As part of my daughter's swimming lessons the teacher had each kid see how long they could hold their breath. She managed 19 seconds.
After she finished the series of lessons I had promised to take her snorkeling. Today I gave her a mask, snorkel, and fins set and she tried them out in the pool. Foolishly I didn't bring fins and spent the day wearing myself out trying to keep up. The girl is a fish.
We worked on clearing the snorkel, clearing the mask, etc. I'm going to get her a snorkeling flotation vest because her kayaking PFD makes her float upright instead in a horizontal position.
As we were getting ready to head home, she wanted to try holding her breath. She took a breath. I carefully watched her and was quite impressed when she went 35 seconds before surfacing. Almost double her prior record!
She asked me again how long my teacher from last summer could hold his breath- I said Martin had gone 8:06 but that was a world record. She asked how long I had gone and I said about 5:00.
Hearing that she wanted to try again. This time I coached her through a good relaxed breathe up. 45 seconds!
Still she wasn't done. Another try and she got to 56 seconds. At this point I was ready to go home but she really wanted to go a full minute. Again with a good breathe up but she blew bubbles at 20 seconds and came up at 30.
I figured all was well and good- but she said "One more try daddy". Okay. Again, a good coached breathe up. She went down and seemed quite relaxed. I called out the time- "15 seconds... 30 seconds ... 40 seconds ... 50 seconds ... 60 seconds- one minute." I was getting a little nervous. She came up at 68!
That seemed quite a feat for a six year old. I firmly explained to her the danger of holding her breath in the water- that she was only to do it with Daddy working with her. She said "Or another grownup." I said no, only me. She agreed.
It appears we have a budding new diver.
Jim
After she finished the series of lessons I had promised to take her snorkeling. Today I gave her a mask, snorkel, and fins set and she tried them out in the pool. Foolishly I didn't bring fins and spent the day wearing myself out trying to keep up. The girl is a fish.
We worked on clearing the snorkel, clearing the mask, etc. I'm going to get her a snorkeling flotation vest because her kayaking PFD makes her float upright instead in a horizontal position.
As we were getting ready to head home, she wanted to try holding her breath. She took a breath. I carefully watched her and was quite impressed when she went 35 seconds before surfacing. Almost double her prior record!
She asked me again how long my teacher from last summer could hold his breath- I said Martin had gone 8:06 but that was a world record. She asked how long I had gone and I said about 5:00.
Hearing that she wanted to try again. This time I coached her through a good relaxed breathe up. 45 seconds!
Still she wasn't done. Another try and she got to 56 seconds. At this point I was ready to go home but she really wanted to go a full minute. Again with a good breathe up but she blew bubbles at 20 seconds and came up at 30.
I figured all was well and good- but she said "One more try daddy". Okay. Again, a good coached breathe up. She went down and seemed quite relaxed. I called out the time- "15 seconds... 30 seconds ... 40 seconds ... 50 seconds ... 60 seconds- one minute." I was getting a little nervous. She came up at 68!
That seemed quite a feat for a six year old. I firmly explained to her the danger of holding her breath in the water- that she was only to do it with Daddy working with her. She said "Or another grownup." I said no, only me. She agreed.
It appears we have a budding new diver.
Jim
