Swimming

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Does anyone like swimming?
I assumed it would be sensory heaven for an autistic, an activity that engaged in touch, temperature, pressure, sounds, smell, taste if you're unlucky, etc - a full set of stimulus but in a very subtle way, that I imagine won't cause overload.
I'm dying to try it out - I have had a lot of physical troubles and haven't been able to go swimming in 15 years, but I'm finally getting there with my issues and hopefully soon, once a bit of trimming is done to my physique, I intend to start swimming and never stop it. It's sure to be great exercise and I imagine, once one is not so self-conscious, it could be relaxing at the same time.
Opinions?

I absolutely love swimming. It's just a shame that other people share the pools! I would love to have a private pool with mood lighting and nice warm water.

I like swimming but never do, public pools are too scary for me, too many people, noise and the smell of chlorine

I don't have access to private pools.

Go for it, swimming is wonderful. Try to find a time when the pool is quiet.

I agree with most of this so don't go swimming very often. All the mucking about and juggling clothes into lockers that seem to be designed to make me look a dick, then refuse my money, then all the sensory overload as sound crashes off the inner surfaces of the building, screaming kids, then the anxiety of finding the locker again and getting dried off...

I only like private pools. Public pools are an OCD germaphobe nightmare for me.

Not so fond of pools, because of the chlorine and the echoing screams of children.

I adore swimming in the sea and in lakes. There is nothing like a cool, still lake on a summer evening.

I love swimming, it's hard to keep me out of the pool in the summer

Since we're on the subject of swimming. Have any of you considered the sport of free diving? Free diving take swimming to the next level, and is the perfect sport for anyone, who is dealing with sensory processing disorders. here are some of the benefits:

You learn to relax:
One of the things about water is, is that the more you fight it, the more it fight's back. That's why you learn to work with the water, and soon you will be able to swim more gracefully then a ballet dancer. You'll be able to move faster and maneuver more quickly, while exerting as little muscle energy as possible. Plus, the feeling of the water turbulence on your skin is really relaxing.

It shuts parts of your brain down:
As you get better at holding your breath, your body gets used to lower oxygen levels(your blood/oxygen level drops). As a result of this, you body start to prioritize where the oxygen goes, and since your brain uses the most, parts of your brain will start to shut-down or go into a low-power state. This, in return, helps you relax more and helps put to sleep, the things in your head that are driving you crazy.

It's like a glorified weighted blanket:
Do you use a weighted blanket, or just like to pile the layers on? As you are aware, the deeper you dive, the greater the pressure is, and therefor the greater the hugging sensation is. Unlike a weighted blanket, which can have uneven pressure points. The pressure that you feel at depth, is evenly distributed. Plus, you have no restriction of body movement, like you would, while under a weighted blanket.

I love swimming. ^.^

I love to swim, and it's good for proprioceptive input.

I don't find the smells of swimming pools to be subtle at all, though, and they can be very loud during busy hours and on hot summer days (I like to swim when it's not busy).

Up to being 13 I grew up in a place where us and practically everyone else had a swimming pool. I stayed out of any pool that had noise and splashing going on. Also pools are overly bright for me. And I hate how cold it feels getting in. And getting out also with wet trunks.

But also like the sensation of floating around in the water. I can't swim so wore floaties. Or stayed in the shallow end.

Where I live now, there are very few swimming pools and would have to use the indoor town public one or YMCA. No thanks. Oh yeah at summer camp there was swimming in the lake. I really just prefer to stay warm and dry.

Hmm, I guess I'm associating swimming with how I remember it - I used to go on off hours / seasons when there was practically no one else there - definitely no screaming kids, though I may have been more tolerant / oblivious of this when I was a child than as a cranky adult. I used to have the place practically to myself and just swam laps. It was smooth and soft all over my skin and I liked that. I liked how smooth and easy it was to move around.
I usually hate pressure, definitely can't see the appeal of weighted blankets and can't stand anything tight on my body, but the level of overall body support in the pool depth was nice. There was just something about the aesthetic of it that I liked too, the aquatic nature of it.
I suppose all sorts of adult stuff will come into it now, like being self conscious of being eyeballed and so on, but I'm hoping I can dismiss all that and just enjoy the sensory-ness.

I love it. Other than being great exercise, it's great for forgetting your anxieties and problems. Just focus on swimming laps.

Whenever I got a call for a job interview, I would go swim some laps. Stuffed the front bumper of my car. Swam laps. No more anxiety.

And it's nice and cool in the heat of summer.

I hate swimming, and am bad at it. The feeling of immersing myself (especially my head) in liquid is uncomfortable and frightening. At the beach and in natural waterways there are creatures which can be dangerous, too. Pools have Chlorinated water, which I don't like, mostly due to the smell.

I loved swimming as a kid. It was always so exciting. Only thing was I couldn't swim. I was just afraid of getting my head under water.