I'm fortunate enough with the surfing to be very much at home at the water - my pulse and heart rate are slower in the water than they are on land.
The ocean is very comfortable. I could never live inland.
I've grown up by the beach all my life, and I almost get anxiety if I haven't been swimming for a couple weeks or a month. It kind of builds up, so I try and get out as much as possible.
I'm not a natural ocean person. I married into a family of swimmers, and I've slowly been drawn into the sea.
Sometimes you meet people who can't swim. And I always think: 'Oh my God, that's extraordinary.' For me, it's always been a treat... I just feel really happy in the water.
Nothing could happen to me in the water that would make me want to go on the beach and fight someone. That's just not how I do things.
The only reason I started swimming was for water safety. Then, once I started falling in love with sports, I got more comfortable with it.
I'm a water baby to no end.
I can't swim and I'm terrified of drowning, but I still love being by water - just not in it.
My mom put me and my sisters in the water to feel comfortable, to have water safety.
I grew up around the pool with my sisters. Both of my sisters swam. I was always there. So I thought, why not? My mom put us in the water for water safety, so we were comfortable in the water in case anything ever happened. I learned that way, and started liking it more and more.
It's not about being rich, but everyone back home has a pool. And I was a total water baby. My mom couldn't get me out - she'd put my dinner plate at the end of the pool, and I'd eat my meals in the water.
Obviously for water safety, you want to learn just to be comfortable in the water; that's the main goal. I think the second that you start freaking out and feeling uncomfortable, it's not going to go well.
The water reached up for her, pulled her down tenderly out of the heat, seeped in her hair and ran into the corners of her body. She turned round and round in it, embracing it, wallowing in it.
