I think it is sad we have slipped down the slope we call “being civil”. Being away from these posts for the better part of a week has allowed me to look at them in a different light then before. The thoughts and feelings of many of the people who post here are very raw right now. Decency, understanding, compassion, patience and kindness have been lost to pain and anger.
I have learned some very valuable lessons over the past nineteen months. Often, anger is directly driven by pain. I read pain into many of the post here. People have offended one another and tramped on each others toes and people have been hurt emotionally.
Gosh, I am the farthest thing from a counselor or referee for that matter, but I am qualified to say that each of us has good days, and each of us has bad days. Without exception, EVERY SINGLE POSTER was decent, understanding and compassionate towards me during a very tough time in my life. Ion has a way of invoking anger and hostility in people. Having said that, he reached out to me during a very tough time and demonstrated a very different and compassionate side then the one we see here.
My point, in the final annalists we call life, what more do we really have then one another? We are a body of swimmers who share a common bond for the love of swimming and adult exercise in the water. Let us keep to this course as opposed to offending one another and fracturing our beloved sport with pain, hard feelings and anger. We are different, yet, we are the same. We all love our children, we all want to excel in life, we all want to think of ourselves are winners, we all want to be free people, we all want to raise our families and enjoy life as best we can. Regardless of how fast we are, how smart we are or anything else…. in the final toll….we all want and strive for many of the same things. As we all did on playgrounds all over the world as children, let’s shake hands and make up….
Parents
Former Member
Yes Tom,
Rather like we say up here, with your tongue poking in the side of your cheek. "Boy it's cold in here". (indicating where some parts go to stay warm :D :p :D :p
So glad to read of other open water swimmers. It really is a blast.
And so true when you can find a swift part of a current that you work so hard to swim up, and then blast back as if I were an 'olympic swimmer'. Great VO2Max stuff. Another great technique tip is that when you swim against the current, it will clean up your catch and high elbows under water pull. Coming back with the current will also teach you about clean entry, long pulls and a good body roll.
If the water is shallow and has an abundance of weeds, well that's an excellent place to ensure you don't drop your elbows!
Where I swim in a 'heritage' river, I keep my eyes open under the bridges for 'sparkly objects. The local kids jump off the bridges and sometimes I find great treasure. I suppose you could say I get paid!! The most I ahve found in one day was $2.52. It is hard to dive down against the swift current and pick up the shiny object, but great kick and dolphin kick training! (not all shiny objects are money, you cna be fooled by bottle tops. I did find a $5.00 note, only the crayfish had nibbeled all around the corners and had digested the serial number. So it is stowed safely away in my 'souvenier' box.
A friend of mine is organzing ' Swimming Holidays" Sea swims, diving, lake swims, river swims.
If anyone is interested in venturing north where your dollar goes a long way.;) let me know. I will post the web site.
Swimming outside is so much fun. Never boring.
For new swimmers to the open water, transfering of your times from the pool, is a quick process. Once you spend a bit of time, the times become like the pool times if you have snappy tuirns. If you don;t then you will see a steady improvement.
Don't forget to do some speed every day. We need to train speed in order to put strength and power into our stroke. And it wakes up those fast twitch fibres. (trust me, they come in handy when a bear decides to go for a dip as happened to me once)
Gull80, I can understand when you say you swam longer than the distance. That is easy to do. It takes a person in a boat beside you to help you learn to navigate. It is amazing how many variations of straight there are when all swimmers take off!!
In order to swim straight, you have to be able to line up a point behind as well as in front. Now that's harder in the water, hence a boat person can help. (A point in the distance will look straight even if you are say 30 degress off, you will only know if you are off by turning around and looking to see if you are in line with a point behind and the point in front) . You will find if one side pulls just a bit more strongly, or if there is an outgoing tide, current etc, you will learn how to compensate for that. Hope you do more swims.
Yes Tom,
Rather like we say up here, with your tongue poking in the side of your cheek. "Boy it's cold in here". (indicating where some parts go to stay warm :D :p :D :p
So glad to read of other open water swimmers. It really is a blast.
And so true when you can find a swift part of a current that you work so hard to swim up, and then blast back as if I were an 'olympic swimmer'. Great VO2Max stuff. Another great technique tip is that when you swim against the current, it will clean up your catch and high elbows under water pull. Coming back with the current will also teach you about clean entry, long pulls and a good body roll.
If the water is shallow and has an abundance of weeds, well that's an excellent place to ensure you don't drop your elbows!
Where I swim in a 'heritage' river, I keep my eyes open under the bridges for 'sparkly objects. The local kids jump off the bridges and sometimes I find great treasure. I suppose you could say I get paid!! The most I ahve found in one day was $2.52. It is hard to dive down against the swift current and pick up the shiny object, but great kick and dolphin kick training! (not all shiny objects are money, you cna be fooled by bottle tops. I did find a $5.00 note, only the crayfish had nibbeled all around the corners and had digested the serial number. So it is stowed safely away in my 'souvenier' box.
A friend of mine is organzing ' Swimming Holidays" Sea swims, diving, lake swims, river swims.
If anyone is interested in venturing north where your dollar goes a long way.;) let me know. I will post the web site.
Swimming outside is so much fun. Never boring.
For new swimmers to the open water, transfering of your times from the pool, is a quick process. Once you spend a bit of time, the times become like the pool times if you have snappy tuirns. If you don;t then you will see a steady improvement.
Don't forget to do some speed every day. We need to train speed in order to put strength and power into our stroke. And it wakes up those fast twitch fibres. (trust me, they come in handy when a bear decides to go for a dip as happened to me once)
Gull80, I can understand when you say you swam longer than the distance. That is easy to do. It takes a person in a boat beside you to help you learn to navigate. It is amazing how many variations of straight there are when all swimmers take off!!
In order to swim straight, you have to be able to line up a point behind as well as in front. Now that's harder in the water, hence a boat person can help. (A point in the distance will look straight even if you are say 30 degress off, you will only know if you are off by turning around and looking to see if you are in line with a point behind and the point in front) . You will find if one side pulls just a bit more strongly, or if there is an outgoing tide, current etc, you will learn how to compensate for that. Hope you do more swims.
