MagiStream

Growing up in the mountains, as I did as a kid, I didn't realize there was such a thing (so to speak) as a pool. I thought all water you went swimming in was, as we called it, crick water(a creek).
Once I turned 9 and we moved, we moved into an apartment complex which had a pool, which I promptly almost drowned in, as some fart knocker thought it funny to swim under me and knock my feet out from under me. So that kinda killed pool swimming for me for awhile. Just the thought that that could happen again, and that I might not be so lucky as to have such an alert life guard as I did that day would make me shudder.

After that we moved to a "fishing town" and again, wild water swimming, swimming in briney waters. Which was fine up until a fish bigger than my foot decided to take a nibble at my leg..I didn't go back in that water again, needless to say.

Again we moved, this time to Idaho. I didn't know it at the time, but Durkees Lake in Twin Falls is a collapsed lava tube, and therefore VERY deep. I dove in and just kept going down. Eventually I was like, ok..what gives..and finally decided that it would be best to start swimming for the surface. I didn't realize the panic I had caused from being under so long, and it didn't seem like long to me because I had been a swimmer since early, and since I seemed to swim much better underwater than "on top", I had learned to hold my breath quite a bit. So I pop up and here are all these folks gawkin at the water, wondering what had happened to me.lol...I later found out about the lava tube bit, so it was like..ummm nah..don't think so.

I have been to the beach only twice in my life, both as an adult.. The first time was wonderful, although we didn't do much swimming. But the second time I was with my kids, and we saw a shark, so that kinda tripped me out. I would definitely go swimming at the beach again though, if given the chance.

Overall I prefer wild water swimming to pools, pools despite being chlorinated, can be quite nasty, and the chlorine is not as kind to your skin as salt water or river/creek water (so long as said river/creek water is not used as a dumping grounds for nuclear waste or other noxious chemicals). Not to mention all the germies you usually find in the pools shower rooms, omg..it makes me shudder just to think of all the germs I trampled on during my forays into public pool outings.

On our way back moving from Idaho to North Carolina, we stopped in a town in Oklahoma. The lady we spent the night there with wanted us to go swimming with her and her kids in the local swimming hole. We quickly declined when we found out there was a nuclear plant right near the water, and that the fish were, shall we say mutants that liked to "nibble"..and we had seen some pictures of the "nibbles" these fish liked to take..if those marks were nibbles..I think I'd rather swim with a hungry shark..lol
Not to mention that folks at pools can be quite rude, some tend to let their kids "run the joint", running all over the place, dropping ice cream on you and spilling drink into your beach bag. Worst time ever at a pool, I had gone with my parents and grandparents to a wilderness "time share" sort of thing. The kids there were completely horrible. I had decided to take a bit of a snooze, only to be woken up with cold ice cream dripping down my back, and some little kid with snot running out his nose staring down at me as if I were to be next on his menu...creepy.

So, overall, I prefer wild water swimming to pools. Less hassle with humans and their offspring, water is better for my skin, and I can at least "research" what will be in the water with me, unlike a pool, where any kind of creepy thing on two legs can be lurking around the corner.

My favorite place to swim was one of the hot springs in China. I liked how they made many different temperatures, and even kiddy places. You could have gone on to a playground with water. There were also many fun machines, like a thing that shot water through a vent, and it sounded and looked like I was doing a super-fart or something. Having fish nibble at dead parts of your body is fun, too.
I like lakes a lot, too. My favorite had rocks to skip on, tons of big rocks to climb on, and even a small waterfall. The water is also usually either nice and cold, or warm like a fireplace.
Pools are nice, also. The problem with them is that they are way too crowded. A pool in your own house, though, is nice. You can have a battle with your grandma with rafts and water.
I can't say anything about creeks, though. I've never been to one.

I like both.

I'm used to swimming in lakes, I've done as long as I can remember-every year we rent a cabin for two weeks, a cabin that is maybe, 20f from the lake. I swim in it every year even though it is cold as hell-that however is because it is spring fed and has limestone deposits. It is also clean, very, very clean-I mean, you could drink it straight from the lake and you'd be fine it is that clean- and clear. You can see down well over 20 feet in some parts. Plus it has many very sudden drop offs (as in, ankle deep for about, maybe 5-7 feet then, wham! drops down to so deep you can't see bottom) which is something the cliff jumpers love.
I have never been because I hate jumping into water from heights(even at pools).
However, I have never swam in the ocean, but I want to.

However, I also love pools, especially warm ones. Pools you can regulate the temperature on them and they come in so many sizes, depths and shapes. These are good places for little kids to start swimming, then they can't get to far.