The 10 Best Places to Swim in the World, According to Me [View all]

By LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III

'This summer I went swimming, this summer I might have drowned

But I held my breath and I kicked my feet and I moved my arms around

This summer I swam in the ocean and I swam in a swimming pool

Salt my wounds, chlorine my eyes, I’m a self-destructive fool

— “The Swimming Song”

I wrote those lyrics in 1974. For 50 years I’ve been traveling around the world performing, and along with my guitar I always pack a bathing suit and goggles. From the beginning, a lot of my life has been about me in the water, and it’s stayed that way for decades, in pools, ponds, reservoirs, rivers, oceans and bays.

My father, growing up on Long Island and spending summers in Rhode Island and Maine, was a superb swimmer. When sufficiently lubricated, he could be graceful on the country club dance floor, but on dry land he was, for the most part, an awkward and hesitant biped.

Watching him swim was to witness a metamorphosis. He became a boy again, seemingly shedding not only decades, but also anxieties and doubts. His Australian crawl was not so much a crawl as a glide, his strokes propelling him forward in quick little lurches, allowing him to cut through the water the way a rowing shell does.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/19/opinion/sunday/best-places-swim-world.html?