november 11

             My Brother, the Reluctant Swimmer

One of my mother’s philosophies regarding her sons was: “If you can walk well and run well, then you will swim well.” When my brother, Tobey was about four years old, my mother told me that Tobey refused to put his head in water at the Maui YMCA pool and learn how to swim.  He told her to go put her head in the water. My mother was determined to make sure my brother would learn to swim at an early age.  He did not want to swim.  He was just happy with splashing the water at the pool or at the beach.  At the beaches in Maui, he would just play in the sand at the edge of the surf.  He would never venture deeper than his knees despite my mother watching both of us like a hawk.

As a drastic measure, my mother enrolled my brother in the Maui YMCA swim camps during the summer.  She figured that maybe peer pressure would do the trick.  At the end of several summers, he was only able to swim one or two strokes and for short distances.  He would always say, “I hate the water!”

The first summer after we moved to California, my mother enrolled both of us in the Nike Swim Camp at Stanford University.  In the Stanford parking lot, my mother and him were butted heads.  He would not even get out of the car. Ultimately, she won and got him settled in the dorm room and she left for home. He swam because of the swim coaches and peer pressure.  I think the only saving grace at the swim camp was the dorm cafeteria. He liked the food and could eat as much 

as he wanted.

The following summer my mother enrolled us both into a local swim team.  He just did the minimum.  This did not last long because my mother’s work schedule prevented us from getting to regular practices. Boy, was he relieved and happy!

Finally, when he got into high school my mother convinced him to join the water polo team.  She actually bribed him with a goal of getting a MacBook Pro laptop.  He had to complete several summers of swimming and several seasons of water polo.  The several summers of swimming meant sending both of us to my aunt for the summer.  My aunt lived in Oceanside, CA.  We were enrolled in the Oceanside Junior Lifeguard program.  Tobey had to learn to swim in the ocean, swim in the rough surf, swim around the Oceanside Pier and swim back to shore after jumping off a speeding boat.  There was a lot of competition from male peers and female peers. The peer pressure really had an impact on him and he survived that summer. 

In his second season of high school water polo, he met my mother’s requirement in swimming.  He got his MacBook Pro laptop.  He still continued to whine, “I hate the water!”  Then the following summer, my mother enrolled us again for the Oceanside Junior Lifeguard program.  But to the surprise of my entire family: my aunt, my uncle, my two cousins (who by the way are Oceanside Lifeguards) and myself, Tobey decided at the last minute, literally the few minutes before the competition at the beach was going to begin, he decided to tryout for one of the Junior Lifeguard Assistant positions for the summer.  He was not physically prepared for the tryouts.  His last water polo game was seven month earlier. The competition was stiff.  However, he did finish and got to be a Junior Lifeguard Assistant.

After playing three years of water polo with me, my mother thought Tobey would quit playing water polo.  But to my mother’s surprise and mine as well, Tobey played water polo in his senior year in high school.  To top if off, he won the Armijo Sports scholarship from our high school.  Now to surprise us again, my mother just told me that Tobey is taking scuba diving lessons at his college.  Is this my brother, Tobey, the reluctant swimmer?