canasia.org

without any equipment, because my natural buoyancy is lousy and I have to spend too much effort keeping my head above the water. For most agencies the test is 200 yards, but the only way to be sure is to ask the shops that you are considering to find out what their instructors do. The test isn't timed, and you can swim any way you want to, including taking breaks floating on your back. The point is not to see how perfectly you can swim 200 yards; it is to determine how comfortable and confident you are in the water. If you using all of your energy keeping your head above water, I would suggest taking a few swimming lessons and learning how to rotation breathe . You're much slicker in the water with your face down. Anyone who can walk and chew gum and who isn't terrified of the water can learn do it. You might also talk to your chosen instructor - he might make some sort of arrangement to have a DM work with you a bit before your class. Al's advice is good, but perhaps not the best available. Rather than working with a DM, find a swimming instructor and enlist their help.  A specialist is almost always going to be a better choice. Lee Bell Water Safety Instructor (well, I used to be).

@x19g2000prg.googlegroups.com, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it says... I can't swim 500m, or even 100m, in fresh water or in choppy seas without any equipment, because my natural buoyancy is lousy and I have to spend too much effort keeping my head above the water. For most agencies the test is 200 yards, but the only way to be sure is to ask the shops that you are considering to find out what their instructors do. The test isn't timed, and you can swim any way you want to, including taking breaks floating on your back. The point is not to see how perfectly you can swim 200 yards; it is to determine how comfortable and confident you are in the water. If you using all of your energy keeping your head above water, I would suggest taking a few swimming lessons and learning how to rotation breathe . You're much slicker in the water with your face down. Anyone who can walk and chew gum and who isn't terrified of the water can learn do it. That's not entirely accurate. I knew a guy when I was younger who had so much _meta_l in his back that he couldn't swim at all.  He'd been born with some kind of spinal issue/humpback thing and the _meta_l was supposed to help straighten him out.

Consider why you could not do a 500 yard swim. I can't swim 500m, or even 100m, in fresh water or in choppy seas without any equipment, because my natural buoyancy is lousy and I have to spend too much effort keeping my head above the water. If this disqualifies me from scuba diving, then it certainly should've disqualified me from snorkelling, but nobody told me about it. When snorkelling, I had a deflated vest on me, and I would inflated it had I lost the mask and fins, or snorkel and fins. I would not survive if I lost all the equipment, including the vest. But this seems to me like requiring a sailor to be able to swim to a shore from any place in the ocean... Yes, I do live in Bay Area, 30 miles from SF and 80 from Monterey. My scuba instructor, who also teaches swimming, is also naturally negatively bouyant. It can be overcome. Being naturally negatively bouyant is a usually good thing in scuba - less weight that has to be carried to overcome the bouyancy of the equipment/wetsuit/drysuit/etc. You're not required to swim back to shore from the boat if you lose all equipment. However, if by some chance you lost mask, snorkel, fins, it'd be a good thing if a) you could swim back to the boat, or b) stay afloat long enough to get rescued by the crew. Dennis

You're not required to swim back to shore from the boat if you lose all equipment. What about shore diving?

the prerequisites: some websites say it is 500 yards swim w/out any equipment (I can't do that), If you can't, what are you doing snorkeling?  If you can't swim, you don't belong anywhere around water.  If you can't manage 500 yards, even just sculling on your back, then you should limit your recreation to golf or checkers.

the prerequisites: some websites say it is 500 yards swim w/out any equipment (I can't do that), If you can't, what are you doing snorkeling?  If you can't swim, you don't belong anywhere around water.  If you can't manage 500 yards, even just sculling on your back, then you should limit your recreation to golf or checkers. I thought I was a hardnosed on water skills.  You're the man. Do you have a real name, or even a reasonable made up one we can call you?