strange I know. I must be part fish. I can tell you that swimming in a lake or pool is much much different than swimming out in the ocean. I don't mean at the beach either, I mean in the middle of the ocean. I went swimming 100 miles off shore in the Gulf of Mexico and was amazed at how hard it was just to stay relatively close to the boat. There are strong currents out there combined with ocean swells and waves which complicate staying afloat.

 

[Pablo49]

I'm a certified Scuba diver. Scuba is a blast. If you haven't done it, I suggest you do.

 

[Turbinator]

I was going to get my open water SCUBA cert this summer, but didn't as of yet, because they make the prices ridiculous here. I was looking at diving career opportunities here and only keep running in to unrestricted surface supplied type jobs, basically construction and oil diving. Not to mention the fact that school for that costs $25,000. If I wanted a dive job, I would want something that had nothing to do with underwater manual labour.

What kind of SCUBA jobs are out there, other than instructors?

 

[Tex]

If I wanted a dive job, I would want something that had nothing to do with underwater manual labour.

What kind of SCUBA jobs are out there, other than instructors?

If you want to get paid to scuba dive, then I don't know of much else you can do that doesn't include manual labor. Perhaps some sort of scientific research or something, but the real money in diving is in deep water commercial jobs - usually related to oil of some sort, be it a rig or underwater pipeline, etc. Before the end of the shuttle program, I was offered a job at JSC in the neutral buoyancy lab working with the astronauts which would have been awesome, but I turned it down because the pay was considerably less than what I was making in the commercial field.

$25,000 sounds very steep for commercial dive school. I can't say for sure what it cost here in the states now, but surely not that much. If you're serious about it, could you get your certification here and have it valid in Canada too? Maybe something to consider.

 

[blixel]

I live in Florida so I have to know how to swim.I learned at 10 years old how to swim.I have asthma, so long distance swimming for me is not an option.But I can swim if it has to save my life.

I can sympathize with your breathing problems. I have Cystic Fibrosis. My lungs are so completely ruined that I am desperately trying to get on the lung transplant list. (tick-tock ... time is running out.) At this point in my life, it's fair to say that I could NOT swim even to save my life.

(Addressing the poll question)

When I was a kid, I enjoyed being in the water. But I always felt like I could just tread water (dog paddle) or back-float. I never felt like I knew how to swim really. I could move under water a little way (very short distances because I've always had lung capacity issues), I could turn to my side and push with my legs to move over the top of the water, and I could do sort of a frog leg thing. But I could never swim the way they do in swimming competitions ... laying flat on the water, arm over arm and kicking with my legs.

 

[orbekler]

I began to swim (float) at age of 3, I was competition swimmer at 15.
I did apnea courses (reached 22m), and I'm Open water scuba diver.

Now when I sport swim, I can only do for short period of time, cause style remained, but breathing has gone. :lol:

It is said that floating in water is similar to zero gravity experience, let's enjoy it...

...As for sleeping in water, it is one of the most relaxing experiences ever, and a bit scary if you totaly fall asleep because you could end up anywhere.

The woman depicted is not sleeping, for legs can't float for themselves. But I always relax until water temperature allows that.

 

[Rtyh-12]

I don't think there are many people anywhere who could survive if put in the middle of an ocean.

Well, I meant the first quarter hour