me, myself and i - day 2

this is me
at the beach
too scared
to bodysurf

At school, I was always in the 'slow' group for swimming.  I remember swimming across the shallow end of the school pool in the regulation green and black swimsuit and those horrid rubbery swimcaps that rip your head out.  I swam in the school swimming gala because there weren't enough girls in my class - four lengths of the pool and I think all the other competitors finished before I was even halfway through.  Despite my 'failure', I can still remember how exciting it was to hear the cheers of the crowd each time I came up for air (I guess it was particularly thrilling because my participation in sporting events is limited by my lack of coordination?!).

Fourteen years later, I am still a very slow swimmer.  In spite of this, I love boats and water and was really looking forward to sharing the city beach lifestyle CNN loves so much.

BUT - this is something no one tells you about Australia - the waves here are HUGE (and a little bit scary).  I'm sure that my efforts at getting in and out of the sea provided much amusement to those at our local beach and a morning of being dumped by the waves (I think it happened about three times in twenty minutes - out, in and out again) made me a little wary of the ocean.

I took a break from swimming unless the waves were weeny and CNN was there to supervise - 'go under... NOW - look out, there's another!' etc. - it was no fun for anyone.

During the ASS weekend, I attempted the whole process of getting in and out of the water safely on my own... and survived.  I'm not sure what did it - and I like to think part of it was pluck - but I was very proud.  It's not often that I trust my body, feel competent and rise to the challenge of physical tasks.  I'm still a slow swimmer and I'm tentative when I get in and out of the sea, but I can do it.  And it feels great.