Can you swim?

[adrian]

I'm tired of people on the mainland telling me to go out and surf when its a beautiful day (and I complain about some problems that I can't solve). I tell them that I don't know how to surf, much less swim, and they're always surprised at what I respond. If fat floats, then I can probably go to Molokai, but the last time I tried to float, I almost drowned.

So, I just want to know who can swim?

[Glen Miyashiro]

I learned to swim as a kid at the neighborhood swimming pool. There aren't as many community pools around as there used to be -- at least, not ones in good repair. Gee thanks Mayor Harris! :mad:

[kimo55]

hellyea.
swim, surf, bodysurf, sail, sink, float, drown in beer...
anything having to do with da wattah...

[kimo55]

I learned to swim as a kid at the neighborhood swimming pool. There aren't as many community pools around as there used to be -- at least, not ones in good repair. Gee thanks Mayor Harris! :mad:
pool?!

we are surrounded by the most beautiful beaches on da planet.
try em sometime.

[1stwahine]

Learned to swim at Palama Settlement and took Advanced swimming and diving from YWCA Richards...forward 40 years -- I FLOAT! :p :D

Auntie Lynn

Farrington High School Pool was great too!

[Glen Miyashiro]

pool?!

we are surrounded by the most beautiful beaches on da planet.
try em sometime.Oh sure, these days I do. But growing up we didn't live right next to the water so it wasn't easy to just go to the beach. I was at the beach maybe once a week, but the pool was there almost every day.

[kupomog]

...no. Well, I can, float. Oh, I learned how to freestyle, sort of. So maybe I can swim. I tend to thinking of swimming as something you mostly do underwater, and I definitely can't do the underwater thing. If you drop me in the deep end of a pool, chances are I won't come back up. But I can paddle my way across, prolly.

[kimo55]

Oh sure, these days I do. But growing up we didn't live right next to the water so it wasn't easy to just go to the beach. I was at the beach maybe once a week, but the pool was there almost every day.
we grew up aalapapa st. lanikai. 4 houses from da beach.
then later, kukui gardens honolulu. but got over often to kailua and laie for swim, for camp... pupukea, pounders.... all over Haleiwa...

[Tiger Beer]

Just an observation.. but I saw very few people actually swimming in Waikiki.. they'd usually wade in or paddle something around.. but don't recall seeing anyone actually engaging in the act of swimming.

Or was I just not noticing?

[lavagal]

I've been a water baby from way back and am making sure my kids are, too. I started swimming when I was four and joined the swim team when I was six and swam competitively through high school. From then on I was a lifeguard every year and renewed my Red Cross certification when required. When I got here, I was in the USAF and it was 1981. I was getting out and was applying to be a C&C Lifeguard. I was passing all of the tests but was offered a job with Kaiser Permanente running computers so I figured it would be best to go with a firm that provided 100 percent medical benefits.
So, instead of becoming a lifeguard, I got an indoor job, but continued to hone my surfing skills. I don't like surfing with a leash, so swimming does come in handy--sometimes!
@:)

[1stwahine]

Just an observation.. but I saw very few people actually swimming in Waikiki.. they'd usually wade in or paddle something around.. but don't recall seeing anyone actually engaging in the act of swimming.

Or was I just not noticing?

It could have been a Jelly Fish Warning Day or Da Dawg Day! Either one you get stung bad. The Jelly one is real. The Dawg is Phoney! :p :D ROFLMAO

Auntie Lynn

[Menehune Man]

I first grew up in Puako. In the tide pools and beachside Kawaihae. After moving to Oahu, I went to school at Makapuu :rolleyes: I love the ocean and swimming. Never did learn to surf though. My daughter's first home was a boat we were living on so I taught her to stay afloat as an infant. She loves to swim too.

[Fondoo2]

water baby here,I have an open water II scuba cert and love the mystery of hunting in the ocean ya never know what your gonna run into even the chance of becomming the prey adds to the attraction.Moving to puna I think I will mostly free dive since its what my local friends are into and gives the game better odds
Doc when you get some time find a trusted friend thats comfortable in the water and get over that fear man,the oceans the source bro be a part of!
Off the record my wife did way better with her lessons after a class of wine shhhhhhh

[MadAzza]

I grew up on a lake. I learned how to float before I could walk, and learned how to swim shortly after that. So long ago I don't remember not being able to swim.

[tiptoetulip]

I learned during small kid time taking swimming lessons---the teacher was that Velasco guy...I think he was a sports coach or something?...anyone remember? Anyway, was kind of fun. He made us repeat the saying, "If you don't pee in my pool, I won't swim in your toilet."

Speaking of swimming, when I was at Kamehameha, you had to either swim or run in freshman year. I chose to swim (2.2 miles, if memory serves), and it was hilarious. I think it was at Ala Moana Beach Park. Where we started off, it was so shallow that your knees would hit the sand. I mean, we could've probably crawled easier. Every so often I'd look up to see my mom yelling from the shore, and I heard her say, "Just keep swimming straight!" I was towards the end of the group and decided to stop putting my head up to see where I was going and I started swimming like crazy. Then I finally looked up and saw that I was swimming AWAY from the shore. Yikes. And no one saw! Auwe! :eek:

[kimo55]

my mom yelling from the shore, and I heard her say, "Just keep swimming straight!"


aaah.... so we see sexual preference is ingrained early in life...

