Swimming: an elitist pastime?

[Yoda]

I thought black people didn't swim because they don't like getting their hair wet.

Swimming seems borderline instinctual... I guess you have to get in the water a little as a youngster, but you'll pretty much figure it out. We had swimming as part of our physical education and why wouldn't you?

As for tennis being elitist? C'mon man. It's so easy to find a ghetto court to play on, there are a decent number of good courts with proper surfaces as well. A cheap racket for 20 bucks and a can of balls every couple of trips... that's not bad.

Golf can be pretty elitist, and certainly has a higher price of entry than tennis.

And yeah, polo is just fucking ridiculous. Ridiculous enough to where my first reaction to Christopher Reeve's accident was more along the lines of "That's what you get you rich motherfucker!"... I felt slightly bad about that by the time he keeled over. Slightly.

So if swimming and polo are elitist to some people, imagine the reaction to them watching water polo

 

[Rii]

I thought black people didn't swim because they don't like getting their hair wet.

That's mentioned in the article with respect to females, yeah.

For my part, I can't imagine volunteering to preclude myself from becoming immersed in water. The things women do for fashion.

Golf can be pretty elitist, and certainly has a higher price of entry than tennis.

If you're Japanese I think it translates to 'I'm a corporate executive'.

And yeah, polo is just fucking ridiculous. Ridiculous enough to where my first reaction to Christopher Reeve's accident was more along the lines of "That's what you get you rich motherfucker!"... I felt slightly bad about that by the time he keeled over. Slightly.

Heh. I think Maddox has a very good point re: Christopher Reeve. Doesn't mean one shouldn't offer him the respect due any other human being, but the borderline hero worship he seems to attract is a bit much. Bill Gates didn't wait until he was malnourished before pouring money into development programs in Africa.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

As for me and swimming, I would say I basically know enough to save myself in an emergency (which is why my parents made me get lessons). I can get from one end of a pool to another, I know how to tread water, and I know how to float, but it's not an activity I'm much good at.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I talked about my school swimming lessons back in a thread in March this year but I think they are worth repeating remembering that this was the way it was done in Hobart about 40 years ago, and this man taught the children of many Hobart state schools.

My learning to swim was a nightmare. I learnt though a school program.

This guy called Doug Plaister taught us.

As punishment he would hold our heads under water until we were struggling.

If we were struggling while doing our 100 yard trial he would watch us go under, struggle to come back up again, go under again. If he considered that we were in real trouble he had the big hook on a pole and he would hook it around our bathers and pull us out.

Once there was a local radio talk-back program where the topic was learning to swim and many adults who had been taught by this guy phoned it to say that they ended up hating swimming or being scared to swim becuase of this guy.

Once, at a family gathering, my niece started to tell us about her children learning to swim. My sisters and I started to talk about our experiences. The looks on my nieces and their husbands' faces as we told them about Doug Plaister were of shock.

Doug Plaister ended up becoming Lord Mayor of Hobart so as adults we had to see his ugly face on TV a great deal. I used to shake my fist every time I saw him.

 

[scotpens]

. . . Of the remaining 350-400, a large chunk (again about a quarter or so of the remainder) are intoxicated. Remove those (if you're drunk, even if you're a good swimmer, you won't be swimming well).

Indeed. Dennis Wilson, of Beach Boys fame, died from drowning in a shallow marina. He was falling-down drunk at the time. Ironically, he was the only member of the group who actually surfed.

As for swimming being “elitist,” I never considered it so. In the middle-to-upper-middle-class San Fernando Valley neighborhood where I grew up, swimming lessons were de rigueur for kids. From the air, the area looks like wall-to-wall pools. If your house didn't have a pool, your next-door neighbor did. And you'd find some excuse to casually “drop by” quite frequently during the summer months -- conveniently wearing your swimsuit, of course.

 

[iguana_tonante]

As for swimming being “elitist,” I never considered it so. In the middle-to-upper-middle-class San Fernando Valley neighborhood where I grew up, swimming lessons were de rigueur for kids.

Sorry, but you can't argue for something not being "elitist", and the going on saying it was de "rigueur" for kids to do it. Talk about mixed sygnals!

 

[Yoda]

Heh. I think Maddox has a very good point re: Christopher Reeve. Doesn't mean one shouldn't offer him the respect due any other human being, but the borderline hero worship he seems to attract is a bit much. Bill Gates didn't wait until he was malnourished before pouring money into development programs in Africa.

Yeah, I always thought it was hilarious that he was supposed to be some inspiration for crusading for a condition after he got it. Before that his money was... funding a spine-breaking fleet of horses? I don't know! I doubt he gave half a shit about stem cell research at that point.

 

[scotpens]

Sorry, but you can't argue for something not being "elitist", and the going on saying it was de "rigueur" for kids to do it. Talk about mixed sygnals!

Elitist? Moi??