I collect VHS tapes
Member
do some people really never travel away from where they live?
if so, this also boggles my mind
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I find it mind boggling that some adults don't know how to swim
- Thread starter I collect VHS tapes
- Start date
if so, this also boggles my mind
-Minsc-
Member
It's easier than you think. Though I do believe the modern view of traveling away is different from the past. To some traveling to the next town over could be considered. Going outside my own country is a foreign concept to me. One of those "would be nice" things.
chromhound
Member
i almost drowned when i was a kid and my mama put my ass in swimming lessons. Swimming like a fish since then
MonkD
Member
What about sex?
TheInfamousKira
Reseterror Resettler
If you're offering.
nush
Member
A lot of Americans don't even have a passport.
Kenneth Haight
Gold Member
Swimming is great. I go swimming in the sea a few times a week all year round and it brings me a huge amount of peace and clarity.
Sidney Prescott
Member
I haven't since being young and family holidays. Just not really got the money for it, and honestly I'm not in any rush to travel at the moment.
I'd imagine it's quite common, because you have to put a fair bit aside to go on holiday.
TonyK
Member
Nobody can fly and people climb, visit high places and do a lot of things near potentially falling places.
nkarafo
Member
I know of adults who don't know how to keep their head above the surface of the water, let alone swim.
That's right. They need to be able to reach the bottom with their feet, otherwise they will drown.
I don't know how this is even possible. In sea water, physics force your body to the surface. All you have to do is naturally move your hands and feet so you can balance your body and keep your head above it. Something that i thought it's a natural instict. They knew how to do it when they were babies.
I don't remember anyone teaching me that just like i don't remember anyone teaching me how to walk. It just came natural. So it also blows my mind that for so many people this was a skill learned in school? I don't get this. We never had such thing in our schools...
That's right. They need to be able to reach the bottom with their feet, otherwise they will drown.
I don't know how this is even possible. In sea water, physics force your body to the surface. All you have to do is naturally move your hands and feet so you can balance your body and keep your head above it. Something that i thought it's a natural instict. They knew how to do it when they were babies.
I don't remember anyone teaching me that just like i don't remember anyone teaching me how to walk. It just came natural. So it also blows my mind that for so many people this was a skill learned in school? I don't get this. We never had such thing in our schools...
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_Justinian_
Member
I can float and tread water (although I get exhausted quickly, my technique needs serious work), but I've never felt comfortable in any body of water where I can't stand. Ever.
GoldenEye Samurai
Gold Member
Brah, my balls hadn’t even dropped yet.
TaylorSwiftFan
Member
It boggles my mind that some people don’t know how to drive. Others only know 1 language. I come from a small island surrounded by water but never felt the need to learn how to swim.
Ionian
Member
My Mother, after 6 kids needed an out and simply something away from the constant stress of screaming kids.
She was terrified of water, so took swimming lessons.
Qualified as a life-guard. It was only a hobby but I guess she did well. Contentious that she had a night to herself. Pretty scummy.
Watching her and my Father swim together sure was something as she kicked his ass. He's a strong swimmer.
Seeing that made me smile. She was reborn.
Me, fuck that shit I don't even like water in my eyes in a shower. And I can swim. Also during teaching from a young kid onwards, googles were a no, burnt the eyes out of a kid.
She was terrified of water, so took swimming lessons.
Qualified as a life-guard. It was only a hobby but I guess she did well. Contentious that she had a night to herself. Pretty scummy.
Watching her and my Father swim together sure was something as she kicked his ass. He's a strong swimmer.
Seeing that made me smile. She was reborn.
Me, fuck that shit I don't even like water in my eyes in a shower. And I can swim. Also during teaching from a young kid onwards, googles were a no, burnt the eyes out of a kid.
Tams
Member
It used to, and swimming is my thing so it really annoyed me, until I actually bothered to think about it.
- Most people are probably never going to be in a body of water where they can't stand in, that they don't want to be in, in their life.
- Swimming lessons are quite expensive.
- Schools in many countries don't do a good job teaching it (if they even do).
- Learning to swim as an adult is very embarrassing to some, precisely because of attitudes like yours (and my previous one). And you can't really do it in private like learning to ride a bicycle.
- That also leads to a lot less demand for adult swimming lessons (as well as due to others learning as children) - which then raises the costs of those lessons as well.
- Many people just, ignorantly, don't care.
Tams
Member
Yeah, it's pretty much to do with body fat. You don't need a lot to float okay, but if you don't have it you sink like a rock.
I sink like a rock but am pretty good at swimming. It's just about constantly moving if you're not buoyant.
I used to do lifesaving (competitively even) and people would complain that I'd sink. It took a lot of energy to not shout at them that that was because I wasn't a fat fuck.
