Why We Swim

Product Information

Drawing on personal experience, history, biology, and social science, the author conveys the appeal of ‘an unflinching giving-over to an element’ and makes a convincing case for broader access to swimming education (372,000 people still drown annually). An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.” The specific heat capacity of water (the amount of energy it takes to raise 1g of water by 1°C) stays the same as the temperature changes. Bonnie Tsui captures the joy, peril and utility of swimming, within her family and across civilizations . . . The breadth of her reporting and grace of her writing make the elements of Why We Swim move harmoniously as one."

Life came from the water and perhaps this is why humans are always drawn to blue seas. Even in a time of flooded coastlines and climate change, we still want to be near water. It’s in us. Lord Byron swam the Dardanelles in 1810, even though he was born lame. Brave swimmers take boats out to the Farallon Islands off the California coast, “the Devil’s Teeth”, just so they ca I wanted ‘everyone’ to feel safe in a clothing optional environment without being gawked at. I could write a book about those 5 years! Lol

Minimizing your drag

Is it better to float or to sink? If you're a boat, it's certainly better to do one or the other! Unfortunately, Why We Swim is a celebration of the many varieties of joy that swimming brings to our oxygen-breathing species.”

And so we didn't know why exactly. And the science is kind of starting to catch up, but we kind of knew it instinctively, in some way, that there's a wellness aspect to it. She moves through societies in which swimming is both a luxury and an absolute necessity. One of the most extraordinary acts of extreme swimming took place off the coast of Iceland. Heimaey is a fishing town where the wind speed is the highest in Europe. The town’s swimming pool had been destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 1973. “Icelandic history is a ledger of lives lost at sea, sometimes a few yards offshore,” Tsui writes as she portrays one of the nation’s most celebrated swimming survival stories. This book is a love letter to swimmers. Either you are one of those athlete-like swimmer swimming in lanes and could go lap after lap, or like me, a lazy swimmer who just enjoy the immersion and playing with water. The author interviewed some swimmers, survivors, swim club members, and athletes mostly, gathering lots of insights on what they think while swimming.

References

The Handbook of Swimming by David Wilkie and Kelvin Juba. Pelham, 1996. David Wilkie's books are older and harder to find, but very clear guides that I find cover the science of swimming very well. I found it ok but more a repetitive magazine type piece rather that a book. And some inklings for creature capture and desires for food supplies answered the question of the title. BUT, and the but is huge in some non-answered paths for this "swim loving". Since we are not mammals who know how to swim instinctively and must learn the skill.

Right from the start, it becomes about speed and technique. You work to refine your strokes, over and over again, to achieve—what? The win, yes, but that’s fleeting, especially at this stage. Parse out the win for even the youngest swimmers and you realize that it’s the rare coming together of effort and timing that lifts you for days. That’s a feeling that any swim team swimmer knows, no matter their level. I really liked this book and the way it’s been put together. Each chapter functions as an essay on a different topic with the end of each chapter leading logically into the subject of the next chapter. The writing is fluid and I especially loved the personal remembrances of the writer. As a child who grew up surfing the waves without knowing how to (officially) swim, I felt a kinship with the author. I know what it’s like to be enveloped in a sneak wave as a child, unable to get out, only to be rescued by a sibling. I know what it’s like to come home from a hard day at work, hitting the beach in the dark, with no lifeguards or other humans around, hoping the lifeform touching me under the water is not going to eat me. I know what it’s like to detest an enclosed swimming center, feeling claustrophobic until I can get into a pool that is open to the elements. So I re-taught myself using several online resources with that in mind, and now I am decent. I am not fast, but I can move relaxedly through water (and I finally swam my first mile!). And the water is somewhere I long to be because I feel at once more in my body and also out of my body. The sensations, the sun making patterns in the water, the sounds coming to me while underwater.What I loved is that Tsui also weaved in poems dedicated to water and swimming to emphasize her affection to her activity. In addition, I truly appreciated the references in her book that listed a source of great interdisciplinary literature. Tsui reflects on some of her many swims and while each may have been done for a different reason or under different circumstances, it is the act of swimming itself that remains a constant. “I have marked time by water,” she writes.