Do you know how to swim?

Yes swimming is a core part of the nz childhood. We had swimming lessons throughout school and my parents enrolled me in swim classes very early.
I'm terrible at formal swimming but I can survive and get around comfortably in the water

Nope. Couldn't afford lessons, no one had a pool and I lived in a predominantly black city. I'd like to one day just for safely but I usually just sink like a rock.
- How is living in a predominantly black city relevant?
  
  There is a relatively unknown (outside of the black community) bias against swimming. Slaves were traumatized to be hydrophobic to prevent escape from slave ships and then there was segregation of pools until relatively recently. This is fortunately fading now, last I checked.
  
  According to statistics they're less likely to know how to swim. Less swimmers means they'd have less places to swim.
  But according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the fatal drowning rate of African-American children aged five-14 is three times that of white children.
  A recent study sponsored by USA Swimming uncovered equally stark statistics.
  Just under 70% of African-American children surveyed said they had no or low ability to swim. Low ability merely meant they were able to splash around in the shallow end. A further 12% said they could swim but had "taught themselves".
  Source: Why don't black Americans swim? (bbc.com, Sept. 2010)

Yeah. Because in Australia they take swimming and water safety very seriously. I don't think I know a single person who can't swim at least a little.
- As an Aussie I remember meeting foreigners when I was a youngster, and just being totally bewildered that they couldn't swim. To me, it was as if they had said they never learnt to run, or how to open a door.
  My next lesson came when I took a foreign friend who could swim to the beach. I swam out past the breakers and bobbed around wondering where they were... Turns out that not everyone grew up around waves, and they didn't know you could dive under them. So they were still back by the beach, waist deep, just getting smashed around constantly.
- Yeah, this is basically how it goes. It depends what country you grew up in. Canada is the same way, almost everyone who grew up in Canada can swim (not necessarily well, but able to manage). This is partly due to the number of lakes that exist near populated areas so swimming is a common passtime and boating accidents are a fairly high cause of accidental death. There are some countries where it is much more rare.

Nearly everywhere in my country mandates lessons, so yeah
- How does that work, is it done through school?
  There was some discussion about it here (Canada) last summer
  https://globalnews.ca/news/10610765/bc-mandatory-swimming-lessons/
  
  Here in Denmark it is through school.

I started taking lessons about a year ago. I'm glad I have. At least I feel like I might have a chance if something happens and I end up in deeper water than I can just stand in.

Yes, my mom made us take swim lessons up through lifeguard lessons, and some of my brothers were competitive (like very competitive) swimmers. I got my kids lessons through the drownproofing, not more.
Kids drown here every year, it's not important to have paid lessons but very very important to know how to swim.

Yes. In sweden every child has been taught to swim for almost 100 years.
- Wow, you have some very old kids 😵😆
- Look at Sweden, again dunking dunking on rest of us without even trying. ;-)

Yes. Am Dutch

Yeah but not that well. I can yeet my body off the divingboard something goofy, plunge into the water, and make it back to the edge of the pool, and tbh that's all the swimming ability that I've ever needed. At least I know that I can backstroke fairly effortlessly
- Whoa. 100% ditto!

Yup, learned as a child and was absolutely bewildered as a teenager when I met people who couldn't. Made sure my kids knew how as well. Child drowning injury and deaths are sadly high in the US.

I couldn't swim until I was maybe 10 or 11 and it was awful. Thankfully my parents moved and my school mandated lessons - but I wasn't confident until maybe my late teens/early twenties?
I think kids should learn as early as possible and it makes me a bit sad that my niece and nephew haven't learned yet (and are unlikely to as their schools don't teach them and my sibling doesn't seem interested in getting them lessons or teaching them). We live on an island with a lot of water inland - it's more important than other stuff like riding a bike!

Yes, of course, it's a basic life skill.

Here in Germany we learn that in school in 3rd or 4th grade (ca 9-10 years of age).
- For some reason I don't remember ever doing such a course. I never got a "Seepferdchen". I learned to swim on my own at some point or with help from my parents.
- ... unless there are not enough teachers, or not enough public pools, or...
  The indoor pool I learned swimming closed a decade ago and since then there is no public indoor pool in the city anymore.

My dad watched his brother drown when he was a kid and was unable to save him Ray Charles style and made sure he taught me to swim before dipping out

No, it's not common for schools to have pools in my city, never travel to a beach, no paying for a club(I don't think that's the right english word for it but I can't think of another one) to go to a pool. The only few times I got to a pool in friends/parent houses was not enough to learn how to swim.

Yes. My dad tried to tech me but he was not patient enough so he showed me some things and then just left me in the water to go sunbathing himself. But somehow this seemed enough so I kept at it and could swim a bit, then over the years always a little better and so on. Still today my technique is quite bad but I can swim forever, just not as fast as other people.

No, almost drown when I was a kid and have massive panic attacks getting into the water. In the last few years I've been able to get chest deep without hyperventilating but can't really seem to float out anything like that without letting go of the side.
- You got that shit if you made it chest high. Keep going!
- Trusting the float on the back makes sense to be a hard one. It's counterintuitive, the water comes over your face when you start, and you can't hold on to anything. Might be worth getting a personal coach for a session just for that if you haven't already. Someone supporting you might help with the anxiety as long as they're encouraging and not pushy.

yes but barely. I basically do backstroke and sidestroke. never could get the hang of putting my face in and out of the water. There are a few others I can do where you keep your head out but they are relatively useless so don't really do them.

I was varsity swim team in high school.
It was what all the freaks, weirdos, and gay boys did for a sport because no one came to watch our swim meets but our families. It gave us a sense of privacy and community at the same time.
I miss it a lot sometimes. I haven't had access to a pool to do laps in in like twenty years.
It's my favorite type of exercise.
EDIT: I just had a core memory resurface. We got in trouble in my senior year because we did a team photo where we all dropped our speedos to our ankles and covered our junk with our swim caps that had our high schools name on them.

