If I’m an adult who wants to experience splashing around and wading round the pool, but whose swimming capabilities extend as far as doggy paddling to safety and floating on my back - what can I even do to have fun at the pool?
What do you do at the pool?
Bonus round: kind of out of my budget to pay for swimming classes, and available friends & family are nil. :c
But I borrowed a life jacket from a coworker, and could buy cheap floaties or a pool noodle.
If you can afford to save then I highly recommend you to save up for classes. Not just for the exercise aspect but (primary) as a safety measure.
Floating around on ones back is seriously underrated. You just drift around a bit, relax and disconnect for a bit.
Saved my own life because I had learned to swim and float at 5.
Get one of those masks that also cover your nose, it will make going under water 10000x easier, you just have to worry about closing your mouth. The way I learned was by hanging on one side of the pool and using the wall to give myself some insertia, and then figure out the movements to keep going. Doing underwater backflips can also be fun. I don’t to to public pools because they disgust me, but when I am in a pool I like jumping in and finding out the biggest splash I can make with friends. Stupid but fun stuff
Swim laps ya maggot!
/s /drill instructor
Just talk to people while getting out of the heat. Or sit waist deep in water and get drunk. That’s always a good time.
I used to have access to a unsupervised swimming pool and would get a floaty chair and I just vibe floating around.
The kids would sometimes push me around like a game of pong.
But I like being in the water with friends and a loud speaker playing EDM.
I used to have an in-ground pool at my home when I lived in Oklahoma. I would float on a pool noodle and sipping beer while listening to reggae. I was in my happy place. I miss having a pool.
Learning to swim in a pool with a shallow end isn’t too difficult for an adult. Just don’t pay attention to assholes or give up because it doesn’t come naturally.
Watch a video or two to learn the motions (breast stroke is easiest, but freestyle or side crawls are also good to start with), then just get in the pool (shallow end, please). Start by crouching down to the level of your mouth, and breathing through your nose. Become comfortable with water near your mouth.
Then dip your nose into the water and blow out through it at the same time (blowing bubbles). You’ll quickly get the hang of holding pressure in your airways so that water doesn’t enter when you dive below the surface. Once you get to that point, start laying face down in the water. You don’t even have to be stiff, or try to swim, just get used to having your back towards the sky. Finally, after the 20 minutes this will probably take you, start trying to mimic the motions on the videos you watched. Again, ignore the feeling that you suck at this, because everyone sucks at it when starting. You’re just an adult, so you realize how bad you are at the beginning, just like when learning a new instrument. With an hour or so of attempts, you’ll have a pretty good idea of how to move around the pool.
I like playing ball in the pool. With how stupid it looks, it burns a lot of energy while still being fun. It needs one other person though.
There is so much piss in those things… We all drank so much piss…
You… drank the pool water?
where do you think the piss came from?
it’s the circle of liiiiiiiife! 🎶
Wait, you drank the pool water?
Swim, if necessary get a couple of classes. So you can enjoy the exercise aspect of it.
If there is a water slide on whatever, it’s not just for kids, so you can have some fun there too.
Just a thing, please don’t block the swimming lanes to play around, it’ll be annoying for you and the swimmers
Floating take the weight off my joints.
Have you checked the local YMCA? Community college?
Swim.
Not get splashed or crowded by kids, mostly.
edit: lol, sorry. misinterpreted the question
Public pools have a shallow end and a deep end. It’s difficult (but not impossible!) to drown in the shallow end because you can just stand up, but you can still swim.
Most humans, especially fat Western humans, are naturally buoyant. Completely inert, most (fat) Western people will float above the bottom of their nose (because we’re fat.) Very lean or muscular people tend to be more neutrally buoyant or even negatively buoyant (sink), YMMV.
Most important thing to remember as an Aquatic Mammal is you WILL get water in your nose, and sometimes down your windpipe. DO NOT PANIC. It burns, you will want to cough. Resist that urge. If you are under water or do not have free air passage, DO NOT COUGH. Control the urge and break the surface, then you can go ham coughing and sputtering.
The most important thing about being in and around water is to be comfortable. If you’re not comfortable, you’re too deep. Get shallow.
source: PADI certified diver
most Western people will float above the bottom of their nose
Is that true of salt and fresh water? I’m pretty comfortable floating around in salt water but have grown paranoid with age about fresh water.
It kind of depends on how much of your body is densely packed fat or muscle, but in a still pool I’ve never managed to float in a way that didn’t at least let me float with my mouth above the water.
I wouldn’t recommend anyone to go into the deep end of a pool without at least basic swimming skills, but if you can manage to remain calm, you can keep yourself from drowning pretty well, at least until help arrives.
If you can swim and want to try this out, please try not to look like a drowning person, or you’ll end up being dragged out of the water by a lifeguard (or at least get called out). The human body has an instinctive drowning response that doesn’t look at all like drowning people in the movies, and keeping your head just above the water can easily make you look like a drowning victim if you’ve got your arms side to side.
People are more buoyant in salt water because it has higher molar mass. Humans on average are about 90% density of water by mass so about 10% of your frame would float above the surface, which is generally enough to expose your nose. Of course you can articulate your neck, float on your back, tread water…
Salinity also matters. Salty water you might be up to 3% or 5% more buoyant, pound for pound, compared to fresh water.
Really, it depends on how fat and how salty, but generally the difference is less than 5% by mass.
My grandfather was an old-skool, wiry, dirt-farmer. He was unable to float above the surface in Utah’s Great Salt Lake.
I aspire to be that compactly muscular.
That … That’s baller. I’m “doughy” at best, and its all I’ll ever be.
That stroke where you breathe out down and time your arms to breathe in to the side: I hate it. I don’t like the feeling of water on my face while I try to take a quick breath. That’s my secret: I’m always uncomfortable in the water…
I float… at really weird times of the day when it’s pretty quiet.
👆🏽this person knows
'I be crazy too, little buddy, but at least when I be craziest, I be floating all alone in space and the crazy, she float out of me, she soak into the walls, and she don’t come out till there be battles and little boys bump into the walls and squish out de crazy.’
I bring a book and pace around in the water while I read.
