If I’m an adult who wants to experience splashing around and wading round the pool, but whose swimming capabilities extend as far as doggy paddling to safety and floating on my back - what can I even do to have fun at the pool?

What do you do at the pool?

Bonus round: kind of out of my budget to pay for swimming classes, and available friends & family are nil. :c
But I borrowed a life jacket from a coworker, and could buy cheap floaties or a pool noodle.

  • ccunning@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 months ago

    most Western people will float above the bottom of their nose

    Is that true of salt and fresh water? I’m pretty comfortable floating around in salt water but have grown paranoid with age about fresh water.

    • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
      0·
      2 months ago

      It kind of depends on how much of your body is densely packed fat or muscle, but in a still pool I’ve never managed to float in a way that didn’t at least let me float with my mouth above the water.

      I wouldn’t recommend anyone to go into the deep end of a pool without at least basic swimming skills, but if you can manage to remain calm, you can keep yourself from drowning pretty well, at least until help arrives.

      If you can swim and want to try this out, please try not to look like a drowning person, or you’ll end up being dragged out of the water by a lifeguard (or at least get called out). The human body has an instinctive drowning response that doesn’t look at all like drowning people in the movies, and keeping your head just above the water can easily make you look like a drowning victim if you’ve got your arms side to side.

    • SolidGrue@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      People are more buoyant in salt water because it has higher molar mass. Humans on average are about 90% density of water by mass so about 10% of your frame would float above the surface, which is generally enough to expose your nose. Of course you can articulate your neck, float on your back, tread water…

      Salinity also matters. Salty water you might be up to 3% or 5% more buoyant, pound for pound, compared to fresh water.

      Really, it depends on how fat and how salty, but generally the difference is less than 5% by mass.

      • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
        0·
        2 months ago

        My grandfather was an old-skool, wiry, dirt-farmer. He was unable to float above the surface in Utah’s Great Salt Lake.

        I aspire to be that compactly muscular.