Finally, we snorkellers have our own forum here on Deeper Blue and I for one intend to make the most of the opportunity. I have snorkelled here in the UK and abroad in continental Europe and North America since the late 1950s, never experiencing the desire along the way to venture into either freediving or scuba diving.
Snorkelling is an ideal pastime for me because of its spontaneity. I used to visit my brother in the Upper Midwest of the USA every summer, taking in a brief side-trip each time during my stay. One year I found myself in the coastal resort of La Jolla north of San Diego in California. While walking along the seafront, I passed the famous La Jolla Cove with its scores of snorkellers swimming among shoals of colourful fish. There was a store nearby where I was able to purchase a mask, a snorkel and a pair of simple full-foot rubber fins. Within the hour, I was enjoying myself in the cool waters of the Pacific Ocean alongside many other likeminded snorkellers, both young and old.
But I digress. During the 1950s, I was a perpetual non-swimmer in a school with its own swimming pool. The swimming teacher had us half the time holding on to the side of the pool, kicking vigorously, and the other half trying to cross the pool, holding kickboards while trying to push ourselves off the bottom. None of this worked for me and I inevitably ended up choking with mouthfuls of chlorine water. My parents chanced to provide me with a copy of "The Seventh Eagle Annual", which was an absorbing read for boys back in 1957. It contained what was for me an enthralling article entitled "Teach yourself to swim underwater". After reading it, I was completely smitten and I asked my parents whether I could have some fins to help me learn how to swim on the surface and later underwater. They duly bought me a pair and shod with those fins, my legs delivered sufficient power for me to push myself off the bottom of the pool and to complete my first "breadth". Having achieved this, I soon mastered swimming without fins. Before long, I complemented my fins with a Typhoon mask and snorkel, the same make as the masks and snorkel illustrated in the article. And the rest, as they say, is history.
The illustrated "Teach yourself to swim underwater" article by Graham Pearce in "The Seventh Eagle Annual" of 1957 that propelled me all those years ago into the wonderful world of snorkelling can be viewed below. I wonder whether any of you can similarly trace your own snorkelling beginnings back to a particular "how-to" article or book?
Snorkelling is an ideal pastime for me because of its spontaneity. I used to visit my brother in the Upper Midwest of the USA every summer, taking in a brief side-trip each time during my stay. One year I found myself in the coastal resort of La Jolla north of San Diego in California. While walking along the seafront, I passed the famous La Jolla Cove with its scores of snorkellers swimming among shoals of colourful fish. There was a store nearby where I was able to purchase a mask, a snorkel and a pair of simple full-foot rubber fins. Within the hour, I was enjoying myself in the cool waters of the Pacific Ocean alongside many other likeminded snorkellers, both young and old.
But I digress. During the 1950s, I was a perpetual non-swimmer in a school with its own swimming pool. The swimming teacher had us half the time holding on to the side of the pool, kicking vigorously, and the other half trying to cross the pool, holding kickboards while trying to push ourselves off the bottom. None of this worked for me and I inevitably ended up choking with mouthfuls of chlorine water. My parents chanced to provide me with a copy of "The Seventh Eagle Annual", which was an absorbing read for boys back in 1957. It contained what was for me an enthralling article entitled "Teach yourself to swim underwater". After reading it, I was completely smitten and I asked my parents whether I could have some fins to help me learn how to swim on the surface and later underwater. They duly bought me a pair and shod with those fins, my legs delivered sufficient power for me to push myself off the bottom of the pool and to complete my first "breadth". Having achieved this, I soon mastered swimming without fins. Before long, I complemented my fins with a Typhoon mask and snorkel, the same make as the masks and snorkel illustrated in the article. And the rest, as they say, is history.
The illustrated "Teach yourself to swim underwater" article by Graham Pearce in "The Seventh Eagle Annual" of 1957 that propelled me all those years ago into the wonderful world of snorkelling can be viewed below. I wonder whether any of you can similarly trace your own snorkelling beginnings back to a particular "how-to" article or book?
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