I could never learn to breathe while swimming (freestyle). Always got a mouthful of water. I can swim on my back OK. The final exam was to swim out to the instructor freestyle, flip over, and return swimming on your back. I was able to hold my breath all the way out and fake it.
You and I are exactly the same. I can swim from one side of the pool to the other holding my breath...either on the surface or underwater. I've never had any fear of diving to the bottom of the pool in the deep end, as long as I have a snorkel. So can you tread water? I can't. Once I get that first mouthful of water, it's all over. I sink like a stone. In fact, I almost drowned once.
Don't remember if I can tread water or not. I almost drowned as a kid in my cousin's pool once. First time using a snorkel. Exhaled deeply in the deep end of the pool and sank. The snorkel went below the water level and I got some water down my windpipe, panicked, and had a very hard time getting back to the top of the water. Scared the heck outta me.
I was 13 and had just cut the lawn of some lady across town. She had an in-ground pool. I was trying to teach myself how to tread water by putting Styrofoam toys at one end of the pool, swimming to them, then trying to tread water, knowing I had the flotation devices nearby...until the wind blew them to the other side. I flailed and I choked and I saw newspaper headlines of my demise (yup, as cliche as it sounds.) Fortunately, her daughter (likely late teens/early 20s) was sunbathing nearby and drug me out. The stupid thing is if I had kept my wits about me, I could have just gone underwater and kicked a few times to propel to the side of that small pool...but I was drowning!! *story shift* I was at a friend's pool party and there were some toddlers there. I was standing on the elevated deck looking down, and one of the little kids reach in the pool to get something and fell in. There was no noise. There was no splashing. There was no flailing. He just slid in and sank, motionless. Someone immediately reached in and pulled him out. It was the most frightening thing I've seen. I now understand how children can drown so easily and no one even knows. They have no clue.
iw as young when i started swimming in the river-some boys put a rope in a tree and we would swing on that and land far out in the water --the current out there was kind of swift so we had to swim quite fast to get back to shore
Age 8. Good swimmer but could never float. Some people can lie still on their backs and float all afternoon. I sink. One theory is that the higher the % of bodyfat, the easier you can float. Dunno if that's a fact or myth.
I learned at the YMCA at age eight. Swam 100 and 200 yard free style in high school and military on a competitve level, also the Individual Medley. I could deep dive well holding my breath and have done lots of scuba.