Anonymous wrote:Immigrant here. I’ve noticed that Americans seem to prefer lounging by the pool or sitting out on chairs at the beach, rather than actually swimming in the ocean. If they do go in, it’s just for a short period or to get their feet wet. In my country, we actually go in deep and spend time swimming or just hanging out in the water. Why don’t most Americans do this too? I know most of you (middle class and above) learn to swim so what’s with the Pool/ Sun bathing preference?

As the mom of a winter surfer, I will just say that floating around in water isn't super-fun, but actually doing something in it, like surfing, paddleboarding, etc. is. There are tons of people out surfing at Ocean City in the winter time, when the lifeguards are gone and the waves are much better.

For me, there is nothing fun about sitting in the hot sun. Nothing. So I will be in the water. But I prefer laps in a pool than just hanging out in an ocean.

Jellyfish.

Agree - cold & big scary waves. I live on west coast, and I only dip my feet in.

Sand, cannot control waves so dangerous, dirty, dead people and animals on water……..

Anonymous wrote:Immigrant here. I’ve noticed that Americans seem to prefer lounging by the pool or sitting out on chairs at the beach, rather than actually swimming in the ocean. If they do go in, it’s just for a short period or to get their feet wet. In my country, we actually go in deep and spend time swimming or just hanging out in the water. Why don’t most Americans do this too? I know most of you (middle class and above) learn to swim so what’s with the Pool/ Sun bathing preference?

I understand what you're saying OP and realize it's an over generalization but I've also noticed upper class people not raised near a beach aren't too fond of oceans and prefer pools. If they do the beach it's for an hour or so then they relocate to the pool. MC/UMC people often learn to swim in pools from an early age and take swimming lessons in pools. When they go to the beach the parents would rather not deal with the sand and heat and prefer to lay by the pool sipping margaritas while the kids swim. Since the kids are used to pool swimming this doesn't take much work for the parents after about age 5 and the parents get more of a vacation feel. No lugging sand toys and beach chairs and tracking sand back into the hotel room, another generalization- many UMC people have a thing about their kids getting too dirty. Now the kids don't really care either way usually because they have little to no experience with the ocean and pools are familiar. As long as you give a kid water to swim in and some quarters to dive for they're happy for hours. There's also less whining about the salt hurts my eyes, I have sand in my hoo ha, etc. Basically it's the easy way out which is what most parents want on vacation, especially if they gave the nanny the week off.

My family was poor growing up. We didn't have a pool, you wanted swimming you put on old sneakers and went to the river. We took once a year beach trips and stayed in some seedy places with tiny sketchy pools or no pools. We didn't have money for extra activities, the beach was the activity. We would pack a cooler with lunch meat for sandwiches, breakfast was pop tarts or cereal, dinner was fast food or more sándwiches. We couldn't afford beach chairs and just used the same towels for years. I had the same bucket and shovel my entire childhood. We were at the beach everyday from about 8-12, then lunch and a break, and beach again from 2-6.

Now my mom couldn't swim and would lay on the beach all day reading. She would get in the shallow end of pool or put her feet in the ocean but that was it. My dad had a military mindset and taught all of us kids to swim in the ocean and made it a "thing" that we understand how swimming in the ocean is different from swimming in a pool. From about age 4 (i was tall) I was always right next to him anytime he was in the ocean. He really wanted us to understand how the ocean works and be confortable and not just teach us to swim. He taught us about tides and currents and timing waves. He taught us how to find sandbars to stand on and keep your footing in rough currents, how to know what time it is by the location of the sun, how to know if you should jump a wave or go under it, how to catch your breath instead of panicking when you get hit by consecutive waves. He taught us to find an orientation spot and stick to it and use it to judge how fast the under current is moving and what direction. He taught us to watch the clouds and feel the current change to know if a storm's coming. He taught us to look for dark patches of water that could be fish or sharks or jellyfish. He taught us how to deal with getting knocked down, spun around, disoriented, and find your way back to the surface and then get knocked down again without panicking. He taught us how to not fear stronger current trying to take you away from shore and taught us how to swim out of it to calmer waters. He didn't just take us out in calm baby waves either, each year we were expected to swim in rougher, but safe, waters. It was his way of teaching us to respect but not fear the ocean. And of course he taught us the most important lesson-never turn your back on the waves.

