Do it! You won’t regret it 
I suppose I should add cautions about checking with your doc first and swimming in safe places, but what the heck, I’m sure you’ll all survive 
Plus it’s sociable. There are loads of groups you can join that organise to swim together. I’ve made some really close new friends since I started and it’s unusual to make new friends as you get older
I expect it helps that they are all complete nutters like me! 
I will look into it…I do know (vaguely) one cold water swimmer so I shall she if she will let me tag along one day this summer. 
I was much the same, once the sea temperature got above 22°C then its a bit like swimming in soup and not refreshing. in my opinion. On the other hand when my brother visited he went scuba diving on the Barrier Reef and loved the clear, warm water.
UK indoor pools always seemed to be kept at a temperature set for par boiling, far too steamy and uncomfortable.
I’m not a strong swimmer, more a head out of the water breast stroke swimmer
But I am totally confident in the water and can happily float, tread water, just hang around in it. I’ve never understood how people sink
The quote isn’t working for me so I had to c&p maree’s post.
I just wanted to say I’m exactly the same as Maree - head out of water, breast stroke swimmer, I’m also very good at floating & can just lie on the water & let the waves take me anywhere…
Well done, Carol.
I’ve always thought that “floating” should be the first, and most important thing taught when learning to swim.
All we have to do is relax every muscle, but keep breathing, and we float, automatically.
I suspect that it’s panic that gets us drowned.
Just a thought…!
How do you stop yourself from sinking ,when you float on the water?
Your body is about 60% water anyway, so its simply letting the water, carry your weight. Its easy to panic a bit when you can’t feel the ground, but if you have someone with you supporting your back as you begin to lie in the water, you relax more. Then you gradually realise you won’t sink, and so it becomes easier to float. Its a matter of confidence more than anything. You only sink when you are heavier than the surrounding water (wearing clothes, for example…or bricks in your pocket!)
You just have to relax completely and let the water hold you up. Once you can do it, it’s like riding a bicycle, second nature and you can’t understand how people sink 
How do you stop yourself from sinking ,when you float on the water?
Before I lie on the water I fill myself with air. ie: take a deep breath - then just fall back, relax & float.
I grew up on the coast and we swam in the Quay and in the creeks at high tide from a very early age.I don’t think I knew a child who couldn’t swim.I won village cups for swimming and when I went to grammar school I was in the school team. I loved swimming and carried on for many years. I encouraged my kids to swim too. As an adult I don’t enjoy it because I find lengths just totally boring and unless the water is very warm I can’t relax.
I’ve been a swimming since I was a child. Both my parents were avid swimmers ; my father used to swim long distance in Lake Huron. I’ve followed in his foot steps and became a long distance swimmer. In 1989 I did I a 5 km swim to raise money for Multiple sclerosis. My grandmother, who I never met died of MS at a young age. I also got my bronze medallion in life saving. I can swim.
I have not swum for decades.
When I broke my ankle over 18 months ago I done hydrotherapy. Swimming was included.
I could not swim a 25 metre lap as I am overweight and not exercised for three and a half decades.
I’m an appalling swimmer, I’ve always disliked the kind of sterile, municipal feeling of swimming pools.
Snorkeling on the coast in the relative comfort of a 7mm wetsuit was a different matter.
In retrospect a bit silly for an appalling swimmer!
The only thing a brick and myself have in common.
. There are several reasons why not being able to swim such as a previous incident terrifying being in water
Were you taught it in school?My BH thinks that most Australians born and bred here can swim because they were taught it at an early age.
I can’t,I don’t like being immersed in water and glad someone invented showers.
I’ve not swam for ages. Last time I think it was with some dolphins. Since then, I’ve had my hip replaced, which probably means the weight of it will make me sink straight to the bottom.
There was an animation, cartoon encouraging young people to learn to swim. The moral of the the story was that if you weren’t man enough to swim then you’d lose your bird.
Oddly enough I think it was broadcast around midday after Andy Pandy or Mary Mungo and Midge.
Exactly how I feel about swimming but not the chlorinated swimming pool type of swim.
I’m seriously not into swimming pools.
There was a film starring Burt Lancaster, a very American production and none the worse for that.
The Swimmer… don’t get the kids round all primed up with popcorn for this one!
