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Reader Story: Marine College
by Francois, Dieppe, FranceMany years ago, I attended a marine college to qualify for working on ships. Besides an intense academic curriculum, they also were keen on getting us physically fit for life at sea.
Every weekday morning before breakfast we had swim training in the pool, which I really enjoyed. We were told to always swim in seaman's rain suits which felt good and comfortable in the water, but were hard to swim in.
After the shower we put our swimsuits on.
Looking cool in the pool.
Morning swims include endurance and strength training for about 40 minutes, like lane swimming, rescue towing, sit-ups and push-ups.
These swimsuits get you fit.
Swimming takes effort.
Hood up reduces drag.
Safety Training
Three times a week we practiced various aspects of sea survival and safety training in the pool. This was good fun, but tough. We had to wear the usual rain suits on top of two layers of clothing, plus boots. Practice included life rafts, clothes inflation for buoyancy, jumping from heights, and swimming underwater.
Safety training with boots.
Using boots as floats.
Boot as buoyancy aid
Trousers as buoyancy aid
Trouser inflation
Floating is always fun.
Rescue training
Wading boots
Swimming in clothes has always been part of my fitness training since college.
My training continues with a few friends in a local pool to stay fit for life at sea.
Most of us now work for the ferry company, so we come home every day and meet for swim training.