My Tioman Honeymoon - where i started thinking of learning to swim

If you've read my blog earlier, i mentioned my Tioman Island trip when i talked about why i wanted to learn to swim. Please understand that this was 6 years ago, i look much better now :) I looked for these pics in the albums as the digital copy has long gone, and scanned them for your viewing pleasure. And yes, i didn't tell my wife about it.

My wife really loves the water, she can't wait to get on the boat!

Hmm, where is this boat.

All smiles.

On our way.

This was where we practiced.

This was where we snorkeled!

All done, until next time.

Wow, 6 years ago.

Sorry there aren't better pics. Had much less money then, some more just got married. No pics underwater, the pic quality was also not so good. We really enjoyed ourselves, but i would have enjoyed more if i could swim, giving me more confidence to explore the area. Also they didnt have the snorkel mask with optical power, so a bit blurry too. Other than that, didnt bring proper swimming attire. Will be more prepared next time, after all, it has already been 6 years!

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My prescription/optical swimming goggles have arrived!!

Its finally here, the swimming goggles I ordered from China. Actually it arrived earlier than expected, the last time I ordered something overseas on ebay it took two weeks to arrive. This time it only took a week. In my quest to learn swimming by myself I realized the importance of wearing swimming goggles. I started with a normal goggle, not just that, the cheapest one I could find to fit an adult. I wear glasses, quite high optical power too, so though a normal swimming goggle was enough to stop the irritation, it wasn’t very exciting to look around underwater and see blurry images. When I asked about prescription swimming goggles at a nearby sports/swimming accessories store they told me it was around RM90+ (about 30 dollars) and I just had to look for somewhere cheaper. The internet as always is a good place to look, and I found one for less than half that price (RM41 plus postage) on ebay.


I tested the correct prescription that I needed at the local store. Yes, act like want to buy only, hehe. They will let you test as the power (they call them diopters) ranges at least from -1 to -10 for myopics (near sightedness) and somewhere I found +1 to +8 prescription swimming goggles for those with far sightedness. You can actually get the ones where you can have different diopters for each eye, but I didn’t find out more about those and how they are priced. They gave me this set of goggle lenses for me to test and I found out -8 suits me best. After enquiring about the price, I said thank you, I will think about it, went home and ordered the correct one from ebay.

Comes with a nice casing

Looks just like any other swimming goggles

Yep, -8.00 old man's swimming goggles

Well I will have stop here as I haven’t had the chance to try them out in the pool yet. Looking forward to my next ‘learning to swim by yourself’ lesson. Tried it on and it looked like I was wearing my glasses. Can’t comment much about quality as this is only my second pair of swimming goggles, and my first one was dirt cheap. So far most of the goggles I saw, including the ones I bought had uv protection and anti fog, they also have different size nose bridge. I’ll write up something on the choice and types of swimming goggles, or if I’m lazy I’ll post a link. Also waiting for another ‘gadget’ I ordered online related to me wanting to learn to swim. Hope to post that up soon too.

Learn to swim tips 1

Ok, there will be a series of tips i will share from what i've learnt in my quest to learn swimming by myself, my first tips will be on goggles and holding your breath underwater

Wearing goggles for your swimming lessons

Well from my own experience, bringing a pair of swimming goggles along to the pool didn't seem very natural, so i always wondered whether i needed one to learn to swim. Lots of people not wearing one, so do i really need it to swim or to learn to swim? A few times i tried to open my eyes underwater and found it difficult, distracting my focus on holding my breath and being calm. What's the point of having your eyes closed, you dont expect to swim blindly do you. So i finally convinced myself that i needed goggles and got a cheap one at the local hypermart. I actually needed prescription goggles, but since they're more expensive and i'm just trying out i just got a normal one for now. Tried it at the pool, and it really did make a difference. Chlorine in the water does sting your eyes, with the goggles on i could focus on learning to swim, i didnt need to get out of the water because my eyes hurt. So the first step is to get a pair of goggles. Prescription goggles are available. Next time i'll tell you how i ordered my prescription goggles as i couldn't get it cheap locally. Told you i'm cheap. :)

My first pair of swimming goggles

Holding your breath underwater; first skill to learning swimming

Yes, there is all that familiarizing yourself with the water, feel how cold it is, etc, but the first actual skill for me to learn to swim is holding my breath underwater. Some of you reading this for no actual reason would say "what, that's not a skill". But it is! For people who have fear of water, or being submerged, it certainly is. I'm not talking about rain man dustin hoffman type of fear here, just that feeling that you'll drown, and couldnt hold my breath for a few seconds underwater type. What you need to do is relax, dont think too far, just try it step by step. You have a friend next to you. You're at the shallow part of the pool. Your hands can touch the sides of the pool. Ok, you know you can hold your breath normally, just afraid to do it underwater, thinking it is more difficult. Its not. Put on you goggles. Now the target is to hold your breath underwater for 5 seconds. Take a deep breath, hold it, submerge. 1,2,3,4,5 success! Lift your head up. There you go, not anymore difficult is it. With the goggles you could see clearly down there too didnt you? Next, do it for 10 seconds. Then 15, then 20, by now i bet you have started to feel more comfortable being 'down there', perhaps liking it, perhaps addicted to it. Try and go up to 30 seconds or start walking around a bit. Now you can hold you breath underwater. Some learn to swim tips would tell you to practice exhaling as you lift your head out of the water, inhaling quickly and submerging again. Try this too, but just make sure your friend is there. There are many other tips on holding your breath, i'll share it when i have the chance.

