DavidHickey
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Just curious, I was reading another post regarding the diving death in Catalina and read were a few people said that they think it should be required that you get recertified every once in awhile and that you should be able to swim a minimum of 400 yards and a few said that 400 yard is a very simple swim that anyone should be able to do. Let me start by saying that I have snorkeled for YEARS and have been to Cayman more times than I can count, Aruba, Hawaii, St Thomas, and so on. I can literally swim all day long in the ocean with Mask, Snorkel and fins and never break a sweat and could probably go miles if needed. BUT our first day in class the instructor said "as silly as it sounds the first thing we need to do is to make sure that all of you can swim." To do this you all need to swim 200 yards which is 16 lengths of the pool and you need to do it with out fins, mask and snorkel. We were told we could swim using any style other than swimming underwater. Well being the world class snorkeler I thought I was I got a smug smile on my face and hopped right in thinking I'll show them!!!! Well it only took a couple of lengths when I realized 2 things, first of all when snorkeling its basically like swimming underwater the whole time and my top swimming with no equipment was not very pretty. 2nd there is a BIG difference in swimming in fresh water with no fins mask or snorkel and in swimming in salt water with all of the snorkeling equipment. Well half way thru I was wondering if I was even going to make it, I was already tired and had 8 lengths to go. I quit doing the fancy underwater turn arounds after only 2 laps!! Well with about 2 lengths to go I looked over and noticed that almost all of the others had switched and were swimming on their backs. Which was a style I hadn't even thought about. So I turned over and finished the last couple lengths swimming on my back. BUT my point is 200 yards about whupped me!!!! And looking around at the others in class there was not a person out there that looked like they had just taken a walk thru the park. I guess I realized that all though I thought I was a swimmer there is a big difference in a swimmer and a snorkeler. And thinking about it I could not remember the last time I had just hopped in a pool and tried to swim. 99% of my time in the water was spent with snorkeling equipment or was swimming under the water. So are you guys saying that you can swim 400 yards in a fresh water pool with no equipment and not break a sweat? If so I guess I better start practicing alot more and get in better shape!!!!