Oh, river hits closer to home than any other option. My grandparents live very close to a river, so you can imagine... Countless hours swimming, and playing water fight with my cousins. Floating down the currents for the sake of adventure (one of the few moments in my life I actually thought I'd die). Playing football by the river beach. Wait, there is even a connection between my family and that river, which has a history of its own! (believe it or not) My grandmother has always washed clothes in the river (I think she does it even today) There used to be a competition among my family members, mostly my dad and his siblings, to cross the river at a certain dangerous point. They used to do it over and over again. Fortunately none of them were swept away by the currents. I used to find creepy stuff in the river, like meat leftovers which my cousins and I would say was human flesh (It could have actually been human flesh). Anyway, any river would bring back memories of the one I grew up swimming on. The ocean is indeed too big, and I find swimming with all those waves quite annoying sometimes. Lakes are ok. My experience of lakes though, are limited to those in which the water is more mud than anything else, and there are flies just about everywhere. I would love to swim in one of those lakes in Europe though, like in Sweden, or Serbia, or... you get the ones I'm talking about.
You know I feel right at home with venomous snakes, snapping crocodiles and lumbering sharks. I'd go for any of them.
Go for it, there's TV shows about pretty much everything under the sun by now, I'm sure someone would commission it. BTW, have you ever watched Red Dwarf? If you replace Homer with Alexander the great in that paragraph you wrote it sounds like it could be a quote from Rimmer.
Most rivers I've encountered are murky and polluted, so they just aren't that enjoyable. Lakes are great and generally accessible to me. I grew up swimming in spring fed lakes, so even patches of icy cold don't phase me much. But the ocean! I love ocean swimming. I'm more buoyant in salt water, and I love the surge of the waves and breakers. I love the smell and the sounds of the ocean. I love swimming in the ocean at night too, although I stay closer to shore (too easy to get lost otherwise).
None of the above: I'm a pool guy through and through, the closer to a 50-meter Olympic pool the better. But of the choices given, depends on my mood: on the rare occasion I love splashing around among big waves in a sea/ocean, but if I want something closest to a pool, i.e. with plenty of space and water as still as possible so I can more easily focus on my streamline, stroke, and performance, I'd pick a nice, clean lake. So far my favorite is the one next to @KaTrian's dad's cabin.
I've never swum in the ocean. Swimming in salt water doesn't appeal to me at all. I've waded in it, and felt sticky afterwards. I grew up on the northern shore of Lake Huron, and that'll always be my swimming hole. Nice waves and all that good stuff you get with the ocean, but clear, warmish fresh water (in summer), nice sand beaches, nothing that sees you as lunch ...perfect. Mind you, that's from times gone by. Now the lakes are infested with zebra mussels, which make the water nice and clean, but can cut your feet. I suppose if I lived there now, I'd have to wear beach shoes. Urgh. Small brackish lakes aren't very appealing, or dark, slow-flowing rivers. Mud puppies, snapping turtles...water snakes... I'm not a fan of chlorinated pools, but they're the only swimming option I've got these days.
All y'all ain't afeared o' them thar blue ring octopi when swimming in yon sea? Oh yeah. #straya. If the water's clear I'll swim in it. The main thing I dislike about ocean swimming is the stickiness afterwards. I also dislike seaweed. Gives me the willies.
You can't beat snorkeling over a reef in the clear blue Caribbean ocean. Body surfing in some nice warm waves would take second place. In California where I grew up, going to the beach was second to going to my aunt's pool. You'd come home and feel yourself moving in the waves until you went to bed that night. For rivers, give me a white water raft any day. Or even a lazy river or tube rafting if the water's warm enough. Without a floating device, rivers scare me. I have fond memories of swimming in Lake Arrowhead where we had a cabin when I was younger.
Lake, river, ocean, or even hot springs, you got to shower off or you'll get swimmer's itch or worse.
Swam in the ocean once at night in Costa Rica. Couldn't get the thought, sharks feed at night, out of my mind. Some stuff I'm glad I did, but once is enough.
Nah there's no pressing need to shower afterwards. It's just sticky. I don't like sticky except for special occasions.
Hi, For me it's the ocean - and I've actually seen a shark attack. Admittedly it was really a dogfish attack, but still heard the guy yell and then wade out of the water with a dogfish attached to his calf - it bit off more than it could chew I suppose! Cheers, Greg.
When I lived near the beach I used to walk along the shore in Winter and stretch then walk back in the sea to do some cold water recovery on the legs. Nothing ickier than stepping on a flathead with bare feet in the darkness of night.
holy shit. i ocean swim a lot. in the last few months i've developed a random, progressive, intense fear of sharks. i've done tons of self therapy stuff around it and it's just gotten worse. just today i swam no more than 20 feet from the shore and it was still scary. i tried a visualization technique later of a bunch of swimming ninjas surrounding me so if sharks approach, they'll protect me. i'm going to try that more to see if i can get that integrated and make me calm, but i think my brain is just broken right now.
I could start planning this after my MA, it honestly is something I'd love to do. And yeah, Red Dwarf is amazing. Rimmer happens to be my favourites character too.
I've never showered after anything but the ocean, and there's never been a problem. I grew up spending summers at the lake, my family and all our neighbours in and out of the lake all day long, and I don't remember any of us getting any rashes. Maybe it was just a nice, clean lake? I look at some of those mud puddles people swim in on TV shows and I question their wisdom... even the famous Mr. Darcy scene seemed like it would be better if he wasn't swimming in a swamp...
I can't let fear define my life. Shit can happen, whether you're prepared or not. I take reasonable precautions and keep my wits about me, whether I'm driving to work or plunging into the surf.
Actually, from that article it sounds like there are times that have outbreaks and some lakes that generally have a problem for it. Which suggests, of course, that there are times that don't have outbreaks and lakes that don't generally have problem with. And while this map is based on self-reporting and therefore probably misses a lot of cases, I don't see any sign of it being a problem in my part of the country. http://swimmersitch.ca/?page_id=33
Your link is to a single study. Swimmer's itch FAQ So it's not that you swim in clean water and the rest of us swim in dirty water.
I agree - it's not because my water is super-clean, it's because swimmer's itch is something that only occurs occasionally, not everywhere. I mean, go ahead and shower after swimming in anything that isn't full of chlorine and urine. I'll go ahead and not shower. We can both be happy with our choices.
Uhhh, I shower after swimming in chlorinated pools too. But the urine is too dilute to be much of an issue. Chlorine in an amount greater than that in potable water can be a tad drying on the skin. I'm not sure what the issue against showers is. If I were backpacking I wouldn't let the lack of a shower prevent me from going for a swim.