Re: Wild Water Swimming Vs. Pool Swimming
Posted: August 24th, 2011, 4:59:53 am
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.
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.