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https://www.patreon.com/ulillillia --- If the me from 20 years ago could look into the future and saw this moment, the old me would think that that is someone else. Back then, I wouldn't have even touched a puddle, let alone swim in water 40 feet deep. For the last almost 18 years, I've been comfortable being in water up to my neck, but I never bothered to go out where it was deep as I moved way too slowly and exhausted too quickly. Today, I'm comfortable being in deep water where I can't touch bottom without going under (in this case, way under).

For the most part, I'm generally self taught for swimming. From learning physics, I questioned the physics of swimming and I figured out sevearl things from that. I learned floating, treading (with my arms only), going underwater (in shallow areas only, where I can touch bottom from simply standing on it), and I could use my arms to move about on the surface. I never used my legs, outside walking on the bottom, as I never understood the physics behind why the legs actually provide propulsion (even to today, I still don't understand the physics behind it but from observation, I have a few ideas). I also needed nearly a half hour to adjust to the water temperature, even as much as an hour.

When I went to Florida, I visited a spring where I saw water visibility being so clear that it really changed my perception of water outdoors. I've only thought that water outdoors was never better than 5 feet for visibility. The spring was at least 300 feet as it was so clear that I could see sharp texture details on the bottom 4 feet below. However, because I couldn't go out into the deep area, I felt like I didn't really get to experience the real beauty of the spring and it made me feel very bad. I had the urge, a huge urge, to get into deep water swimming but was often too afraid to go out. I had some previous experience, but I quickly returned to where I could touch again. From there, the friend I visited taught me kicking. I've observed him and I saw how it was actually working. I've never had a worthwhile swimming buddy until that moment, literally, because no one around me even has any interest in swimming so I'm stuck being on my own, another reason why I didn't want to bother with the deep stuff.

Then came a camping trip about 3 weeks later. I really wanted to get into deep water, becoming more comfortable with it. I also wanted to try out the quick immersion method for adjusting to the water temperature. I started out with a few quick immersions in deep water by going over the edge of a paddleboat to get some more taste of being in deep water and see how effective the quick immersion method was. It turned out to be far more effective. I can get out into the deep stuff in the matter of not 30 minutes like before, but 30 seconds, if that. After 2 cases of doing it with my friend going in with me, I did the third case on my own where, for the first time ever, I really swam in deep water, kicking, treading (my favorite thing to do), and floating (for resting). After a quick break, I wanted to get comfortable being in deep water so I set a goal of being in it for at least 15 minutes. I managed to do that successfully and with that, I was officially comfortable being in deep water. Whether the water is 8 feet deep or 8000 feet deep, it doesn't matter - it's handled the same way, unless you're doing diving.

From using my parents' boat, I wanted to practice deep water swimming. I was over an area about 41 feet deep. When I first went in, I wasn't scared at all any more. I was only nervous about the quick immersion into the cold, 69°F water. The parents' depth finder indicates where fish are, the water temperature, and the water depth which is how I knew I was in water 41 feet deep. Even just 1 year ago, I would have found being in that very scary. Nope, not at all scary now! I, at last, was comfortable being in deep water, and I wanted to record a video of me being out in the deep stuff, showing off my latest water skills. In fact, I actually like deep water swimming slightly more than near-shore swimming. I might like it even more once I fine tune various things such as the out of sync treading (I tend to not have my arms and legs synchronized and my legs sometimes even stop). I still need to practice surface diving, but other than that, I'm now ready to handle the spring I went to, to see it in its full glory that I missed out on. What a huge change from 20 years ago!

Full description (too long for youtube): http://pastebin.com/raw/zbdE2bTg