Don’t think I know anyone that can’t swim. Taught my boys the way I learned…threw them in and said sink or swim. The will to live is strong in them boys, lol. They can all swim like a fish and hold their breath longer than a gator. I’ve drowned a couple of times but came back. Nah, didn’t see a light. Just woke getting beat and puking water and getting cussed at.

I had trouble not sinking like a rock as a kid. I was as thin as a rail with no body fat. I was not a fan of swimming. It seemed like too much work trying to stay alive just to be wet.
Now that I am "nutritionally well endowed", I float like a cork, so I'm good with it now.

I don't believe there's anyone that can't swim or at least float. Those that think they can't just panic which prevents them from being able to.

I've legit sank to the bottom of the pool and just played there on my back

I cant swim in cold water wearing hip waders.
when I go under in the fall over my head I just take a big breath and walk to shore on bottom.
The trick is to not panic.

Last time I went swimming had on chest waders

If I’m in the water, it’s a mistake! I will climb to the surface and run to shore! My fear of fish or something grabbing me is REAL!

I wear a life jacket in the boat at all times!

I can't swim. Mom and Dad couldn't so they never took us kids. I'm a water trapper-go figure. I've had a few close calls but I am probably more careful because I can't swim.

My dad lost a boyhood friend in a swimming accident. He made sure all his kids learned !

I would rather be at a swimming pool then on a farm so I obliged. After enough summers I earned my Lifeguard card from the Red Cross !

Dad just threw us in the river. Swimming came easy…getting out of the gunny sack was the hard part!

Not surprising. It's panic. People get kicked out of BUDs every year for it. You're lean and muscular so it'll require concentration. It's hard NOT to panic when you're sinking. Just need to clear your mind and focus on the science.

When I was a lad we lived near an Olympic sized pool.
It seemed like I spent more time under water that on the surface.
I used to swim 2 laps under water so 100 meters. I would get a buzzing sound in my head towards the end .
Dad would say I had gills.

Swimming is all about floating. Have to learn to float well first and tread water staying still, then can swim like a fish.
Floating is all about breathing correctly.

If you can't breathe correctly, no matter how strong you are, eventually you will sink.

Nope

My parents enrolled me in swimming lessons at 6 months old. Until I was 15, I had to get up early during the Summer and go swim laps for an hour and a half, in different strokes.

I saved a slightly younger kid from drowning when I was 6 or 7 years old. I saw him struggling and then go down. When I go above him, he was motionless, just slightly above the the bottom in the deep end of the pool. I thought he was my younger brother. I swam down and brought him up and started hauling him to the side. He woke up and started panicking a few feet from the side. I had a hard time keeping him from pulling me under and drowning me. He scratched me all up. When I got him to the side a bunch of screaming women pulled him out. He told me "Thanks man! I though I was a goner." He was the very first person I ever saved.

Keith

I never understood the can't swim thing. Toss an infant in the pool they can swim. It's natural all his man's. Can swim. So I always figured it some sort of mental block. Maybe fear and panic as you're trapper suggested.

I easily could be wrong but just how I always thought about it.

Everyone should always do this. Being the best swimmer in the world won't help you if you get knocked unconcious or injured.

My dad couldn't swim and neither can my husband.

Ironically, my dad didn't seem to care much that he couldn't swim - he regularly dove into water when we were kids to rescue whatever toy we dropped into the pool and he would also be a timer at our swim meets out on a floating dock in a lake. My dad attributed his lack of skills to being the youngest of 6 kids in the 40's.

My husband is the youngest of 4 kids, and somehow he never learned either. Which is a shame, I love to kayak and kayak fish and while he will go out on our bass boat, a kayak is a hard stop, which I understand.

Penn State had a couple students drown at a lake, so you were required to take swimming as a freshman.