# Swimming and water fear



## panjabigator

Is swimming big in your countries?  I'd say that it isn't very popular in India; I have yet to meet one Indian who knows how to swim.  I have met many heritage Indians in the US who can.  I learned very late, actually in High School.  That was because I was instilled with a fear of water.  I think a lot of Indians might have that mentality.  Is that true with any of you?

Also, I have heard stories on the TV about supposed water monsters: The Loch Ness monster and Ogopogo.  Are those believed at all in your countries?  I really do not know what to think of them…all I know is that some lakes could be very deep and there is no telling what type of life exists in their depths, gulp!


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## rsweet

Swimming is pretty big in California, and I can think of only one or two people in my aquaintance who don't know how to swim. I do think, however, there's a natural fear of swimming in murky water where you can't see what's below you. The imagination takes over!


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## panjabigator

I cannot believe I forgot to mention.  Swimming is huge in Florida!  I never understood though how people could swim in lakes.  There are alligators in so many of them!  Not comforting!


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## Chazzwozzer

panjabigator said:
			
		

> Is swimming big in your countries?


 Yes, that's because Turkey is straddled by three seas (four, actually.) and many apartment complexes (at least in Antalya) have their own swimming pools.



			
				panjabigator said:
			
		

> I'd say that it isn't very popular in India; I have yet to meet one Indian who knows how to swim.  I have met many heritage Indians in the US who can.  I learned very late, actually in High School.  That was because I was instilled with a fear of water.  I think a lot of Indians might have that mentality.  Is that true with any of you?


 No. In Turkey, teaching children how to swim is like a parental duty. I learned how to swim at the age of 7 in a waterpark. My parents used to take me to that waterpark almost every week and left me in the kid's pool while they were on waterslides. I think, there, I really learned how to swim well. I aslo remember that I had my first sea experience in Dalyan, where I first saw a loggerhead sea turtle in my life. (Most of you might have heard Dalyan and loggerhead sea turtles before, see June Haimoff)



			
				panjabigator said:
			
		

> Also, I have heard stories on the TV about supposed water monsters: The Loch Ness monster and Ogopogo.


 Ah, tell me about it! I was fed up with Lake Van Monster news on TV! 



			
				panjabigator said:
			
		

> Are those believed at all in your countries?  I really do not know what to think of them…all I know is that some lakes could be very deep and there is no telling what type of life exists in their depths, gulp!


 Some people used to belive, some found it nonsense. Nowadays, almost nobody believes in the existence of Lake Van Monster. Because a couple of years ago, they proved that it was just a big inflated toy. Uuum, no... It might be not a toy, something else. I cannot remember now. Anybody?


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## Outsider

Swimming is quite big in Portugal, and many people can swim. I learned it in my late childhood (I took swimming classes), but lack of practice has turned me into a lousy swimmer, to say the least. It's for this mostly that I'm cautious about where I bathe.

Every once in a while, you hear about people who went to swim in one of our rivers, and drowned. They can be more dangerous than they look, because of the currents. 

With sharks and jellyfish and pollution and piranhas, I'd say the waters are already dangerous enough, that we'd worry about legendary dangers.


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## ireney

Swimming in Greece is of course very popular (I say of course because Greece is actually a peninsula and 'its' sea is be-riddled with islands and islets.

I learnt how to swim early enough not to remember it clearly.

No local water monsters thankfully


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## Chazzwozzer

ireney said:
			
		

> I say of course because Greece is actually a peninsula and 'its' sea is be-riddled with islands and islets.



Is this a reference to Aegean dispute?


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## karuna

Latvian summers are rather cold for swimming but still people grab every opportunity to swim whenever they can. I loved swimming in my childhood but now I am not so enthusiastic due to health reasons. 

There are many tales about dangerous waters, starting from whirlpools inhabited by devils, flying lakes and underwater palaces. But people get drowned because of swift currents, quicksand, because they get cramps, choke with water and other natural reasons. There are no crocodiles or  dangerous fish in Latvia.


