Do you remember your first time swimming in the Mediterranean?

[MedSwimming]

I do. It was glorious.

Prior I'd only swum in the North Sea, which was fucking horrible. It was so cold it hurt! My dad kept saying "if you stay in long enough you get used to it" which is code for hypothermia surely?

Anyway then aged 20 I swam in the Med and realised that swimming in the sea could be lovely and I saw the point of it. It was like a whole world opened up before my eyes.

When did you first swim in the Mediterranean and what did you think of it?

Yeah there was loo roll and sanitary towels in it. It was gross and such a shame.

I was a year old in 1980 the first time so no I don’t remember it, but I do remember plenty during my childhood spending summers in various Greek islands.
Honestly, in June it was mostly cold.

You should come to the Caribbean, I remember the first time I stepped into the water here, like it was yesterday (it was 14 years ago!) 🤣

Dislike the med, find it cold.
Prefer the caribbean sea

@Strokethefurrywall snap

1986 Corfu it was live a bath shallow and clean and warm. I was 11 and barely came out of the sea during the day. All previous holidays had been freezing U.K. seas.
Grenada on honeymoon was also stunning.

*like

It was when I went to Ibiza with my friend aged 18 although at that point we were more focused on clubbing and copping off

I live in a Mediterranean country now and have a beautiful beach on my doorstep; I swim from May to October although some people nutters go in all year round

I was 9 years old .....it was in the 70s .....my first foreign holiday.... to Malta

1984, Costa Brava. Fabulous holiday just before I started secondary school. We drove down through France, which was an adventure in itself. I made friends with a girl who had a dinghy, and we did “diving” expeditions off it with our snorkels. I remember her little brother stood on an urchin! Oh and my brother whacked a hole in my shin playing crazy golf. Bastard.

The most exotic sea swimming before that was Brittany 1979, which was also terribly exciting, but the weather was a bit hit and miss.

Before that it was mostly Cornwall or Tenby I think. I was always just thrilled to be in/near the sea or paddling in a rock pool or something.

Not really the med but YY to the Caribbean Sea, soooo warm in in a shallow area and HOT where there's run off from a volcano

No, because I was a child. But I've swim in many seas and actually, the North sea is my favourite!

Yes I was 4 and the whole family including the grandparents went to Majorca for two weeks in a hotel right next to the beach. They could hardly keep us out of the water, we had pruny hands and feet for two weeks straight. It was so warm.

Yy like stepping into a bath. A bath that someone had run that was exactly the right temperature. Only there was an entire sea full of it.

I had had no idea that sea swimming could be painless

I'd never swum in the sea before, and I was surprised at how easier it was to swim than in a swimming pool. Somebody told me that you are more buoyant in salty water, so that must have been it.

I don’t remember one specific time but I do remember holidays on Greek islands as a child. Absolutely loved it. The sea was so clear you could see the bottom even though it was many metres deep.

I wouldn’t say it was like a bath though. I like my baths hot.

Oh yes. It was 2005, we were young and single and a big group of friends did a Greek Island cruise. I remember my first swim in the sea so well. All of it was just glorious.

Yes in Cyprus as a teen. I felt so free. It was lovely.

Spain 1982

We went to Lanzarote on our last holiday and I was shocked how cold the sea was (in July!). It really put me off the Canaries as did the wind

Med or long haul next time!

Other way round for my sister and me.

We grew up living 'abroad', our family would drive down to Italy for the summer holidays for endless Mediterranean sun and beach.

The year I was six and my sister was twelve, our parents went 'home', to NI staying in a hotel on the north coast of Ireland. First morning we woke up to brilliant sunshine, so sister and I did what we always did on holiday, pulling on suimsuit / bikini bottoms and ran across the sand into the water.

I don't really remember the event but it's a family story kept alive because there is a photo of us, which captures the expression on our faces as we registered the unaccustomed temperature of the water.