Aditnow Members

[Cantclimbtom]

I realise that many of us are forum-refugees and forum categories are based on posting numbers.

Not sure if others noticed (or cared) but it inwardly amuses me... that Paul Marvin (OP of this thread and some others here)  are tagged as "Newbie", seems a little incongruous to say the least

 

[Paul Marvin]

I realise that many of us are forum-refugees and forum categories are based on posting numbers.

Not sure if others noticed (or cared) but it inwardly amuses me... that Paul Marvin (OP of this thread and some others here)  are tagged as "Newbie", seems a little incongruous to say the least

Made me laugh as well , although there are plenty more with much more experience than me under there belts, I think it just goes on the amount of posts buddy not what you actually know . However thank you for thinking of me a little more than a newbie
 

 

[alastairgott]

How do I get Bronze, silver and gold swimming certificates   

 

[sinker]

How do I get Bronze, silver and gold swimming certificates   

You get thrown in a pool aged 8 and told "Swim! No one's coming in for you!"

At least that's how it worked at my school.
But then again my school encouraged you to fall over so that they could yell "Get up boy!!" at you 

 

[pwhole]

All I remember about those days were black rubber bricks, nylon pyjamas and chlorine everywhere. And the occasional turd in the pool. Did get my gold in the end, though I nearly drowned doing it.

 

[Cantclimbtom]

How many countless lives have been saved of people falling into swimming pools wearing pyjamas. Those lessons were of immeasurable value.

 

[sinker]

How many countless lives have been saved of people falling into swimming pools wearing pyjamas. Those lessons were of immeasurable value.

?.and how many priceless rubber bricks have been rescued from a watery grave?

 

[Paul Marvin]

How do I get Bronze, silver and gold swimming certificates   

I dont even know if they do them anymore but trust me the gold was exceptionally hard to achieve for me amongst other things you first swam a mile with if I recall was 72 lengths of a normal sized pool followed by staying in the water, donning pyjama top and bottoms and treading water for 1 hour, perform a rescue swim on your back towing a person with your hand cupped under there chin for 3 lengths the afore mention diving to recover a brick,there was also 3 other disciplines that I cant remember now . It did take hours to complete . 

 

[Paul Marvin]

All I remember about those days were black rubber bricks, nylon pyjamas and chlorine everywhere. And the occasional turd in the pool. Did get my gold in the end, though I nearly drowned doing it.

Yes I can remember the water swallowing that went on , still remember the taste very well chlorine and diluted urine  :yucky:

 

[pwhole]

I'm amazed you still like being underwater after all that shit

 

[skimble]

I dont even know if they do them anymore but trust me the gold was exceptionally hard to achieve for me amongst other things you first swam a mile with if I recall was 72 lengths of a normal sized pool followed by staying in the water, donning pyjama top and bottoms and treading water for 1 hour, perform a rescue swim on your back towing a person with your hand cupped under there chin for 3 lengths the afore mention diving to recover a brick,there was also 3 other disciplines that I cant remember now . It did take hours to complete . 

I did a metric version of it where I had to swim for 1km (40 lengths of the pool) in <30 minutes. IIRC as well as the above I swam 4 (?) lengths in pyjamas and then made a float out of them and had use the float to stay motionless in the water. I think I also had to scull head first and feet first.

 

[pwhole]

OHMYGOD, there it is! I never thought I'd see one of those again. And yes, your description seems to concur with my memory - this would be 1978-9 time probably. Fabulous.
One 'upside' of this award was a booklet of free tickets to the local swimming pool, that I (predictably) never finished. But this was in Rotherham, so give me a break. They'd built a 'leisure centre' by this point with a 'wave machine', so the funding allocation for the main pool was a bottle of Domestos and an old lifeguard who looked like Uncle Fester. 'He's funny, that one'. The leisure centre is now the same patch of grass it was before they built it. Anyway, I digress...

 

[Paul Marvin]

I'm amazed you still like being underwater after all that shit

It was staying on the surface that was the hard bit 

 

[Cantclimbtom]

My school never did gold because it took too long to test, so Silver was as far as I got. That's a real blast from the past seeing a pic of that award!

 

[Paul Marvin]

My school never did gold because it took too long to test, so Silver was as far as I got. That's a real blast from the past seeing a pic of that award!

If my memory serves me correct you got a sew on badge, also a metal badge and a Certificate  :

 

[ttxela2]

No lifesaving badges for me, I had a fear of the water from a very early age although all my mates loved swimming. My Mum described having daily nightmares about drowning whilst pregnant with me and put it down to having passed something on.

Despite regular school swimming lessons I failed to do much more than splash around in the shallow end with floats and armbands. When I was 14 or so I had a teacher of the 'chuck him in the deep end and he'll soon learn' school of thought. This resulted in me being ignominiously fished out at the end of one of those poles with hoops at the end that they keep poolside for such indignities. I'd swallowed a considerable amount of water and was quite out of sorts for the rest of the afternoon.

Fortunately a friend who had witnessed this cruel indignity took it upon himself to properly teach me and after some patient coaching I did indeed learn to swim, at least in the sense that I can make progress from one end of a pool to the other without touching the bottom or requiring the attendance of the emergency services.......

 

[pwhole]

I can't float at all - no matter what happens I sink, every time. I had a friend hold me up in the water off the coast of Greece where it was super-salty, and then he let go and I just slowly sank underwater. He was scratching his head as he could just lie there and read the paper, but he was practucally translucent he was so thin. I put it down to being too muscly and not enough fat, though I have no plans to put more on purely as a flotation aid.

 

[PeteHall]

I used to sink, but after a year of lockdown, I float quite well. I needed an extra kilo of lead diving last night  :-[

 

[RobinGriffiths]

I confine my activites to petting and smoking in the shallow end.

 

[royfellows]

I cant believe this. I love water, no fear at all, and I am a racing snake, I don't do fat.

Beam me up Mr Spock.