When I was a little kid, for some reason was scared to swim. I refused to let my dad or older brother teach me how to swim.
It was one of those irrational fears that the logical elders can’t really force on a kid, and a good reason to get your babies into infant swimming classes (they take to swimming naturally right after birth since it’s all they’ve known…and they’ll be swimming before they can walk).
Anyway, I didn’t go that route. But one day when I was about 5 or 6, my parents gave me this Coleco Mr Turtle swimboard. While they were out swimming in the large lake on their property, I’d go out and join them on my board.
I don’t remember ever wearing a PFD. I think my dad must have figured that as long as he was relatively nearby, I’d either figure it out if I lost Mr Turtle, or he’d drag my ass off the bottom of the lake before I bubbled my last.
It was the perfect gift though. Because, typical for me, when left to my own devices and with a vote of confidence, I did figure it out.
I’d throw the board off the dock and jump in after it. Bit by bit, I let it get further away each time, until voila! I had figured out how to swim.
And that, as the saying goes, was all she wrote.
As soon as I had figured out how to keep my head above water, it was impossible to get the rest of me out of the water. I spent as much time as possible in and under the water, learning to use a dive mask and swimming along the bottom to sneak up under the huge bullfrogs that were chilling in the lilypads. They never had a chance.
I’d catch tadpoles and even fish in my bare hands. I – wait, why are you laughing? It’s true! Ask my brother, the recipient of one of my fishy gifts while he sunned himself in a $20 rubber raft one day. The fish was so spiny (Bluegill) and he so shocked (at where it landed) that he popped the boat. An enduring memory.
But yes, this story has gotten out of hand. ;)
Learning how to swim though did birth a real passion in my life and a life-long love affair with the water. I never would have guessed that down the road this gift of the Mr Turtle swimboard would prove to be almost prescient…
In a way, I was boarding headfirst & horizontal before I could even swim. That same lake was the initial testing ground for the floatation and flatwater performance of my first Carlson riverboard, and nearly every subsequent riverboard that I built over the course of more than a decade.
And it all started with little green Mr. Turtle.
I’ve looked for years online to try and find a picture, but have never been able to locate one. This may be the only photo of Mr Turtle on the internet haha. Not that anyone is searching for it other than me, but he and I are tied together for life!
Thanks mom and dad, and thanks you rotomolded piece of (now slimy) green plastic!
From Mr Turtle, to riverboarding Gorilla: