Or is the woman in the snorkel?

[Catsize]

We are blessed to have an outdoor public pool within half an hour of home. On glorious Saturday, I went with toddler son, partner and my mum. Mum is not a big fan of 'getting wet' and splashing and exposing herself, so was just going to spectate, albeit I convinced her to bring a costume just in case she should give in to the allure of the water.
After a while, Mum decided to give it a go. To avoid the splashing masses, and wanting to do a few lengths, she went into the lane for, erm, swimming!
After a while, I went to join her, leaving partner and son in the splashy part. I was so proud of Mum.
There was another woman there, all snorkelled to the max. Mum made some comment to suggest she wasn't very friendly. We did a couple of lengths.
My mum is a very very slow swimmer, granted. I was walking backwards at the pace she was swimming, but she was quite happy.
I am quite a fast swimmer and often have to circumnavigate slower swimmers.
Bottom line, after Snorkel Swimmer bypassed us, raising and shaking her head at us, I wasn't too fond of Snorkel Swimmer. Next time round, she nearly ploughed into my mum, and then had a real go at us for 'obstructing the lane'.
Just to be clear, there was plenty of room, only three people in the lane, and no speed restrictions!
I explained that my mum knew she was slower, that I was going at her pace (directly in front of her) and that whilst I had some sympathy that it can be frustrating to overtake, we weren't doing anything wrong. Another load of abuse came from Snorkel Swimmer (who had obviously extracted said snorkel from her mean mouth).
Perhaps I am sensitive because a) it was my mum and b) my mum has been really ill (the fact she had managed six lengths at all was amazing), c) Mum had braved the pool d) I can't remember the last time I saw Mum in a pool e) we went out of the lane to talk/recover and she got out soon after (and after two more glares) and f) Mum didn't get to swim with my son at all.
I felt it spoiled a beautiful morning. Mum said she wasn't worth the argument, which is probably true, but I am still cross.
AIBU?

YANBU
And snorkels aren't (much to my DDs disgust) usually allowed in normal pool sessions.

YANBU.

Could you have plucked the snorkel off her face then snapped it back like a rubber band?

She was uncommonly rude and pissed on your lovely day out. I'm sitting here seething for you. She obviously had no idea what importance your day had to you, but she should not have been so intolerant.

Have some iced

YANBU. Snorkel lady is rude and entitled. If it's a public pool then you have to accept that there will be lots of other people there. It's not her personal pool and she has to learn to share. Even my four year old knows that.

Yanbu, she sounds a right rudey.

Don't let it spoil your weekend though, it's done now so time to move on.

YANBU. I would have drowned the bitch.

Yanbu at all, snorkel person sounds rude and entitled. I would have snatched snorkel from her mouth and hit her over the head with it!

Arf at pinging her mask

Thank you. I feel much better now. Your comments have made me titter and smile. If I see her again, perhaps I should overtake her and accuse her of obstruction or just drown her, as suggested . Anyone know any olympic swimmers? :-)

YANBU! If you encounter her again, just pop a cork into the top end of her snorkel.

How wide was the lane?

Maybe suggest to the pool that they put in two lanes, one for fast swimmers and one for those that want to go slowly. Tbh, I think if you are going to be going particularly slowly then you should use the main section of the pool, as otherwise it's equally as inconsiderate to people that want to swim for serious exercise.

You didn't do anything wrong, but you were doing something that stopped someone else from using the swimming lane in the normal way. It's understandable that the woman was annoyed, but she was wrong to be rude if she was being. You don't actually say what she said.

Who on earth swims laps with a snorkel and then has the gall to complain about others' swimming??

Now I have been known to put my hand over my own DDs snorkels to get them to surface.

Vanishing underwater is my DDs favourite tactic when I want to suggest it's time to get out the water or tell them off for kicking innocent parents and siblings. DD1 particularly surface dives without looking.

I'm not sure you can do it to random rude women.

Clouds, the land was wide enough for all of us. She could have gone straight up and down, no problem, but did the more conventional elongated circle thing. The lanes are so wide, that they couldn't really put two in on a day like that, with loads of kids splashing in the shallow end. The splashing kids also made normal swimming impossible anywhere else, and Mum needs somewhere to put her feet down from time to time, so deep end width swimming (and dodging diving teens) would have been tricky. We all swim at different speeds, and I find it much less frustrating and less exhausting to overtake a very slow person in a lane than someone who is just a bit slower than me. Snorkel Woman was no Ellie Simmonds.
Loving the cork idea Barty. Starball, you made me laugh!

Lane. Oops.

Yanbu although i gave up swimmming at my local pool as even though they have a slow, medium & fast lane everyone went so slow it was unbelievably frustrating.

Next time take this with you

YANBU

And I'd check that snorkels are allowed, as someone said earlier, if you encounter the rude woman again. They aren't allowed in our local indoor pool or Lido.

And I'm pretty sure rude and intimidating behaviour isn't tolerated, alongside Bombing and Petting

I have to keep reminding DH about the petting.