I learned to swim in Long Island Sound by New London, CT, probably when I was four or so. I like swimming in pools and the ocean. Don’t especially like lakes and their usually slimy bottoms. Concrete and sand are OK on the feet, for some reason.

I started snorkeling as an adult and love it. Most memorable snorkeling trips were in Tahiti and Fiji, where we saw three HUGE giant clams on one small reef, all with different colored lips waving in the current.

Very bad experience while on a sailing charter to the British Virgin Islands, where my wife’s best friend since their teens drowned while snorkeling on Anegada. It was a primitive beach, so my wife performed CPR for over 45 minutes until an NP arrived and pronounced our friend dead. Extremely traumatic event, as you may imagine. One thing that came from that was we always snorkel with inflatable snorkel vests now, which would have saved our friend.

To keep up with my wife, I got certified in scuba diving about 15 years ago, and have had some nice experiences. Most interesting was coming upon eight big lemon sharks at Bora Bora.