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## la reine victoria

Swimming is very popular in the UK. We have plenty of Leisure Centres where there are good pools, gyms, squash courts, etc.

I was taught to swim as a young child - it was part of the school curriculum. Nowadays parents take it on themselves to send their chidren to swimming lessons pre-school. We even have small pools for tiny babies to learn.

I once saw a wonderful film, on TV, of newborns swimming. Apparently up until the age of six months they retain the swimming reflex. You can put them into the water and they will move their arms and legs while holding their breath - amazing to see!

It isn't much fun swimming in British coastal waters - cold and murky.

I have enjoyed swimming off Sardinia, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Malta, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France (Mediterranean), where the sea is crystal clear. I saw no "monsters" but had the misfortune to step on a sea urchin while swimming off Sardinia. The spines get embedded in your flesh and snap off. My big toe was badly injured and walking was extremely painful. The spines were there for quite a few weeks - they were gradually released whenever I took a warm bath instead of a shower.

Stinging jellyfish are another hazard but I have never collided with one.  

I still swim at my local pool - I enjoy it very much.  I have a battery- operated swimming frog which I sometimes take with me to amuse the kiddies.  




LRV


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## ireney

Chazzwozer lol well the Aegean is not the only sea that "its" refers to but you are right; I used the ' ' to avoid any long dispute over that matter


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## panjabigator

Oh that's right!  The Aegean does boast of many mythical creatures doesn't!  I am reminded of a Scylla and the Charybdid from the Odyssey...


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## ireney

Well that was some time ago and the various monsters and whatnot of ancient Greek mythology were not all placed in the Aegean alone.

I'm sure they were at some time replaced by others but none that I know about. Nowadays the sea around Greece (see Chazzowzer? Found another way) is happily free of imaginary monsters.


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## zena168

Swimming is "Big" in California!  My BF can't stand that I lag behind every time his friends is going to the beach.  Our group activities became limited to "Spa" and Jacuzzi.  And you know how costly that can be.  I have a severe fear of water beyond my shoulder level.  But my BF is literally forcing me to get used to the water every two days.  It's been 4 wks, I can seriously say no one I know took this long to make the kinda progress I made.   Well, I’m good at holding my breath underwater now.  I think about 4 to 6 more wks of persistent training I may finally be willing to let go of the floating board.  Maybe…….


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## panjabigator

After seeing Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, drowning is the least of my worries !  But, they also said that I am 10 times more likely to get bitten by a New Yorker than by a Shark.  I believe it because it is New York, and the odds are higher there than anywhere else for being bitten, I'd argue


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## geve

la reine victoria said:
			
		

> I was taught to swim as a young child - it was part of the school curriculum.


I had swimming classes at school too, but can't be sure if it's part of the curriculum in all schools in France  Most children already knew how to swim when we started the classes actually. French people have been longing for a swim at the beach ever since we discovered paid holidays!

Knowing to swim doesn't mean you're not afraid of water - I am afraid of water... I need to know I can rest my feet on solid ground when I want to! And I don't feel comfortable on boats - small ones, that is: steamships are fine  As a child water didn't scare me though, it came later. Maybe when a teacher at my school got lost at sea while windsurfing... maybe it brought back a very old memory? My mother confessed that once, when I was a baby, I was sitting on the sand by the sea and she turned her head just a split second - long enough for a wave to come at me and knock me down. I know, "get over it!"  

So the swimming I do takes place in my local swimming pool, and involves very little technical movements. I do it to avoid continuous visits to my physiotherapist  There are no monsters there! But I _do_ believe in sea monsters: these urchins and jellyfishes that LRV mentioned  (never saw the former but the latter are common when it's a hot summer). And let's not forget the corals, too: they're not monsters, but they can get pretty aggressive nonetheless.


