Conquering Fears: The Swim [Flashback]
By theprofessionalhobo ~ January 11th, 2010. Filed under: Australia, Flashbacks.
After returning from celebrating New Year’s at the beach, I repacked my bags and headed into the Aussie bush for a 10 day training course in guiding people bushwalking, canoeing, cycling, through ropes courses, rescue, and facilitation. I can only imagine that right now – the mid-point of the trip – I have overcome the initial pangs of withdrawal from my computer. I’m probably only twitching a few times a day, as opposed to hourly.
This course I am taking will enable me to help people conquer their fears and to open new horizons. As such, I thought it would be appropriate to relive some of my own experiences conquering fears. I have a fond spot for this article entitled Conquering Fears: The Swim, probably because reading it takes me immediately back to the experience itself with vivid recollection. Although a humourous dialogue, it is also a truthful recount of what it’s like to face and conquer an inborn fear. Please enjoy this flashback!
Although I have a history of competitive skydiving, motorcycle racing, worldwide bungee jumping, mountaineering, caving, and multi-pitch rock climbing, I am not without my fears. And as with most fears, they are irrational.
One such fear is a bit of a phobia around the ocean.
They say that you are either a mountain person or a water person. Water people feel claustrophobic in the mountains, and mountain people feel over-exposed and vulnerable on the water. Having been in both environments, I feel safe saying I am a mountain person through and through.
All this is not to say I don’t like the water. I love being near the water; it’s calming and beautiful. I was a water-baby growing up, swimming as early as the age of two. I lived in pools. When I had the chance to go to a friend’s cottage, I loved lakes too.
I also swam in the ocean growing up from time to time. No problem. No event. All good.
But…even as a child, something didn’t bode well for me in the ocean. From the crabs that wanted to nibble on my toes amidst the thick seaweed in Cape Cod, to the rip tides and currents threatening to whisk me away in Florida, I always felt I needed to be on guard in and around the ocean.
I can’t explain it entirely. That’s why they call it an irrational fear, I guess. All I can say is that I simply feel that there are too many forces that wan
t us out of the ocean for me to want to mess with them. Creatures that will bite, sting, or otherwise find creative ways to kill you. Rip tides and undertow that will drown you. Rogue waves, little waves, big waves, you name it, right down to the tides themselves. It all scares me.
But here in Hawaii I’ve made a good show of it. I’ve been boogie boarding (although it was dangerous; I got a black eye), and snorkeling and spear fishing (although I contracted a rare neurological disease in so doing).
Hmm.
Okay, so upon further inspection, maybe with my track record so far it wasn’t such a hot idea to do what I’m about to tell you I did. But I did it anyway.
—> It gets better…continue reading Conquering Fears: The Swim here! <—
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January 12th, 2010 at 2:40 am
“competitive skydiving, motorcycle racing, worldwide bungee jumping, mountaineering, caving, and multi-pitch rock climbing”
Okay you belong on ripley’s believe it or not
And I have no idea what multi-pitch rock climbing is?! But sounds like you are the adventure tip to conquer it!!
January 12th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Hi Nora
I have the same feeling about swimming, if i cannot feel the ground in the pool or ocean i don’t go further, this is even made worse by the fact that i had near drowning experience when i was young.
January 13th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
@Dave – Yes, I’ve got a bit of an adrenalin addiction! What can I say?
@Thapelo – I can totally understand why you would have a phobia, if you had a bad experience when you were young. I don’t have any such experience to attach my phobia to….mine is more of an irrational fear!
January 13th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Hey there!
Can you please explain to me what competitive skydiving is? I went tandem one time and it was pretty much the most fun ever. I’d love to get certified but it was also super expensive, do you know of any countries I could take a skydiving course for less money than in Canada?
January 14th, 2010 at 9:07 am
@Devin – When I was actively skydiving, I did something called “Relative Work”, which is the art of making formations with other people in the air while freefalling. The competitive aspect comes in when you see how many formations you can make before breaking apart to open parachutes. There are lots of different modalities of skydiving these days though….
As for inexpensive places to do it, the prices are pretty steady across the board. I got my license and did most of my jumps before the cost of gas went through the roof (about 10 years ago), so I was lucky. My only tip is if you want to commit to becoming certified, the fastest and most economical way of doing it is to take a PFF or AFF course (short for progressive freefall, or accelerated freefall)…it’s a heap of money up front, but by far the cheapest way overall.