I am a VERY poor swimmer. if you cannot swim you will not float when you have to. You have to relax to be able to float. A LOT of people that can swim drowned. JMO

Dad was hanging turtle lines along the waters edge once when I was a kid. I was high up on the bank, high bank with rip rap rocks and I kept throwing large rocks in the water and he was like gosh dang it stop that and the next one accidently caught him in the forehead. I'm not sure how I didn't drown the man.

Your lungs are airbags. The more air you have in them the easier it is to float. Floating seems easier in salt water.

Not sure when I learned to swim but It was early in life.

Myself & all my 4 sisters & 1 brother could all swim at an early age.

It was also pretty much a requirement with my boy scout troop.

For 3 or 4 summers at Camp Sabattis in the Adirondacks.
our scoutmaster required us to attend the "Mile Swim Club"
every morning at dawn.

The fog was still on the water when we waded into Lowes Lake
& followed Mr T (a fat, bald camp counselor) in his rowboat
around the buoys marking the mile long water course.

His memorable line as we swam was: "Smile while you swim the mile".

At the end of the summer session we all got a mile swim badge !!!

So, yeah, I can swim but probably not very far, but luckily fat floats !!!

walleyed

I'm with wolfdod91, I can sit on the bottom of the pool. If I'm on the water over waist deep I have a life vest.

I can't float no matter how relaxed or how much air I breath in. I've tried hundreds of times and have had many different people try to teach me. I've swam a lot but hope I never have to try it very far if my life depended on it

Same here. Believe me I’ve tried. I spend countless days in the boat and on the ice. Had several close calls. Probably get me someday because I’m not gonna quit fishing, trapping or waterfowl hunting.

Well,
There are a few of us that can't swim. Fell off the dock at my aunt's when I was about 3. I was sitting on the bottom looking up at her when she pulled me out.
Local municipal pool years later couldn't get me going.
Boy Scouts didn't teach me.
Life guard girl friend in college couldn't teach me.
Finally, at age 31 I took lessons at the local college. Taught by a woman that used to Teach blind people how to swim.

Conclusion after 5 weeks was "I've never seen anyone that sinks as bad as you". Just like comments above, I can go to the 10ft deep end and sit on the bottom.

However, I can swim underwater, or on top if wearing swim fins.

But like highlighted above, I never get in a boat without a life vest on.

Hate it for people who can't swim . I can't think of a time when i couldn't . That said, there's some times when being able to swim won't make a difference. At least, not for long. Cold temperatures and rough waters come to mind.

I can swim but I'm not a strong swimmer ,takes a lot more effort when you aren't buoyant. I used to be able to relax and sit on the bottom in the deep end of the pool like some others on here , my dad is the same way.
It's a real thing , heard of swimming coaches calling the flotation challenged kids rocks lol.
Has to do with body makeup I guess.

I spent 8 years in the U.S. Coast Guard and can not swim. Those in boot camp that were supposed to teach us did not. I also worked for nine years as a NYSDEC Ranger on Lake George working out of a boat and to this day I can not swim. Wish I could, my kids and grandkids all can.

Well, not really.

When I was ten years old my folks enrolled me in the local YMCA to learn how to swim. We were about to move up to Brice Prairie and they wanted to make sure I could swim as we were going to live on the river. I flunked Tadpole the first time around. Couldn't do the jelly fish float. Wrap your arms around your legs, take a deep breath, and supposedly bob like a cork. Everyone but me. I sank. The second time around they passed me probably 'cause they felt sorry for me. Certificate hangs on the wall to this day.

I never "learned how" to float. While in Boy Scouts I earned my five miler by swimming lengths of the pool . . . underwater. Like Giant Sage shared, I did the same. Two lengths underwater, come up for air, then two more lengths underwater, for five miles.

While in the Air Force in Thailand '73/74 I joined the SCUBA club on base. I vividly recall the day I was in the pool taking gear from the instructors when he handed me the weight belt and I said I don't need it. I pushed off, and promptly sank to the bottom. Came back up, swam to the side, and he said . . . . You have negative buoyancy. Ah . . . so that was the issue. All those years of people telling me everyone can float . . nope.

Final dive in the Sea of Siam in twenty feet of water. The instructors threw everyone's gear over the side of the boat and said go put it on. All the other fellas were struggling to get to the bottom. Some would grab something other than the weight belt and immediately rocket towards the surface. Me? I swam down, sat on the bottom, got the regulator in my mouth first, then went about the business of suiting up. Was first back to the surface fully geared up.

So no . . floating is not all about breathing correctly. Some of us have bone/muscle masses that are more dense than others and no matter how hard you "try" you aren't going to float.

I grew up around the lake and swam as well as lots of other water-related activities. When we were kids, we had to stay inside the points on each side of the bay in our fishing boats until we swam across the lake, that was a big deal to my cousins and I, because we could just take off after that. An adult would row a boat beside you on your quest to the other side. Our parents had done the same thing and figured if something happened, you could make it to shore, so the exploring began after that.

When I met my wife in 1974 and we started dating, she was not a swimmer and was scared of the water. She trusted me and learned how to swim, ski and slalom very well, scuba dive and went spearfishing and even carried the speared fish and lobsters sometimes as we hunted the reefs. She didn't even freak out when she saw her first shark, it was a big nurse shark laying under a ledge. I took my glove off and motioned for her to do it too, so she could feel how rough their skin is when you rub towards the head. Feels like sandpaper and slick when you rub toward the tail.

We had lots of fun over the years in and around the water, never too late to learn how to swim and get over your fear of the water.

My labs always thought it was fun when I fell in duck hunting, kinda like I was going to help get the ducks.

Some very good swimmers have been drowned by folks they were trying to save. Make sure if trying to rescue someone you know how.

Panic has drowned way more then anything else. Some could of just stood up.

I can swim well, well used to....found out how bad when my boat untied itself from a float while I was on it... no problem, shucked my clothes and went after it, the wind was light and it only went about 200 feet.

By the time I got to the boat I was exhausted! being the tide was up I then couldn't get up into it.
Had to go to the stern and used the motors electric tilt to finally get in. Probably laid in the boat 10 minutes to recover, luckily it was summer and the water was warm....Finally figured it was over 20 years since I last swam....

Most dangerous thing about swimming is over estimating you ability and under estimating the conditions

I am not a swimmer.
Hung up the beaver trapping. Me and cold deep water and slick muddy banks, not a good combo.
I do have a boat and love to fish. I always wear a life jacket even fishing.

Doesn’t summer only last a week up there?

I went swimming yesterday on accident.. Thought whilst I'm here I may as well try some noodling..

Got ahold of the beaver that was hung up. And I turnt pink... Lol

Boco swam under the ice.