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## fenixpollo

In the American desert, swimming is as popular (and swimming pools as common) as in Florida and Turkey. Ironic, no? 

Aquaphobia is not common here, and definitely not culturally transmitted. Au contraire: people who have it or who can't swim are considered moderately abnormal. 


			
				gator afraid of water said:
			
		

> That was because I was instilled with a fear of water.  I think a lot of Indians might have that mentality.


 Instilled by whom? Does this fear spill over into a fear of bathtubs?


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## danielfranco

When I was growing up in Mexico City, I didn't think there was anything peculiar in the fact that everyone I have ever known in that city loves to swim. Whenever possible, people flock to "balnearios" (actually, more like public swimming pools than Roman health spas!) to go swimming.
I said "peculiar" because Mexico City is completely and utterly landlocked. No big bodies of water anywhere near. Well, there's Xochimilco... But the water channels of Xochimilco have had stagnant water that dates from the 1500's, probably, so if you were to swim there, your skin would probably fall right off... And the Texcoco lake has been gone for centuries, too... So, yeah, quite counterintuitively, Mexicans from the City likes their swimmy-swimmy. Cool, no?


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## panjabigator

fenixpollo said:
			
		

> In the American desert, swimming is as popular (and swimming pools as common) as in Florida and Turkey. Ironic, no?
> 
> Aquaphobia is not common here, and definitely not culturally transmitted. Au contraire: people who have it or who can't swim are considered moderately abnormal.    Instilled by whom? Does this fear spill over into a fear of bathtubs?



Hehe.  My father has been afraid of the water since he was a wee boy.  Up till high school, I would be perfectly fine in the 3-4 foot section but once it got to 5 feet (I am 5'11) I would some how panic!  During my freshman year of high school, I took two swimming classes, got over the fear, and then I actually joined the swim team!  I am better now, but I do not even remotely like the idea os swimming in lakes!
And as for bathtubs, I was afraid of the shower till I was like 8!  I am not kidding. I have plenty of stories of me bathing happily till all of a sudden my damn evil sister would run in, turn the shower on, and that would be it...

That is just unique to me...  Btw, I have 100% recovered from this an am almost a normal human being now!


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## Chazzwozzer

la reine victoria said:
			
		

> Stinging jellyfish are another hazard but I have never collided with one.
> 
> LRV


Last week, almost every Turkish newspaper had headlines like "Giant jellyfish to invade Greece and Turkey"

The news were saying that those creatures are now in Spanish coasts and coming to our sea. Of course, they also had "How to avoid being stinged by a jellyfish and what to do if already stinged?" kind of educational columns.

We either wait for the jellyfish to invade our coasts or those news were just hoaxes. Because since then, I've never seen a jellyfish news and looks like, nor people don't care much about that, as I can clearly understand by looking out of the window in the morning - lots of people in their bikinis or swim suits going to beach.

Was there also that sort of news in Greece, ireney?



			
				ireney said:
			
		

> Well that was some time ago and the various monsters and whatnot of ancient Greek mythology were not all placed in the Aegean alone.
> 
> I'm sure they were at some time replaced by others but none that I know about. Nowadays the sea around Greece (see Chazzowzer? Found another way) is happily free of imaginary monsters.



I think it's perfectly OK to say _its _with no quotation marks - same goes for me, as well. I believe, it's a dispute that Greek and Turkish government have, not the people of these two nations, right?


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## panjandrum

Swimming in the pool and in the sea was an essential part of my childhood - living right by the sea.  None of those namby-pamby heated pools either.  Good cold Irish Sea water or occasional trips to the fresh, north coast, north Atlantic.

Most people I know are able to swim, even if they don't very often.

My kids learnt to swim at school and on family pool trips.

LRV's memory of the small babies swimming naturally is absolutely true.  WMPG went to the pool from a very early age and was entirely happy to be tossed in the water (gently) - small face with gummy smile then appeared blinking above the water.  There was a parent/baby pool session with the water specially heated a few degrees above normal.

