Time to get wet. Before I rocked on up to Dive HQ to get the swimming cert ($7!) I thought I'd better spend some time in the pool. Thankfully there's one at the Gym (Baywave), or more accurately the gym's part of the pool complex.
One of the requirements is to tread water for 5 minutes staying within a 1 metre circle radius. You get marked on how much of you consistently stays out of the water.
Piece of cake. Off I head to the pool and see how well I can tread water. Being a surfer for 25 years and loving water I don't see any problems....
Well, it's amazing how long 5 minutes is when your legs are crying out and you can't just stop and float on your back or grab the side of the pool. Especially the last minute.
I am now a bit worried about this. A Google results in a method for treading water known as the 'eggbeater'. Used by water polo and synchronised swimmers it is designed to keep you upright and afloat efficiently. Your legs are supposed to bend at the knees, and rotate in opposite directions, one clockwise, the other counter-clockwise. You sort of sit in the water with your thighs parallel to the surface.
This is like rubbing your stomach and patting your head. I'm having a hell of a time getting my legs in synch for 5 minutes. Meanwhile the other people at Baywave look at this un-co, flapping and splashing away in the corner of the wave pool and wonder whether to throw me a life ring!
Diving 3 metres, picking up a brick and swiming with that on my chest for 10 metres is easy. Swimming 50 metres in 54 seconds is no sweat. I timed myself at 40 seconds.
Just have to practice treading water. Damn.
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