the gift of swimming
Having grown up in Greece, it’s safe to assume’ you know how to swim’. It’s largely true for most Greeks.
I actually grew up by the sea, and during the summer break we would count how many times we would got to the beach, reaching easily 100 each year from May to September. So of course ‘I could swim’! But recently I realised in reality I could only just ‘bathe’, or at best swim leisurely… I would spend hours n the water, go anywhere I wanted - shallow, deep, underwater. I also really enjoyed diving from high ground, head first!
But strangely, I was never taught how to swim ‘properly’ - as in, get my head under the surface and swim ‘front crawl’, or ‘freestyle’.
About a year ago when on holiday, my husband started making fun of my incompetence so I asked him to teach me. I could not even believe how rubbish I was at it! Of course as with most things ‘I cannot do’, it only meant one thing: ‘challenge accepted’! I was already teasing with the idea to do a triathlon at that point so might as well learn how to swim. I took some lessons at the gym as soon as we got back and spent countless hours at the pool trying to improve. The next step was overcoming the fear of open, dark water and I talk about this extensively here.
So in the summer of 2020 I found myself in Conrwall (like half the UK population) so I thought I’d try my luck with a sea swim, the first after I had taken the lessons. I always enjoyed cold water so non-wetsuit it was!
I never expected the rush I felt and the best way I can describe it is, it’s like you’ve always only been walking and suddenly you discover running for the first time. And you just run, feeling so free, fast and comfortable.
As funny as this may sound, I literally felt like a child exploring a wonderful sensation for the first time. I knew it wouldn’t last long as most things you do repeatedly but I continued with the intention to enjoy every moment of it and hold on to that sensation for as long as I could.
So yes, this was one of the best swims I’ve ever had and I would highly recommend to anyone who is currently ‘just bathing’ to give it a chance and learn to swim ‘properly’. It’s so worth it and I wish I had known it earlier.
