Summer water stuff

[hamsterTK 93]

So it’s summer(in part of the world I guess) and that means finally being able to go to the beach or lake. I am excited because my town in central Texas has the interesting feature of a clear, spring fed river flowing directly through town lined by public parks. When it’s warm enough you can swim or tube down it and being a college town with my school historically enrolling more girls than guys. Also we have some clear lakes, it’s awesome to hop out of your tube and go down with just flippers.

I’m also taking a Scuba Diving class and in about two weeks I get to go to a flooded quarry and experience doing it outside of a pool, and get a recreational open water diving certificate(PADI). I’ve always been jealous of friends who have got to go to Cozumel or the Bahamas. Hopefully unlike skiing(I’ve decided I prefer water in its liquid state) this is something I get lots of chances to do eventually.

So is anyone doing anything cool or interesting? I’m actually trying to get ideas of things to do. Not in the position to go anywhere very far. I guess once again being the San Marcos-Austin region with its culture of canoe/tube hippies has its positive advantages.

The other thing I wanted to ask about is something I have wondered about for a while. I know a lot of people actually can’t swim or hate water. To be honest I didn’t learn until I was like 12 which was older than my friends, but now I am a good swimmer and I like to be in water. But I wonder how many people just didn’t learn or are so weak at swimming they can’t go across a pool. I was wondering if anyone on this forum doesn’t swim or doesn’t like water. Is anything stopping you from learning how(embarrassment?). I always thought it would fun to try and teach someone how to swim, actually...

[rsd6000 8]

well i don't get in pools so i prefer cold and damp weather

[hamsterTK 93]

I think I am going to take my dog to the lake

lol one response in two days, the forums are being strange latey...

[Meg 368]

I like swimming.   Deep water running to be exact.

Problem is, we have had a very cool and wet summer so far.  For the month of June, we are 8 inches over average in terms of rainfall.  Most of it is via thunderstorms so they clear people out of the pools.

[Odainsaker 2,134]

Just watch out for those left behinds from the movie Piranha still stalking the San Marcos springs!

I must shamefully admit that as a child of Hawaii, I never could technically swim, even though classes were an elementary school requirement. Something about being a skinny bony Asian kid just automatically negates any natural buoyancy, and all the teacher's happy exclamations to merely "relax and float on your back" mean nothing when you are sinking backwards head first. The boogie board was still fun, so long as I held on, and the shallow walking reefs were cool. Try not to step on the urchins, flat fish harpoons, and sea cucumbers, and always lookout for the hammerheads, aaagghhh! Oddly enough, the jellyfish and portugese man-o-wars near Bellows Beach never seemed to bother me, despite the tentacles floating everwhere and the swarms washed up on the beach, and having colorful sea anemones randomly spring out to kiss your ankles is a weird experience, as are fish peeking up your swimming trunks.

[Giuliano40k-- 188]

I do not know why, but sometimes I feel more comfortable in the water than on land.And most strange is that I live in the city where there are few pools(to cold,or the peopleof here don't like water to much), and I only learned to swim (not to drown me, to be exact) when I was 7 years old.But today I swim very well, especially over long distances, (my record is 2200 meters, when I crossed, and return,in the lake near my weekend house ),And yet, I can swim for hours, sometimes I get tired of water before I feel fisical fatigue .And to worsen the stranger situation, nobody taught me anything, everything came so naturally when I has more or less 11 years old, is that it can be a genetic factor?

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: SkiGeek

we have had a very cool and wet summer so far.  For the month of June, we are 8 inches over average in terms of rainfall.  Most of it is via thunderstorms so they clear people out of the pools.

quote>

Well, it's been pretty wet here. same Nor'easters, likely. Not much thunder but plenty of rain. Pretty hard all day to day, intermittently for many days over the past couple weeks. Like we've moved to Seattle.

I'm not really big on the whole pool/beach thing myself. I'm not a swimmer, I'm too old to build sandcastles or play with pool toys... there's really nothing fun or exciting to do in either of those places that can't be done indoors with air conditioning.

[BlondeTwiggy 43]

Aw, I love tubing so much.  I went at camp one year and it was a blast.  I also like those lazy rivers at the water parks, I could just float around in my tube all day lol. 

There's a public pool within biking distance of my house.  Pretty awesome.    Unfortunately, haven't really had time to go there yet this summer.  I never understood how someone could not swim... It's so second-nature for me.  Maybe because I had lessons when I was 8 or 9, I don't remember very much about them, though.  Guess I learned something, I swim pretty well, if not very fast.  Oh, and being the twig, I don't float, which is kind of annoying. 

And pfft, are you ever too old to build sandcastles? 

[masochist 111]

I don't know how to swim at all.

There are two reasons--one: I was never taught; and two: I HATE having water in my eyes, ears and nose. Really...just on my face. I can only stand it if I do it in the shower. As a slight counterpoint, I LOVE water parks. LOVE being in Texas, which has, hands down, the best water park in the world (Schlitterbahn).

But yeah. That's me.

[beebs 129]

I usually hit the beach once in a while.. swim a bit but it's usually not my thing unless it's on the ocean.

But really I just wanted to mention that touchstone is a CODEWORD

[mankind7183 0]

nice code spot.

it took me 25 minutes from reading the chalenge to get it.

Hopefully i can make cities what sim city 5 should have been.

============================

The object of war is not to die for one's country. It is to make the other poor dumb bastard die for his.

-G. George S Patton

[Merlin of Flyote 8]

Apparently it's getting HOT! HOT! HOTTER! they've just predicted 40c in London, UK by the year 2080. It gets to about 30c these days.

[remixedcat 2]

my weather is sooooo unpredictable where I live. Can't plan a single thing.

[Duke87 1,070]

...actually...

okay, this doesn't involve getting too wet (if you do it right), but I suppose canoeing counts?

My father owns a canoe. We've used it in several local waterways. We found a carpenter's square in the Mill River in Stamford, just south of the old Main Street bridge. Which we kept.

One time we went down the Bronx River in a huge flotilla with the NYC parks department. That was interesting (and dirty, at the end). 

[Nerd_Guy 4]

I'm a lifeguard for the summer. Does that count? I taught myself to swim lol

[remixedcat 2]

I went to a water park close to me and had lots of fun! too bad it started raining two hours into it. Oh well those were some awesome 2 hours!

and weather.com said it would be sunny all day.

[Giuliano40k-- 188]

I went to a water park close to me and had lots of fun! too bad it started raining two hours into it. Oh well those were some awesome 2 hours! 

 

and weather.com said it would be sunny all day. 

Hehehe.............and I thought it was just me who had problems with weather.com ....... One day. I checked the weather forecast, and was showing sun all day, but I only get a good distance of my house and started to rain, and much, in fact it rained so much that I almost swim in the street. 

[Randomtaskk 1]

I like swimming, but only in rivers/the pool, not the ocean (far too cold for me).

I dont like jetskis/banana boats etc either though as I hate falling in the water at speed lol, which also rules out any high diving

[fukuda 351]

I have an Open Water Diver title and I love diving in the ocean

I'm not good swimming though, my physical condition forbids some swimming movements

[andrewmoquin 0]

I would go to a beach. It's the best place to celebrate summer. I want to be drawn on the deep water.

[your_adress_here 11]

Wakeboarding mostly for me, not a big fan of swimming.

[Rymac91 15]

I have a pool at my house, so I'll probably spend a few nights swimming there, then I'll probably go to the neighborhood pools by my friends houses later in the summer.

I'm not a super big swimming fan, but during a hot summer, swimming is usually the best way to keep cool, besides super soaker fights...