It has been interesting to read this thread so far. I especially enjoyed watching both the poll results and the posts of those who tried to get inside of my head to see where I was going with this.
Like Blue Sparkle mentioned, creating polls isn't always easy. When I first started to create the poll, I found myself having several categories for "strong swimmer" alone.
I asked myself for the sake of the poll, "What is a strong swimmer?" I thought back to my first lifeguard class as a college freshman. I was the only male in the semester long program after we lost one of our fellow students to a car accident following the second day of class. At the time, I was in peak physical shape thanks to martial arts, sports, running and swimming for fitness and much stronger than the girls in the class. Strength and power gave me the edge when towing a victim and I usually beat the girls in rescue times, but several girls with high school swim team backgrounds would smoke me in lap swimming. I envied the ease at which they seemed to fly through the water due to polished technique. That improved technique would come as we started WSI training and became a lifelong pursuit which for which I still strive. To this day I lose and gain polish in direct relation to my participation in masters swimming.
I also noticed after spending years in aquatics that those people who competed in swimming as kids, but not as teens, often lose technique as adults. Swimmers who competed in high school and college retain technique quite well. Those who started disciplined and coached swimming later in their teens or as adults also are more likely to return to poor habits.
If you visit a pool and compare fitness swimmers and triathletes who lack that high school and college competitive background to their peers with that background, the difference is most often night and day.
For that reason, I decided to label a "strong" swimmer as a coached swimmer since technique such a joy to watch and greatly reduces effort. Lifeguards and swimming instructors without swim team experience are also strong swimmers, despite whatever slop they might exhibit, but also have been trained in various skills which would allow for multiple stroke techniques with a good level of energy conservation and propulsion during long swims. Such a swimmer might be a little out of shape for a long swim, but can adapt fairly well. For shorter swims which may require a great deal of power or speed such as a swimming rescue, a "pop quiz" in a diving class with a swim requirement, or needing to swim into current, muscle memory serves them well. Competition swimmers and lifeguards know what it is like to work hard in water, work hard while having high CO2 levels, and work hard while swallowing water.
Next, we have the fitness swimmers. Many have lots of errors in their strokes and many have only one "good" stroke (often the freestyle/crawl), but what they do have is a swimming regimen. Comfort in the water is combined with maintaining muscle endurance and being in the water on a regular basis. Of all swimmers, these might be the best prepared to enter the water whether that be falling overboard miles from shore or needing to pass the swim requirement for a diving class. They know their current strengths and weaknesses, know the pace they need to swim to go the long haul, and are most comfortable swimming right now because they probably swam yesterday. Triathletes have the added advantage of being comfortable swimming in open water while getting kicked and hit in the face in addition to working while having high CO2 and swallowing water.
Of the 158 people who answered the poll nearly half fall into these two groups! That's really cool!
Next, we have the average swimmer. 79 of you! Most of us learned to swim as kids and spent childhoods in the water becoming shriveled prunes. Thanks to increased family affluence, physical education, social programs and community centers its hard to find an urban or suburban kid who didn't at least have the opportunity to learn to swim. Most of us did and most of us never wanted to get out of the water. However, for many, no matter how much they love the water and how comfortable they are in it, getting into the water to swim isn't something they do regularly. There are conditions underwater and at the surface which may demand endurance, speed, and better skills. There is definitely a danger to thinking that you are more prepared than you are to deal with a swimming situation, but most of us know when to stop pushing ourselves physically, when we need to conserve energy and have the comfort not to panic when the oceans and waterways show us why they need respect.
For dive professionals, I suggest staying as "swim fit" as possible by engaging in regular fitness swimming and getting coaching if you don't like students to see your technique. Lead by example by performing the swim requirements your students must perform in every class. This way, you'll know where your limits are. As we age, we may be getting better at educating based upon experience, but our fitness levels do drop and we may need to rescue others.
For the few weak swimmers, I know its a little tougher to get started, but just about every YMCA pool offers adult swimming programs - many are affordable private lessons. Your local dive center can often hook you up with ways to improve your swimming. It's never too late to develop comfort and technique. Someday a buddy may depend on you.
Comfort in the water is the most important aspect of any water sport - scuba diving is no exception. You don't have to be the fastest swimmer, the best swimmer, or even currently fit to be what we may define as a "good diver," but as several posters pointed out, it also doesn't hurt to add or regain both swimming fitness and swimming technique to your toolbox of scuba skills. Swimming provides intrinsic rewards all its own and its a great way to ward off winter water blues as well as maintain fitness. Fitness is definitely something every diver should strive to improve.
What was the whole point? I've recently attended three industry meetings in which a small group of industry professionals claim that today's diver isn't comfortable in the water. While the SB sampling is small and not scientific by any means, and many SB members are very interested in the sport, I'm betting that the majority of divers in this world would claim they are comfortable in the water.
I'm betting "comfort" isn't a problem in the diving industry. I'm betting that the problem in the industry is that the training agencies aren't giving divers enough credit for being motivated enough to turn comfort into skill.
