A peek at the REAL Thumbster

The Wetter Side of Thumb

Another day spent in front of this monitor.

It's okay...for now. In January I'll have to buckle down and get some work done. I'm treating these final days as snow days. Days meant just for writing. The real world begins again in a few days.

I've noticed in some of my emails lately I've got this water themed thingy happening. So instead of repeating myself...I'll post it here now.

I've always loved the water. Some of my earliest memories were of piling into the family car and heading off to the beach. Those memories rank right up there with Christmases and going on really long road trips.

My brother, cousins and I all learned to swim in a little river one summer just before we moved yet again to Europe.

Swimming was the closest that I could come to flying. I couldn't get enough of it. Learning to swim in a river instead of a pool also made me aware of this strange and enticing new world. There were trout, shad and even the odd salmon in that river. Things underwater always appear larger than they really are. Once I got over my initial nervousness and my swimming skills improved...I wanted to see more of what was below the surface.

I started reading books on diving...(Hans Hass's Diving to Adventure is still my all time favorite book). I fell in love with Jacques Cousteau's way of life. I was determined to learn to scuba dive.

I was only 13. The local scuba club told me I needed all these qualifactions...(which it turned out...I needed some...but most of the quailfactions I didn't need to be a diver). So I enrolled in one swimming program after another.

I've never been a fast swimmer...and swimming to me has always meant work...(until lately that is). I did have one God given strength though when it came to the water...I'm VERY good at doing the eggbeater. That means I can tread water.

I once treaded water for over 2 hours...with my hands on my head...until I got so bored that I stopped. I had wanted to push myself to my limits. To see just how long I could do it before I had to stop or I'd drown if I continued. Maybe in another hour or so I would have found out...but 2 hours doing nothing but treading water with your hands on your head is a VERY looooooooong 2 hours. I wondered what if I could go on for hours more. I hadn't planned on it being an all day thing and I had to get back home for when my guys got off school.

I rose up through the ranks of swimming. I qualified as a diver...but to be honest...I was disappointed with what I found offshore around my province. I've snorkelled in the Mediterrian and all around Florida and that forever spoiled me. The water around my province is friggin' COLD.

There wasn't any coral formations or schools of brightly colored fishes. We have sea urchins...(spikey balls that lurk all along the coastline that you have to try and float over on your way back into the shore)...and flat fish...like flounders...with both eyes on one side of their heads so they can look upwards...and scallops and lobsters.

My first deep water dive off a boat... a couple miles from shore...I saw LOTS of lobsters...EVERYWHERE. It turned out they were migrating and that was a VERY unusal sight. In fact...our account was writen up in a national diving magazine. I didn't know any better. I thought the ocean floor was always crawling with the clawed bugs.

The visiblity in the waters here sucks. Maybe 15 to 20 feet in any direction depending on conditions. Sometimes...like on the way to the bottom...it seems much less...and it's COLD. Head numbing...teeth chattering COLD...even with a wet suit after a fairly short time.

So my underwater camera awaits for me to find warmer, clearer southern waters.

I continued with swimming after learning to dive. I had fallen into a pattern of taking one course after another. I moved all the way up the ladder...becoming the most qualified lifeguard that I could become in my part of my province. At that time there was only just over 500 of us for a population of just under a million.

I never thought of making any money lifeguarding. I was just doing it for the qualifications. I got a phone call out of the blue...asking if I wanted a job as a lifeguard/civilian instructor at a local air cadet camp. I did that for 4 summers...while lifeguarding the rest of the year as well.

This was before I was into my art seriously.

I was even a full time lifeguard in a pool complex...Lifeguards were in very short supply at that time. I initally agreed to do a few programs...and spend the rest of my time painting...but all these worthy causes aproached me. Without a qualified lifeguard on duty they would have to shut down. So I ended up lifeguarding for a competitve swim club...a masters swim club...the military...a local prison...(that was interesting )...3 different school programs...casual swimming...3 different physically challenged groups and moms and tots.

I used to take time off one of my part time jobs to take my guys "swimming" in moms and tots. I say swimming...it was just getting them used to the water. They were in the water when they were 6 months old.

We went for several years...when they were much older...where we'd go swimming EVERY day. Both of my guys are excellent swimmers. I think that's one of the best things I've ever taught them. They've both been members of the local competitive swim club. That was quite an experience.

Mitchell...my youngest soon excelled at competitive swimming...which surprised me...as I always thought Derek would be the best in the pool. He had already swum his first length of the 25 yard pool underwater when he was 9.

Mitchell quickly became a "A" swimmer while Derek was a "AA" for sometime...so I was travelling all over my province and neighboring provinces every weekend for a swim meet. I loved the time we got to spend with each other in the hotels or on the long drives or ferry rides. I hated watching from the stands though. I qualified to do some minor officiating on deck but I didn't like that because then I'd miss one of my guy's races.

I've gotta go.

Swimmas do it betta