[tiptoetulip]

aaah.... so we see sexual preference is ingrained early in life... HAHAHAHA! I can't stand it! Too funny. :D

[Fondoo2]

Quote:
Originally Posted by tiptoetulip
my mom yelling from the shore, and I heard her say, "Just keep swimming straight!"


same thing my wife yels to my sperm when she wants another baby :rolleyes:

[Peshkwe]

I learned to swim young, even though I grew up in Detroit. My mom's family all lived by the river so it was a safety issue with her to be able to swim. When she was a kid, she'd walk two miles upriver to be able to compensate for the current while she swam across the St. Clair to the Canadian side to buy firecrackers...then walk another two miles upriver to be able to swim back.

[mel]

How did she keep the firecrackers dry on the swim back?

[Surfingfarmboy]

we grew up aalapapa st. lanikai.

A'alapapa Street in Lanikai..hoo boy...one of my favorite places to get in training runs for THE marathon when I'm on O'ahu!! First run Koko Head on Mokulua, after ascending Pu'u Halo (that tough little hill with the concrete Lanikai Sign on it), then come back towards Kane'ohe on A'alapapa...the best running on the Windward Side to be had. Anybody know what was up with covered-up SpongeBob sculpture I saw on somebody's lawn at a house on A'alapapa there last December? SpongeBob was plastic shrink wrapped, as if him being there was against Lanikai covenants or codes.

I swim, but I haven't gotten myself into swimming shape that will allow me to compete in Ironman triathelons. I can run long, I can bike far, but swimming is my weak link. I can swim to save myself, but for a serious distances at a decent pace, like the 2.4 miles they do in Kona come Ironman time, I'd be pretty slow.

I grew up not too far from the green sand beach at South Point and the black sand one at Punalu'u, but I seldom went swimming. The Green Sand Beach was/is tough to get to, and if I recall has plenty of tough currents; the Black Sand was just pretty to stand back and gaze at its beauty. I grew up surrounded by water, but never took a liking to the ocean.

[Peshkwe]

How did she keep the firecrackers dry on the swim back?


Most of her older brothers (she's second youngest of 9 kids) worked the freighters at one point or another so they had the oilskin pouches all over the house. She'd tuck one in her suit with the money for the trip over then put the crackers in it for the swim back.

She'd gotten yelled at more than once for swiming out to her brother's freighter as it whent up the river...he'd get on the bull-horn and yell to the house...."MA!!!!! Get these kids out a da water!!!

They liked to body surf the tanker wakes

One time she dived off the pier and when she opened her eyes under the water there was a sailor looking back at her. He'd gotten lost the winter before and the current stuffed him up under the pier where his winter weights got caught on a nail. She said he was all blown up with a face about three times normal, and when they pulled him out his skin went necro black.

>edit for the typo-fae<

[mel]

One time she dived off the pier and when she opened her eyes under the water there was a sailor looking back at her. He'd gotten lost the winter before and the current stuffed him up under the pier where his winter weights got caught on a nail. She said he was all blown up with a face about three times normal, and when they pulled him out his skin went necro black.

OK, thanks for the explanation of how the firecrackers were kept dry... this was way beyond the answer I wanted, but hey... wow... yeah... puffy face indeed. I'd be scared out of my willies if I turned around and some dead guy was looking straight at me. Reminds me of the scene from the movie "Jaws" when that one dead guy suddenly shows up in the sunken hull of the boat.

[Peshkwe]

OK, thanks for the explanation of how the firecrackers were kept dry... this was way beyond the answer I wanted, but hey... wow... yeah... puffy face indeed. I'd be scared out of my willies if I turned around and some dead guy was looking straight at me. Reminds me of the scene from the movie "Jaws" when that one dead guy suddenly shows up in the sunken hull of the boat.

No doubt...imagine that when you're 11-12 years old!

[kimo55]

Anybody know what was up with covered-up SpongeBob sculpture I saw on somebody's lawn at a house on A'alapapa there last December? SpongeBob was plastic shrink wrapped, as if him being there was against Lanikai covenants or codes.
ho man too long a story with too many episodes.
google it. you'll see alotta linx.

[Mokihana]

Another water baby here; my maddah dem wen take me to da beach from real small kid times, before I could walk. So I wen pretty much grow up in da watah. Most Waikīkī, Kuhio Beach and Makapu‘u.

I have talked to people from da mainland who kinda go green wen I tellum I love swimming in da ocean, like jumping off one old raft by Fort DeRussy... den cannot imagine how I could jump oa swim into watah wen not oni I no can touch bottom, but also dat adunno how deep it stay. Like telling um about da time I wen snorkeling in Kealakekua Bay, dey were horrified! I wen tell um I could see 50' down in clear watah.

Swimming in da ocean is da ting I miss da most about home.

[pzarquon]

Born and raised local boy, and I definitely swam a lot. Beaches and pools. Went for several years to Nu`uanu YMCA's summer program and practically lived in the pool.

But you know what? While I love the beach, I tend to just stay on the sand and people watch. I can swim, but my wife noticed early on that I'm not one to jump in the water unless specifically invited or needed.

My first and third kid love the water. The middle one, oddly, stays on the sand as well.

I have relatives, though, that are also 100 percent island raised, and they can't swim. I always thought that was odd.

[helen]

It happens. I was afraid to be in water over my head. I used to scream when the swimming instructors would drag me to the deep end of the pool in the hopes I would swim back under my power. Of course this was when I was in the 3rd to 5th grade. Later on when some of my classmates found out about it I used to pick on about, but it was a minor point and it was along the lines of "you are from Hawaii and you can't swim, how shame". However given time, the fact I grew taller and the high school I went to had a swimming pool I was able swim.