It was just a bit of a wake up call.
When they talk about the swimming carnival, I just thought that my job was just to go there
and support the kids while doing the swimming, so when I came in and that incident happened,
it was a serious wake up call for me. It happened somewhere here, somewhere here.
There’s that fear, that’s what I’m trying to get over. That fear, that’s what I’m battling with.
Hi, my name’s Millie Volpe, I’m the manager of the Dysart Swim Centre in Central Queensland.
Currently, we are doing adult swim sessions.
It is hard to comprehend when you’re naturally a swimmer, but that’s the biggest gift I think you
can give someone, sometimes, is teaching them how to swim, it opens up their world.
I went to a very tiny bush primary school and didn’t learn to swim. I wanted to
set an example for my kids that you could set a challenge for yourself and turn up everyday
and keep chipping away at it. And I had a lot of challenges along the way and I worked with
Millie and she helped me correct my stroke. I’ve got all sorts of swimmers coming to me now,
triathletes, people that have swum in the past and just want to get that love for swimming
back again, and then those that have never actually been near water. Their enthusiasm
is so infectious because they’re that scared they can’t even walk in the water, to now floating. And
the reasoning for them to join is they really want to be a part of Australian culture and swimming is
a really big part of that, and they realise that.
I come from a land-locked country, we don’t have a lot of water. I come from Zimbabwe, I was born
in Mazowe. We came to Australia in 2018, then I came to Dysart. My name is Adam Kelvin Mhende,
I am here in Dysart and doing some swimming lessons. I never learned to swim when I was in Zim
but I am so excited to be doing these lessons here in Dysart. Because I’m a teacher by profession,
we had a swimming carnival that we did so when the kids were finished with the swimming they were
just having fun, the teachers would go there and swim. I forgot that I did not know how to swim,
then I went to the deep end of the pool. Somewhere here, and I was so excited, I jumped into the
pool, I forgot that this was the deep end. I just found myself going down and going under and I had
to fight to get myself out of the water. So that’s what happened. Then I realised this is a serious
thing, I need to learn to swim. Otherwise, you never know in life, you just never know.
It sometimes can take someone six years to actually swim,
When you’re coming to me as an adult, it does take time. I would say, close to three years
before you can get them to actually be confident to hop in water on their own.
You feel like, okay what is going to hold me up, what is going to make me
float? You feel like you’re just going to go down and there’s that fear. Like for me,
that’s what I’m just trying to get over. That fear of feeling like I’m drowning or just going down,
that’s what I’m trying to work on. For me, personally, it’s more to do with the fear of
water. Getting myself under the water and staying there for a bit of time, I think
that’s what I think I’m going very well. These other things, they’re still a work in progress.
There’s a lot of water around Australia, everywhere you go there’s water, there’s water. So
it’s good to be in water, get used to the water. For me in a community of this size, I think it’s
great to be able to offer that for adults because there isn’t actually too much you can
do around here, sports-wise, as well. I did my sixty laps in sixty minutes
and then I said to Millie, ‘what’s next’? and she said it’s time to learn butterfly.
Every adult should be able to swim, you should be able to swim, especially when you’re in Australia
because your kid is going to miss out if they can’t swim and you’re also going to be missing out
a lot. And besides that, it’s something that is good for your growth, like for me trying to get
over my fear of water, I think it’s good for me. That’s why we do this job.
That’s the main reason. You want people to love water, have that enjoyment and be relaxed in it,
because there’s so much you can do with water. Especially in Australia, it’s the best thing.