This was our first Lake Michigan trip in 4 years. It was a triumphant return in many ways–the sand was comfortable, and the water was warm, which is a never in Lake Michigan. But the beach that we visited had very big rocks on the lake floor, making it too painful for the little children to venture in.

The baby would go in if I carried her. Then she’d try to get bold and have me let go of her. The waves were ever present, but mild. There was sand deeper in the water, but it was hard to get to, especially holding a baby. She just kicked and kicked and squirmed the whole time in the water.

We had a large group of black folk at the lake. Three women and 14 children descended on the beach. (Swim count: 2/3 adults could swim, 4/6 children, and 4/5 teens can swim). Four of the five teenagers looked like superheroes as they strolled into the water. The fifth teen was there under duress, not happy to be there at all. He kept his t-shirt on when forced into the lake to take care of his little brother. Later, a seagull came and pooped on him. His mother said that the poop mirrored his poopy attitude. It was ironic humor or something–sarcastic humor? Satire? You can’t make these things up.

I’ve been threatening to take the kids to my sister-in-law’s pool for weeks. Turns out, the pool wasn’t ready for us until the 4th, when they invited us for a pool party. It was right on time, as the weather was to be 90 degrees and humid.

The temperature didn’t disappoint, and all 6 kids were happy to jump in. I have different levels of swimmers, so it is challenging to watch them all. My lifeguard certified daughter had just gotten her hair done, so she didn’t swim, but got wet, took care of her younger non-swimming siblings, and pined for actual swimming. I got a kick out of this, as she tries to pretend that she doesn’t like to swim. I didn’t say, “I knew you liked swimming!” or anything else snotty. I just made a mental note of it.

My 15 year old son is another one who pretends to hate swimming, but I noticed how he did cannonballs, critiqued his little sisters’ swimming, and challenged them to races. It was a delight to watch him swim again–this time as a big boy. He swam competitively from the age of 8 until 11.

The little girls, who took swimming lessons from the age of 3 until 6 and 4, surprised me, especially the 8 year old. She has had fewer swim lessons, and never really learned any stroke, but she is very competitive and athletic. This is my only child who wants to do a triathlon (like her mother!). But she doesn’t swim well enough to do one this summer. My older son is the only child that could compete in the YMCA child’s triathlon this year, and he is completely uninterested. I digress. When my 8 year old heard that she wasn’t ready for the swim portion of a triathlon, she knew she wanted to practice in a pool. She was so excited to get her chance.

She was jumping off the diving board, racing her 10 year old sister, and beating her, despite the fact that the 8 year old had to hold on to the side of the pool in order to breathe. She doesn’t know rotary breathing or true freestyle yet, but she was pulling like a freestyle and swimming underwater for long periods of time before needing a breath. We may make a swimmer of her yet!

The littlest children, who are non-swimmers, were very enthusiastic as well. They splashed around with various flotation devices, both children wanting desperately to learn how to swim. The 2 year old could paddle around with her butterfly cube and floaties. Her 6 year old brother preferred sitting in floating chairs and using two noodles. I will be glad to count him among the swimmers! I better sign them up for lessons this summer. It’s not fun trying to keep the non-swimmers out of the pool!

If you have more photographic proof, post it on Diversity in Aquatics. They’re busting that blacks don’t swim myth.

So we were invited to a birthday party today. It was an outdoor party, held at a camp. I knew they were going to swim, but with basketball, archery, and other activities, I didn’t expect to find anyone in the water for long. We were running late, I didn’t have my teenage helpers, I had just gotten my hair done, so I’d decided my kids wouldn’t swim.

Easier said than done. All the other kids were splashing around in the water. My children were soon discontent with just wading. The baby waded in up to her butt almost immediately and got her pants all wet. I stayed firm about her. If I couldn’t take her in the water, she wasn’t going. The other kids borrowed swim suits and joined their friends. My 6 year old son put on a life jacket like all the other small children at the party. My 8 and 10 year old girls, who have had swim lessons, swam without flotation devices. That was the only swimming I saw out there.

I know the bigger boys must have done something to get out to the deep water platform; I just didn’t see them swim there. There were some College student helpers in boats, on platforms, etc. I assumed that the wet one was the lifeguard. I would have taken my daughter if she hadn’t just gotten her hair done.

I spent most of my beach time chasing my 2 year old away from the water. She would have jumped in in a hearbeat if I’d let her.

Everyone obviously loved the water, and they all had a ball. They just didn’t know how to swim. How often have you seen that? It’s like every hot day, black folks go to pools and lakes to splash around, not to swim. It’s so dangerous, even with a life jacket.

And we wonder why the drowning rate is so high. . .

My daughter has been lifeguarding rather than teaching lately. I have been swimming during part of her shift lately, but yesterday I just dropped her off and picked her up. When I arrived to pick her up, I pointed out the lifeguard to my 6 year old son. We noticed that she was a different girl. I was looking around trying to find my daughter when my son said, “There she is!” And sure enough, my daughter was in the water, teaching a lesson.

She was excited, because lifeguarding makes her want to get in the water so bad she can taste it. Also, she got to teach a couple private lessons, which pay much better than group lessons.

She shared with me the challenges of one of her students. He was a young boy, 6 or so, who would eagerly copy everything my daughter showed him to do. The problem was when he would immediately start trying to float on his back while she was still telling him what to do. My daughter learned not to directly model what to do, but to tell him everything they would do before sending him on his way to practice the new skill.

Her student was eager to swim a length of the pool, but my daughter wasn’t sure he was ready. She broke the length of the pool up into digestible chunks, and before they knew it, she and her student had made it all the way to the deep end. He asked her how deep the water was. “Nine feet,” she told him. “Hey, Dad!” her student yelled, “Can you stand up in nine feet?”

This is not a theme I want to recur, ie., I stay out of the pool so long I can’t stand it anymore, then I return and happily blog about it. That sounds like the recipe for standing still, or worse, getting behind.

But I had to work out some issues before I could see clear to go swimming again. So, today, I tagged along with my daughter when she went to work. She was a lifeguard for three hours; I thought I could swim during one of those. I was so proud going to the lifeguard to ask which lane I could swim in. No matter that the pool schedule said there’d be just one lane available for lap swim; there were actually four available lanes.

My watch is broken. The watch face is loose and sometimes it pops out altogether. I could feel the pressure of the water on my watch as I swam my first lap. I took it off after that, and looked at it after every lap. I turned on the timer before my 100 IM and quickly pressed the start button and pushed off the wall for my butterfly. I pushed myself hard for the whole IM and then pressed the button when I was done. The time read 0.00. I hadn’t pressed start properly!

I have been out of the pool long enough that today was tough for me. I feel like I’m not floating as well either. Maybe, I think wistfully, I’ve lost some of my fat. Of course I asked my daughter to analyze my stroke. My swim insecurity is relentless. She told me that I move too much during my freestyle breathing. I am currently tilting my whole body on my freestyle breathing to get maximum air. I’ll have to tone that down a bit and see how that works. I still found myself panting like a dog after my first freestyle lap.

Later on in my set I had an easier time with freestyle, but I never try to swim 100 after my warm up. There’s still so much room for improvement. But I was very glad to make it back to the pool. I swam 1000 yards and got out, shoulders a bit sore.

It was a great start to the day, and I look forward to doing this again next Saturday.