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Old 12-02-2009, 10:25 PM
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and another from: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/vin...stories-3.html

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Wilson View Post
Here's an anecdote I've retrieved from a forum other than Scubaboard. It relates to a recent event when I was vintage snorkelling.

For many years I did my swimming in the lakes of Minneapolis in the American Upper Midwest, where I travelled each summer to spend time with my brother, who lives and works there. During the very hot summers there, an hour's dip in one of the lakes was just "what the doctor ordered".

In 2005, the doctor ordered something different, an operation to remove my cancerous prostate gland. After years of never darkening a medical practitioner's door, I found myself undergoing major abdominal surgery for the first time in my life. Fortunately for me, I had a full recovery. As I was then in my late 50s, the health professionals began to take more of an interest in me and I began to get annual checkups. I was advised during one of these sessions to take more exercise.

I've never seen any point in exercise just for the sake of it, so I decided to pursue the two physical activities that appealed to me most: walking and swimming. In the case of walking, I soon found an old colliery waggonway with agreeable views and pleasant rural surroundings, a walk several miles in length, ending with a visit to a shop where I could buy my morning newspaper. As for swimming, I tried my local swimming pool, but hated the excessive heat, the fact that I was expected to swim up and down roped-off lanes in the same boring way as I had done in my youth, and that I wasn't allowed to swim with fins, which I love using.

One early morning I decided to drive to the coast to go swimming off a sandy North Sea beach. Clad in my Hydroglove replica vintage drysuit and wearing an oval dive mask, all-rubber full-foot fins and a simple J-shaped snorkel, I enjoyed one of the best hours of my life swimming about in the waves. The bay where I swam was almost devoid of wildlife, despite public notices warning of the possible presence of seal pups and requesting dogwalkers to keep their pets under control. Strands of seaweed and a few small jellyfish were the only flora and fauna I came across and I felt pretty safe from the latter thanks to my drysuit and the fins on my feet. After my swim I emerged warm and refreshed, determined to repeat the experience each weekend morning, weather and sea-state permitting.

One subsequent weekend morning I went down to the coast for my swim in the early morning, the sun barely above the horizon. I chose to swim at dawn because I valued the solitude and I didn't like an audience. I put on my suit and other gear, walked down to the sea's edge and proceeded to swim. A while later I turned round to face the coast and spotted two policemen gazing seawards at me. They waved and I slowly came ashore. They came over and explained that they had observed me in the water and wondered what I was doing. They presumed that I was either attempting suicide or that I was a North Korean spy landing from an enemy ship far out to sea. The North Korean spy idea wasn't too far-fetched, considering I still swim with the old-fashioned black snorkelling gear that was popular in the 1950s and 1960s. The two bobbies expressed surprise that I had chosen that particular bay to swim as there were no fish, or any other wildlife for that matter, to observe. I replied that the idea was to get fit and that the glorious view of the rising sun was enough of an incentive for me to swim there and at such an early hour. The policemen and I then parted company, I relieved that I hadn't broken some obscure by-law or "health and safety" regulation, they pleased to have had a "human seal" break the monotony of their night-shift.

I've swum regularly in the same spot for over four years now, but never again have I had an encounter with our "boys in blue". However, I'm still regarded with some suspicion by the local beach dogwalkers. I'm always concerned when I see their canines being let off the leash because they always seem to rush, barking in my direction when I'm splashing away above the waves. I have to say, though, that the worst that's ever happened to me dog-wise is when one pooch picked up and ran away with one of my spare fins. The owner retrieved it and replaced it, sheepishly, on my pile of clothing.

I'm looking forward to resuming normal business as soon as spring comes round. My suit, fins, mask and snorkel are waiting in the cupboard, ready to come out of hibernation when it's time. The great thing is that I'm now retired and don't have to wait until the weekend if the weather's good and the sea's calm!
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