When I learned early on at college that Roy had never learned how to swim, I was shocked, appalled even. Swimming was such a normal part of my childhood that I couldn’t believe anyone my age didn’t know how to do it – I’ve since met other non-swimmers.
I’ve never actually attempted to properly instruct Roy how to swim, though I certainly had the itch once I got him in a shallow pool in Seattle. Over the years friends of ours have attempted to teach him, but his reluctance/apathy create a non-ideal learning environment. Roy claims, without fail, each and every instance he’s sunk like a rock.
I have no reason to doubt him.
Then he should learn to hold his breath and swim underwater. Once he masters that he can move on to surfacing. That’s pretty much how I learned to swim when I was a kid. My mom kept trying to teach me to swim with my face and head out of the water but I couldn’t even dog paddle, I just kept sinking.
I finally gave up and just held my breath and started kicking my legs and moving my arms and swimming under water. I found that once I actually got the hang of moving in the water it got easier for me to swim at the surface as well.
Another option: Replace his legs with the tail of a dolphin.
You know…. for some reason, I think there might still be a learning curve following that kind of procedure.
Learning curve? You mean awesome curve. From the scales, mostly, but still.