Splash!

Maybe I was a very smelly kid? My parents, at least, made sure that I would spend quite a large proportion of my time emerged in water. Wait, maybe it was just because I liked swimming. Whatever the reason, I was often found in a pool somewhere. In fact, my first swimming session was just a few hours after I was born. Here at RCN I do my fair bit of water sport as well. I teach skin diving to kids, do lifeguarding by the pool and I have taught swimming for beginners with the Swim Club. Oh, and then I swim... Of cause.

Teaching is always fun. And it is especially fun to teach swimming at RCN. Because we have people here from so many countries, some arrive with absolutely no knowledge of what to do if you find yourself floating about in an over sized bathtub. So each year the Swim Club teaches swimming for beginners, and last year so did I. I was a lot of fun, and I actually learned quite a bit about my own technique by having to put it into words. Us more experienced swimmers also had a chance to talk and help each other with improving.

When I turned 13 I started to swim in the wrong direction. Down! So I joined the skin diving club, where those kinds of skills are more appreciated. Now, once a week, I teach to the kids that come here for camp. Everyone on campus does an activity with the kids, and I especially like mine. It is quite different from what I used to do back home, where I volunteered at an after school club. We only see them once and next week there will be a new crew, so it is all about making a good experience for them. And if we're not completely sure that we can keep them entertained, don't worry: We can always turn on the water slide!

This summer I set myself a challenge: Do the Viking Swim. The name pretty much implies it all: It is a 2.5 kilometer competition in open water, crossing an intake in the Danish city Roskilde. I had never done open water before, but I gathered as much as this: 2.5 kilometer in salty, cold sea water is a lot longer than 50 lanes of 50 meter in a pool. I spend a little over a month practicing for the swim. However, swimming in the sea is something you just need to get used to. For the first 200 meters my mind was busy dealing with the cold, the taste, the waves and even more the gobbles that I would constantly kong fu chup through with my hands. My technique has had better days. I did end up getting the hang of it and finished somewhere in the middle (of about 200 competitors) which I was quite satisfied with seeing as it was my first time in open water.

I also do life guarding... I sit... I watch people... I tell them not to drown... None have drowned yet...