I was going to add that of course she's terrified of water now because of this treatment as a baby, but that would be a lie.  She still loves the pool or the sea and has no fear of water at all.


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## cesarynati

Living onthe Costa del Sol in Spain it´s nearly impossible not to go and take a dip in the water on the hot summer days. Babies ans children are taught to swim at a very young age and there are NO water  monters!! Maybe fish in the sea but no monters!
Stop worrying and splash in!


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## luis masci

Well... seeing there is not anyone yet telling about how it’s in South America...

*Is swimming big in your countries? *
I’d say 30 or 40 years ago that depended if you had nearly some sea, river or lake. 
Nowadays the situation is quite different; there are plenty of swimming pools in any city and even in small towns. 
I learned to swim practically by myself when I was a child. But what I’ve seen, it’s a subject you have to learn while you are still a kid. Otherwise it’d be so much hard (even in some cases imposible to learn).
About monsters… there was a legend that said there was something like that in a lake of Bariloche (southern Argentina) some years ago. I never took it seriously and I suspect anyone either.

-------------------------------------------------------
Being only a Spanish speaker corrections will be always welcome


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## Libby_Kiwi

New Zealand is an island nation, so I can't think of anyone in my acquaintance that doesn't know how to swim!  We also abound in lakes and rivers.  I love the water, and visit the beach every chance I get.  Hamilton is New Zealand's largest inland city, but even from here it's only about an hour or an hour and a half's drive to the beach.  Lucky huh?


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## Freyja

Swimming is big where I live.  Since we have such cold winters, we take our summers very seriously.  Almost everyone I know can swim and most people I know spend time at the beach, or at the very least, a pool in the summer.


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## panjabigator

What do you people do that live in regions will Crocodiles or Alligators?  I have gone swimming in a natural spring before, but in that portion, there are supposedly know alligators.  I have also gone tubing in a stream, and supposedly there are water moccasins and alligators.  But it wasn't that big of a deal then.  Still, I would never go in a lake where there are alligators.  I have heard one too many stories of people being eaten.


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## karuna

I have wondered about Indians' fear of water myself. All ancient civilizations living near water basins had large fleets for commerce or war purposes. But I haven't heard about India's sea-faring heros at all. Besides there was even a restriction for the brahmanical class which forbid the to go to other countries or cross the sea as it would presumably make them impure.


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## tvdxer

The vast majority of Minnesotans must know how to swim.  Not knowing how to seems to be a black / inner-city thing, although perhaps I've just watched too many goofy movies.


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## maxiogee

tvdxer said:
			
		

> The vast majority of Minnesotans *must* know how to swim.



Is this an obligation thing? Or are you guessing wildly?

Over the past 10 years, 1,700 people drowned in Ireland - a country where it is difficult to not be close to water.
I have no idea how many of those people died because they were unable to swim, but swimming is not a big thing here. Whilst it is a pleasant pursuit during the warmer days of summer, it is not something most people would look forward to in autumn or spring - let alone winter.


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## tvdxer

maxiogee said:
			
		

> Is this an obligation thing? Or are you guessing wildly?
> 
> Over the past 10 years, 1,700 people drowned in Ireland - a country where it is difficult to not be close to water.
> I have no idea how many of those people died because they were unable to swim, but swimming is not a big thing here. Whilst it is a pleasant pursuit during the warmer days of summer, it is not something most people would look forward to in autumn or spring - let alone winter.


Yes, they are required by law to swim before getting a driver's license.  

No, just kidding.  But almost everybody I know can swim.  Most seemed to learn young, too....before the age of 10, at the latest.  I personally learned at 7, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't even close to being early.  

I suppose it has a lot to do with the fact that there are more than 11,000 sizable lakes in our state, and that a very good percentage of Minnesotans own a cabin, often on a lake, or at least have a boat / go fishing, things which obviously bring you close to water.


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