August 15 2006

Text By Greg Fallis

Some people are born to water. It is, for them, an all-embracing element; it surrounds and supports them in an amniotic cuddle. Those fortunate few seem to know instinctively how to move through water, how to move gracefully against it, how to shape their movements to its requirements.

Some fear the water and avoid immersion in it, seeing it as alien and dangerous. Others appreciate and enjoy the water, but haven't a true affinity for it. No one, I think, is indifferent to water.

Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel, once said "When we’re in the water, we’re not in this world." The truth of that statement is never more evident that when we get to watch those who are at home in that aqueous world. Their dreams rise like bubbles, and like bubbles they disappear before we can grasp them.