Yes I learned at a very young age.

Yes! I learned at the YMCA as a kid.

I had the usual lessons at primary school, but at the end of those myself and one other in the class still couldn't swim. In the half century since then I have never found the need or the desire to try again.

Yes, I went and learned as an adult, even. I figured the world is 70% water and I really needed to have a chance in case of a surprise encounter with it.

Yes, and according to my parents I didn't learn how to swim, I just instinctively did it, in a similar fashion to how I just started running one day. I don't remember learning how to swim either it's just something I've always been able to do.

No. I don’t feel comfortable being in situations where I’d learn. I’m pretty sure I’m to skin and bones to even float properly.

My parents made sure I took swimming lessons as a kid, and as a teenager I did a lot of water sports (sailing and rowing). I grew up next to a really good lake, so it would have been a waste to not be in or on the water.
- That lake was mine and I peed in it.
- Username checks out(?

Nope, I had no school option, and no lake or river around home where I could learn. I went with my parents to the seaside a few days every year, but my dad didn't teach me. When I had kids of my own, it was on the "must" list: teach to ride bike, make sure they can swim.

Despite living in a country surrounded by water, no, I can’t swim. I don’t go in water I can’t stand in

Yes

Its harder to remember not swimming to be honest. School swimming lessons, beach holidays, leisure centres, holidays abroad etc. I actually used to swim competetively (for my age bracket in my teenage years) for a local team. Went on to do lots of scuba diving and was a pool lifeguard for a bit
I think not swimming here is pretty rare, I want to say that maybe 10 or 15% of my year were classed as "non-swimmers" and had lessons separately to the rest.

I learned to swim as a child. Haven’t swam, just been in a pool in years though.

Yes. My dad was an avid swimmer and scuba diver so he wanted to instill that onto us children.

I can swim. I just have a seriously hard time sinking. No joke. I have to work to go down.
- Me, too. I've got some extra buoyancy on account of being fat.
  While servicing my sailing yacht I dropped a part of the furler in the water while docked. A new piece was stupidly expensive and would take two weeks to get, while I was cruising on a schedule.
  So I dropped the anchor and climbed down the chain to look for it. At the end my wife found it. We probably spent a good three hours diving and feeling around in the soft mud for it.
  
  Glad you found the piece. Had to look what that item was. In a word. OUCH
- Have you tried emptying your lungs? It sounds crazy, but you actually don't have to completely fill your lungs with air, just enough so that you can last a good while underwater and so that you're no longer buoyant. It takes some practice, and you might panic a little bit at first, but once you get used to that, it just becomes second nature.
  The only times I hold as much air as possible are when I'm trying apneas (holding my breath as long as possible), but I stay near the surface for that and I remain inmobile. (Also, make sure there's more people with you and that you're signing that you're fine)

For ~25 years I was too lean to float, so it’s a good thing I could swim.

Yes, but the sea is fucking cold as fuck so I don't. We were required to learn in primary school including the correct way to jump off a boat wearing a life jacket. And how to get a person in distress back to shore.
I knew someone who learned as an adult by reading a book about the mechanics of swimming and then getting into a pool and swimming.

Yeah, I was swimming as a child and eventually took lessons later on. It’s like second nature now, not knowing how to swim seems like not knowing how to walk to me. I can’t imagine what it’s like. I never swam competitively or for exercise, just for recreation.

Yes, because I grew up in an area where private pools were very common.

yes, and i even got enrolled (unwillingly) into water polo courses by my older sisters. understandably, the coach hated me because i was overweight and a slow swimmer.
there was a bit of inappropriate verbal harassment from the older members of the water polo team. after that, i got self-conscious and eventually stopped swimming.
maybe i'll try swimming again.

Yep, did survival skills when I was a kid. Treading on water with neck high for 15 minutes, diving in with PJs and plimsoles, and controlling our breath at the bottom of the pool, taking off our shoes and tying knots in our pyjamas to use as floatation devices. It was pretty intense for a bunch of 10 year olds to do, but yep we did it.

Yeah, sort of. I can do 2km, but pretty slowly.

Yep.
Part of schooling in NZ.
A lot of kids also get extra lessons, because well it's NZ.
note: the furthest from the coast you can get in NZ is 119.44 km (74.22mi)

My school gave us swimming lessons but they were not very accommodating to me, I came out of them not knowing how to swim. When I lived with my brother, I taught myself to more or less be able to swim in his pool. It's just very tiring.

Yes - after I nearly drowned in the ocean as a child, I was promptly enrolled in swimming lessons.

Yes, and I learned to float to swim further

I lived on an island in the North Pacific for years. I worked on the ocean in a floating house and working on aluminum catwalks a few feet above the water all day.
If course I don't know how to swim. If I don't have a floater coat on, I'm fucked. If I do, I bob and hope for rescue. But have your lines in place if you're out in weather because the ocean does not give a fuck. In the North Pacific, your lifespan is the water is measured in "well fuck"s.
I lived near a lake as a child. I could hold my breath for so long. I dove a lot. Never learned to swim.
Swim lessons were expensive and we were poor. Swimming is essentially a pastime of the privileged and we were not. Same with skiing. Same with hockey and football.
Meh.
- I was sort of with you on the ocean stuff, swimming there isn't really a substitute for a lifejacket, but swimming being for the privileged is a weird take.
  If you don't have access to a body of water for free, then public pools are usually cheaper than a movie ticket. You don't need any equipment, all you need is one person that kinda half way knows how to swim and is willing to point you in the right direction.

i learned to swim by puking so hard that the puke leaving my mouth propelled me through the water