Post #2213502
2026-05-08 09:11 UTC
Replies (20)
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@xssfox@cloudisland.nz 2026-05-08 09:18
@blinry@chaos.social you can get nose clip thingies to stop water going into your nose. I don't have this reaction at all so I'm no help but my first thought is, have you tried breathing out through your nose while swimming, it might avoid some of the discomfort by ensuring that water isn't even able to enter?
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@GustavinoBevilacqua@mastodon.cisti.org 2026-05-08 09:18
@blinry@chaos.social I don't remember, since before the Apollo program I dive with open eyes without any problem. There is always a lot of interesting things a few meters under the surface of the sea!
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@uint8_t@chaos.social 2026-05-08 09:18
@blinry@chaos.social have you considered a snorkel? it decouples the ability of breathing from the sensation of having your head submerged. I have one snorkel that is positioned in the middle of my forehead instead of sideways and can be used for freestyle swimming (:
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@fastness@mastodon.social 2026-05-08 09:19
@blinry@chaos.social I found I had to exhale continuously to manage it, initially through the nose but, oddly, eventually I found I could also exhale through the mouth and somehow my lizard brain felt that was ok? It only worked for breaststroke though, I never managed to do it consistently for crawl
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@TheSecondVariation@graz.social 2026-05-08 09:21
@blinry@chaos.social the usual things are easy when you are young, then again I have friends and family who started to loath water from a very young age (especially in the nose). I guess I was always attracted to water very much, but might also have to do with how the parents approach it. I feel like for me they just went like water is awesome go for it, whereas for some of my friends they were like, so this is really dangerous and you need to do this and that and if this happens you do that giving them a one hour speech before they were allowed to dip a toe into the water. I relate to this very much though because I started swimming this year in 12 - 14 ° C water and was not sure if it is even possible, but I went up to 25 minutes and had a lot of fun. It lightens up the mood so much. Anyways I had people with me for the first couple of times to be save, people shouldn't try this alone.
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@JigmeDatse@social.openpsychology.net 2026-05-08 09:22
@blinry@chaos.social It was a long time ago, and I had similar experience with not really being able to do a "good enough" job. It sort of ended up being a bit of a special interest, I think once I had some people who were wanting to teach finer points of swimming. I don't really remember how I learned though.
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@foosel@chaos.social 2026-05-08 09:24
@blinry@chaos.social from what my parents tell me, I spent more time under water than above water in the kiddie pool, even long before I could swim. Water for some reason clicked with, diving especially. I do remember worrying about water entering my nose but figuring out early on that it couldn't do that when blowing bubbles out of my nose. So to this day I push out a tiny amount of air when I go under, stop when my face looks forward or down, but start again when I look up or dive down.
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@TheSecondVariation@graz.social 2026-05-08 09:25
@blinry@chaos.social Oh and regarding the water going into the nose, you can train to push out just enough air through your nose so there is no water going into your nose. I don't really know how to get rid of that fear though. Maybe you exhale more than you need at the beginning and then slowly decrease. If you are just upright there is no need for it at all and the more you tilt the more you need breath out. I guess that is a lot of obvious stuff, but just to be sure.
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@blindcoder@toot.berlin 2026-05-08 09:37
@blinry@chaos.social I couldn't swim as a kid, and has difficulties learning to swim as a kid. So my grandpa ( ❤️ ), who was active in the German Red Cross, got a children's scuba set, put it on me and went to the public swimming pool. Spent days there just being underwater, breathing canned air. After that, I was very much less afraid of water and at least learned to stay afloat. Only as an adult I learned to "properly" swim.
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@moho1@social.troll.academy 2026-05-08 09:42
@blinry@chaos.social oh, I had the same issue when trying to learn crawl swimming and never really got around it (but also am not really regularly swimming). Not that much of a problem to explicitly dive (but never managed long times), but more splashing water into the nose / eyes (?) and managing to breath enough to actively swim. Maybe I should try again to learn this?
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@bix@chaos.social 2026-05-08 09:56
Deleted because I don’t really know what I am doing 😂 Deleted 😂 Ask a certified trainer what the breathing techniques are.
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@zweifeln@chaos.social 2026-05-08 10:05
@blinry@chaos.social I'm a certified life guard (well never worked as one but ages ago I made that course to be able t work as one. It would need refreshing to work though.) I'm a decent swimmer, trying to go once a week. Getting water up your nose is awful. Always. I hate it. But it doesn't happen often. For swimming (in opposition to diving) the key is to constantly breath out, when under water. (And breath in when over water.) It needs practice. But at some point it becomes "natural".
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@revk@toot.me.uk 2026-05-08 10:12
@blinry@chaos.social I never had issues swimming or my face under water. But I absolutely failed at snorkelling - I could not make myself breath with my face underwater. The instructor spent some time and still now luck.
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@bassistance@chaos.social 2026-05-08 11:00
@blinry@chaos.social In the last two months I had two swimming lessons for breast stroke. I could do that before, but I was very far from doing it "right". I think I ended up changing 95% of my movements and rhythm. So I'd highly recommend a good teacher, along with plenty practice on your own, in between lessons.
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@extmind@chaos.social 2026-05-08 11:09
@blinry@chaos.social For me, I noticed when going swimming after quite some years not going, I needed ~30min to get back into the rhythm of breathing. Once it aligns with your movements, the water stays out of your way, kind of automatically. But how to get there initially, I don't know. There's some technique to it that can be learned. But fundamentally, maybe it's just getting used to it. (Though people also say that about jumping in with your head first. That still seems completely absurd to me.)
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@don@chaos.social 2026-05-08 13:19
@blinry@chaos.social Good question, but I can't remember, that was way to long ago. But I do remember us doing those exercises when doing scuba diving tryouts.
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@dasnessie@chaos.social 2026-05-08 16:50
@blinry@chaos.social I put on *all* of the protective gear at the beginning. Wax for the ears, nose clip, swim cap, and big snorkeling goggles. The nose clip got annoying after a while, and I was more comfortable with my face in the water by then, so I'm not using that anymore, but googles and ear plugs are staying (public pools are loud! And I don't like water in my ears, or my eyes). I'll still wear the cap if I feel like it, mostly to protect my hair and for not losing the earplugs.
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@dj3ei@mastodon.radio 2026-05-09 06:13
I was forced into swimming lessons as a schoolboy and largely hated it. Not good at it, either. Sports at school was 95% humiliation and at most 5% fun. Learned diving sort-of like you do now, by myself, in shallow water, on my own, in my own pace. For me, the issue was opening my eyes under water. Years later, voluntarely took a course to learn different ways to swim. Never learned the crawl, though, as I was suffering from a common cold when that was taught. @blinry@chaos.social
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@blinry@chaos.social 2026-05-28 15:50
I'm now in week 4 of Ruth Kazez' training plan to swim 1500 meters straight! It's really fun! I made this diagram showing how the plan is structured for myself, maybe it can be useful for someone! :) Read more about it here: https://blinry.org/visual-0-to-1500/
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@M0CUV@mastodon.radio 2026-05-29 11:17
@blinry@chaos.social it took ages, but breathing in, lowering head into water, slowly breathing out & sensing the bubbles passing over my face, then repeating… eventually got me over it. It’s an instinct you have to overcome, takes patience.