Have been going for swimming for more than a month now, but day-before-yesterday I went in to the deep portion of the swimming pool. It was a nice, rather interesting, experience and I was really excited to reach the other end and then come back to the shallow part of the pool.
So to repeat my feat, I went into the pool yesterday again. Had no idea of what was going to happen. Reached the last point quite comfortably and was happy to have done it again. Then an idea came to my mind. Why don't I try to stay afloat without any support? And so I tried it.
First few seconds, it was okay as I managed to stay on top easily but very soon things started to get worse. Now I knew I was going down. And by this time, I had gone a little too far away from the pool walls so couldn't even cling onto any of them. So to save myself from drowning (in 20ft waters), I started to move my hands very-very fast in the hope that the force will bring me upwards but this caused a lot of splash and was noticed by some life-guards standing next to the pool. One of them ran towards me with a wooden stick in hand to help me. However, by the time he reached close to me I had managed to save myself. He growled at me, passed a few stares and left. I was happy and sad. Sad because I could have been drowned... happy that I managed to avoid it.
Anyway, by now all life-guards (4-5 of them) knew about me and were looking at me. Since I was at the deep end of the pool, I decided to go back to the shallow end to have some rest there. I practice breast-stroke style of swimming and in that you need a very good rythm of air intake and exhale. I generally do it very comfortably and smoothly without any hiccups, but nothing helps if it's not your day.
While coming back, I somehow lost the rythm in between and a few drops of water entered my mouth and went straight into my wind pipe... SHIT... As soon as it went into the wind pipe, I got restless, lost my balance and was again in deep waters, struggling for my life. Once again, I found myself far away from the walls. This time I really paniced and thought I was on my way to join my deceased neighbor but thank god I realised that it was no time to panic and that I should be helping myself... again. So with all my power, I pushed the water downwards and tried to come out once, so that
- I can take one long breath which will hopefully make things much easier for me.
- Judge whether I should go forward and reach for the shallow pool or should I try to go the pool wall.
The moment I reached the pool wall and clinched it, the life-guard started shoutung at me telling me to go back into the shallow pool immediately and not to come back into the deep waters for the next three days.
I knew what happened should not have happened and therefore did not reply to any of his comments. I realized he was right in what he said, but was I really at fault? Later, that guard came to me and politely told me what happened should never have happened and what could have happened if...
I was very angry with myself, so to vent it out, I started swimming without taking any rest between the swims. After I had crossed the pool width three times to-and-fro, my hands started paining so much that I had to take some rest. During this time, I recalled all the events that had happened and decided that I wasn't going to do any silly things in the deep before I master the art of swimming.
Today when I went back into the pool, I stayed away from the rope dividing the shallow part from the deep part. Just enjoyed swimming in shallow and attended some under-water lectures by Guru Kaushik Ramajayam Ji. Also bunked a few of his lectures ;-)