An article about why I want to learn to swim

*(I found this piece on the net and thought i'd share it as it was related to what i mentioned earlier)

Chai's Marine Life Blog: Snorkeling and swimming

Thursday, March 5, 2009
Snorkeling and swimming
"Must I know how to swim
before I snorkel?"

I can't pretend to be a professional - so I can only say that my personal opinion is "ideally yes".

I have been swimming quite regularly for many years before I started to snorkel. And I can see that some basic skills in swimming really help.

You see, the act of floating passively on the surface isn't hard and you don't have to know swimming to do that. But, for two reasons, I think it's good to know swimming before you snorkel:

First - more fun
If you swim well and are confident in the water, you can do a lot more than simply drifting around. For example, you can dive down as you wish and explore ledges, caves or arches near the bottom.
Also, you won't have to restrict yourself to only shallow spots near the shore anymore. You can explore spots further from shore, which may be a shallow reef that is separated from shore by deeper water. Those spots may turn out to be quite rich in marine life as they are less disturbed by the beachgoers.

Second - safer
If you swim well and are confident in the water, you are less likely to freak out when things go wrong. For example, for some reasons, you get a leg cramp. Or one of your fins threaten to come off because the fin strap has somehow become loose. Or you accidentally breathe in some water and start to cough. They all happened to me before, so I know.

Having said all that, don't forego an opportunity to go snorkeling and explore the underwater wonders just because you can't swim. Just go with someone who can keep an eye on you and go places that are safe, then you are alright.

I believe that people of all levels of swimming abilities or even the lack of it are entitled to enjoying the beauty underwater. I can promise you that it's very different from watching corals and fishes through the glass of an aquarium.


Chai's Marine Life Blog: Snorkeling and swimming

Days gone by.. when is my next swimming lesson

Well, dont know which is more difficult, for me to get into the pool to learn how to swim, or for me to log into my blog to update it. This is one reason is decided to blog about me learning to swim, sort of like to motivate me, not to abandon the plan to learn swimming by myself. You need continuous motivation when you plan to do things by yourself, that's why i havent been able to loose weight all this while. When is started I was so excited about learning to swim by myself, wont you feel great if you could teach yourself to swim? I wanted to jump in the pool everyday, but it has been two weeks since the first time i went into the pool to learn to swim.

Yep, i already done with my first swimming lesson actually, holding your breath in the pool, my first step to learn to swim by myself. Had wanted to write about that first swimming lesson in this blog, but it seems that was also a difficult task to achieve. Right now just have a few minutes to update this learn to swim blog. So hopefully i'll be back soon to talk about my first lesson. And hopefully by then i have already gone for my second swimming lesson :)

Looking back.. why i want to learn to swim

Those who had been able to swim since they can remember might even say that of course you learn swimming by yourself, yes, you jump into the water, and you swim.. that’s how you learn to swim. Unfortunately some of us are scared the hell of being submerged in water and some have been scared since they can remember. I’ve always felt sorry for myself for not being able to swim, but there was not much motivation to start learning. But then I went to Tioman Island for my honeymoon and got on a snorkeling trip. No worries, you don’t need to know how to swim to snorkel. But turned out there was a big difference. I was lost in the water, panicked and had to count on my wife, who knows a little bit of swimming, and was pretty in control. Maybe the training part was a bit lacking (budget trip lah you know) but clearly my wife did much better even though it was also her first time to snorkel.That was almost 6 years ago, and I told myself back then that I would learn swimming before our next snorkeling trip (wow, I just realized it has been that long, and we hadn’t gone for that second trip yet), but never got myself to learn to swim until now.

Around 5 years and two kids after that trip, we moved to a condo unit, and yes with a swimming pool. Now it is staring at me in the face (horror music in the background), and I can’t tell you how much I felt disadvantaged by not being able to swim. Loved to bring my two sons to the pool, my wife would also be able to swim a couple of short laps by herself as I continued to wade in the pool, playing with my two boys. Sad isn’t it?

The boys looking cute

So why haven’t I gotten a swimming instructor or attend swimming lessons? Time is a factor, and sure money is an issue, either directly or indirectly not enough resources to meet the many demands. So, as in many other things that I do, when I come across a problem and not sure how to solve it, I go online. Sure, started with looking for the cheapest swimming instructor, what kind of schedule is available and all that, but then I started thinking, is it possible to learn by myself? Probably yes in theory, but are there guides available to really do it, despite the fear? So instead of just searching learn to swim, I searched for articles about learning swimming by yourself. And the net again, did not disappoint. Okay, that’s it for now, to be continued.

My first blog post! Before i talk about learning to swim by myself.

Ehem, before i get started writing on my quest to learn to swim and therefore enjoy being in the water, allow me to note this also very important event. This is my first blog post! No, im not that old, actually the internet was very interesting during my time, hotmail came out, mirc, icq, started learning html, got myself a page on geocities, haha.. but then work caught up.. and then the internet was just there for me to get info from.. wonderful free information.. like how to learn to do stuff that you need to do.. :) also stuff that you want to do, but i have less time for that.. ;) I always wanted to blog since people started blogging, but never came to doing it.. now however there are plenty of motivation to blog, and of course, with this little life project of mine, here i am... i'm going to learn to swim, and yes i will attempt to do that without the help of an instructor, or anyone else's help in the pool.. i will learn from the help of so many wonderful people on the internet.. of course, my wife will be there in case i start to have trouble.. if anyone actually follows this blog, you will know if i succeed or fail..

"Hmm, I think i need to learn to swim"