BOISE — Many people have been swimming their whole life, but that's not the case for everyone. As an adult, Susanne Van Buren didn't know how to swim. She had a fear of water.
Her daughter, who swam competitively, helped her learn.
Now Van Buren teaches all levels, including adults who don't know.
"One lady that had glasses on, and I said we need to take your glasses off, and she said well, I am more comfortable with my glasses on, so when we went under, and she lost her glasses, she broke down and cried, and she said in a river rafting, and I was an ok swimmer, but I got sucked underneath, and I was trying to get up and I couldn't, and so it just made me scared of the water from then on. We had to go back to the beginning, and she put on goggles right away, and she was so happy, and she started getting back to her comfort zone and feeling the water more and being more comfortable," said Van Buran.
She says sometimes she has to help them get over those past experiences. Rather than just learning how to survive, she says it's essential for people to understand the water.
"If they've had a bad experience, you do have to go back to that experience, and I do a little bit of psychology where they have to think about it, you know to go back to that scary time that you were sunk under, and you don't know how to get up and teach them how to do bobs if they're in the deep end. We do that right away, and so it's step by step."
Van Buran says many competitive swimmers train there. For more on the program, click here.