Yoboman
Member
For people who can't swim, why not just go to the local pool and start practicing in the shallow end? It's super easy to learn treading and floating. Then practice your kicking on a kickboard. Then just add arm movement after that. Once you know the movement you are set for life like riding a bike
Lunarorbit
Member
I've lived by the Atlantic and gulf of Mexico for most of my life. In the 90s or early 2000s I wouldn't have believed that 56%of adults couldn't swim in the US but now....
People are like beached whales for the most part. I'd say at my beach 80% or more just lie on the sand and get burnt to a crisp without even going into the water
People are like beached whales for the most part. I'd say at my beach 80% or more just lie on the sand and get burnt to a crisp without even going into the water
daffyduck
Member
Some provincial governments cover/ed lessons in school. Guess it depends on the likelihood of drowning in said province, for those who don’t know how to swim.
Soapbox Killer
Grand Nagus
I can't swim.
I served 4 years in the Navy on a ship too.
Checkmate
I served 4 years in the Navy on a ship too.
Checkmate
Eddie-Griffin
Banned
But if you are in the middle of Wyoming or iowa and there's no bodies of water near by for miles across several cities and towns, and there aren't any swimming training schools, how are you supposed to learn how to swim? pay $300 for those large 10 feet inflatables and have an Ipad on a stand with Youtube on it? If you don't have physical feedback on how you're positioned or what you're doing wrong you are going to have problems if you didn't learn as a kid like we did. School trips to the pool and they would give you certain wrist bands based on how well you knew how to sim, and how much of the water park you were allowed to access depended on which band you had. If you had the the worst one you would not be able to get past the 4ft high area.
But you aren't going to find these things in the middle of the desert or in a mountain valley.
But you aren't going to find these things in the middle of the desert or in a mountain valley.
n0razi
Member
Whats the point of learning a foreign language or how to play an instrument.... at some point its about self improvement.
Mondai
Member
Not really a good comparison though
Edit: I stand corrected , you make a good point actually
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PaddyOCanager
Member
Well, like 70% of the world's population lives close to a body of water so yeah kinda. I suppose in the modern world it's a largely unnecessary skill, but the fact that most people couldn't save themselves if they fell into water is strange to those who considered it a standard life skill growing up.
I collect VHS tapes
Member
Yes
The statement made in the OP is "I find it mind boggling that some adults don't know how to swim"
Let's say hypothetically that 30% don't know how to swim. That's still potentially 2.4 billion humans who wouldn't have any real incentive in knowing how to swim. Even if not billions, that's still hundreds of millions of humans.
I don't see why that's so hard to believe. Seems perfectly reasonable that there would be some people who wouldn't know how to swim if they rarely, if ever, had interactions with bodies of water for much of their lives.
PaddyOCanager
Member
It's not 30% though.........it's closer to 60% can't swim. So it's worse than OP thought.
Yea, but so what?
PaddyOCanager
Member
I said in my post why some might find it strange but conceded in the same post that it's an unnecessary skill in modern times. So that's all.
OmegaSupreme
advanced basic bitch
That's the sad truth. They should really learn how to swim though. Much easier to move around.
I also find it a bit mindboggling myself op. Seems like one of those things like riding a bike. Everybody should know.
Kenpachii
Member
Yea that's fucked, i would not do swimming lessons when in high school the embarresment if you are out of shape for example. One way to not get people to know how to swim.
As somebody from the netherlands, never met anybody that can't swim.
Congrats, you came off like a dick.
a lot of people in this country are dirt poor. just remember it was a privilege you had that most don't get.
jabberwookie
Banned
I went to three different local school districts growing up and none had pools.
We had a local state park that gave free lessons to kids so that's how I learned. One of the girls my age had some disability I think and almost drowned me. My most vivid memory of it is my mom dragging me away from her as she kept attacking
DeafTourette
Perpetually Offended
In my neighborhood, we had a pool. We had someone teaching the kids to swim when I was a really little kid. But since my area didn't have the most funding like other areas (namely the nearly all white bigger county school... Even though my schools were very mixed), the teacher had to quit. So the lessons stopped... And the pools fell into disrepair. And there weren't a lot of other options that were free or low cost or close to where I lived.
If you can swim, that's great! Just don't try to shame anyone who can't. You don't know their life story. It's likely VERY different from yours.
If you can swim, that's great! Just don't try to shame anyone who can't. You don't know their life story. It's likely VERY different from yours.
kurisu_1974
Member
I learned it in high school, but it's like 25 years ago I actually swam so I'm guessing I won't get far.
chixdiggit
Member
I cannot swim. I can like jump off a dock and thrash like mad back to safety but that's about it. People have tried to teach me but I have a hard time staying afloat.
I really like doing things in water too and often am the only one wearing a life jacket.
I really like doing things in water too and often am the only one wearing a life jacket.
Soapbox Killer
Grand Nagus
They spent weeks in boot camp trying to teach me to swim ( it was some funky backstroking bs) finally i got passed as a 4th class swimmer because...reasons.
I always assumed if the ship I was on was in such bad shape that I needed to swim for any consideration of time ...well then I will see you in Davey Jones locker.