So to this day I cannot swim terribly well in a pool, I don't know a front stroke from a breast stroke and still have to hold my nose underwater. But I can doggy paddle and float and kick and swim any which way I can out of a treacherous ocean situation. There were many memories created, sand castles built, sand in unmentionable places, and lessons learned beyond swimming on those beach trips. To this day I'd much rather just go stand in the ocean riding waves for a couple hours than sit on a lounge chair next to a pool. Teaching a kid to swim in the ocean takes a lot of work, diligence, and some knowledge of the ocean yourself. It takes years of teaching and practice before a kid can go out there by themselves even with a lifeguard on duty. Quite frankly most parents are just lazy or don't want to put in that kind of effort on their vacation. Many are scared of the ocean themselves and instill that same fear in their children.

I've had many friends in my adult life that I went on beach vacations with, usually raised MC or UMC, that had never been in the ocean or had a fear of the ocean despite never going in. Majority of them went in and loved the ocean once they spent a week with me teaching them the ropes. They understandably couldn't tolerate more than an hour at a time and needed calmer waters but they usually said they really enjoyed it and wished they'd tried it earlier in life.

So go find some friends that are inexperienced with the ocean, OP, and give them a new experience. Chances are they don't even know what they're missing.

Not clean

OP, you are nuts

^^not OP

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Immigrant here. I’ve noticed that Americans seem to prefer lounging by the pool or sitting out on chairs at the beach, rather than actually swimming in the ocean. If they do go in, it’s just for a short period or to get their feet wet. In my country, we actually go in deep and spend time swimming or just hanging out in the water. Why don’t most Americans do this too? I know most of you (middle class and above) learn to swim so what’s with the Pool/ Sun bathing preference?

DCUM never lets me down with inane threads and posts. Yours is near the top! Thanks!

This is funny to me because as an immigrant, my family has always remarked how weird it is that so many Americans seem to hate getting in the water. Not sure why people here are getting so defensive about it, it’s just something us immigrants notice, that’s all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which beaches have you been to in the US? What beaches have you been to outside the US?

Answer this Op. Otherwise you're stirring the pot with generalizations and bashing

FFS, it’s ALL beaches! Why is that so hard to understand?? (DP).

Anonymous wrote:https://www.wtkr.com/news/after-drownings-in-virginia-beach-lifeguards-caution-swimmers


Felch says that lifeguards are trained to see the signs of distress if any drownings happen. But just last weekend no one saw those signs. Two people drowned near Shore Drive, where there are no lifeguards around.

"Don't overestimate your swimming ability," said Felch.

Felch also says a lot of people like to walk on the sand bars, but those can be dangerous. Just last week, lifeguards at the Oceanfront reunited 60 kids with their families and rescued 18 swimmers.

"What will happen is you'll have a quick drop off where the sandbars ended and it's back to deep water," said Felch.


https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/boy-found-dead-after-going-swimming-in-chesapeake-baby-virginia-beach/65-4864c5b6-69a0-408b-a113-57d4d43aed6f

https://www.wptv.com/news/national/officials-child-man-drown-in-separate-incidents-at-virginia-beach

On some days, the currents are deadly if you aren't a professional swimmer.

The two drownings happened in the Chesapeake Bay side not the ocean side. Sadly, there were no lifeguards on that side.

I live by the ocean and the surfers call sharks The Landlord.

We also have riptides and sneaker waves. I will kayak n the ocean when it's calm, but I only ever jump in the waves. Too scary for me!

I’m a strong swimmer, have done open water triathlons, and actually swim for exercise at the beach, but it still kind of freaks me out (and I’m generally not a nervous person). I love the ocean in concept but waves and currents kind of freak me out.

Our beaches near DC are very cold. Children usually swim a lot, I know I did as a child for hours. Adults, not so much. Perhaps the Mediterranean Sea is warmer.

I used to go in the ocean and swim a bit as a teenager until a riptide pulled me and my friend out. It was very scary and luckily both of us were rescued. I will go in to the ocean and get wet but that's it.