I forget how old I was exactly, but my sister who is 2 1/2 years younger than me was in the pool with me so she had to be old enough to be in that pool so I'll estimate 5 - 7.
It was just a kiddy pool though. Hardly big or deep enough to actually swim in, but my dad taught me how to swim Freestyle and made **** sure I knew how to do it before he let me go back inside.
Then at some point, I was probably 8 I think, I went on a field trip to a public pool with my summer daycare and they forced every kid to wear a life jacket unless you could prove you knew how to swim. So every kid who wanted to swim without a life jacket lined up and got tested. That's the first time I recollect swimming in an actual pool seriously. Before I would sort of wade or just doggy paddle everywhere. Actually, I seemed to instinctively know how to doggy paddle from the first time I was ever in a pool, according to my family. I don't really remember all of that though, because mentions of baby life jackets were made. Regardless, according to everyone who saw me swim as a baby I took to the water like a fish.
But anyway, the first time I took the swim test though I got halfway done and next thing I knew I was sinking and then was getting dragged back up by the lifeguard who was in the water already. When i got out I got asked if I was alright and crap and they told me to rest but I was just like "I wanna go again", I said while I was still hacking up some water. They still told me to wait until everyone else was done then I could try again. As it happened though, half the other kids who were wanting to test saw me sink and decided "oh hell no" and got out of line. The others passed their test but only made it to the middle of the pool (we swan the width, the shorter part, btw) but by doing that you still got stuck in the shallow end so I had the nerve to then go and swim down to the end then back again which I wasn't really supposed to do but I was last in line now anyway so they didn't really care.
But then I got to go diving, so **** yeah.
The story of my life has been "I almost drowned?! **** that, let's go again!" at least where water is concerned because I have actually almost drowned a few times. Anyway, pretty sure I was about 8. But I've always took to the water pretty well. There might have been a time at the public pool when I went with my family but because they were there I didn't have to wear a life jacket, so I think maybe my dad might have taught me how to swim there also... actually, I know he did, I clearly remember my complete and utter failure at the Backstroke and hitting my head a lot on the walls. God I hate Backstroke, I like to see where I'm going!
Well anyway, then in middle school, 8th grade, I started up in pre-competitive swimming where I learned how to perfect Freestyle, then learned how much of a failure I am at Backstroke and Breaststroke. The latter of which was due to the fact my boobs literally got in the way. The mechanics of the stroke make having bigger boobs not optimal for it. And I had DDs at the time, mind you. And the former, as I said, I just couldn't see where I was going so I was always zig-zagging everywhere and couldn't stay in a straight line to save my life. Then came learning the Butterfly and, not to toot my own horn but, I kicked everybody's **** at that once we all finally got the movements down, and I got the movements down faster than everyone else. Supposedly it's a ****in' hard stroke to do and I'm just all like "wait, wut? It is?" yeah, they didn't like me after I mentioned how easy I found it.
Of course nothing ever happened with it since I have stage fright and therefore we quickly discovered relays were not an option for me... but boy were my teammates pissed the first time it happened. Ugh...
Still, it was fun, and I really did kick **** at Butterfly. So much so that before my stage fright was discovered my coach would sometimes have me working on just the Butterfly while the others practiced like normal. Because Butterfly is the hardest and it's also the last in a relay. So whoever swims Butterfly is the one who makes the biggest difference in a race. I was fast and my teammates were all pretty fast in their own strokes, but I would have been what made the difference if some other team were just as fast as they were. Because I was supposedly unofficially ranked higher than beginner. I should have constituted as advanced for the Butterfly stroke, according to some people. Or at least competitive. Classes are like pre-comp, competitive, and advanced. I was in the first so my Butterfly was ranked higher than my class. I swan on a higher level, basically.
So by having me swim Butterfly I was like a sure-fire way to win or at least come in the top 3 if the other teams were pretty fast. Because it's rare to find people who are just naturally good at Butterfly and then perfect it (like me) so I wouldn't have been likely to have much competition in that area. So basically I was there to make up the slack but due to my stage fright this never happened.
Anyway, I think I quit right before starting 9th grade. So I was in it for around a year. But for a whole slew of reasons I just couldn't keep doing it. I kinda regret it now... but at least I still have my boobs, which just remind me that in the end I made the right choice. Basically though, I've always been a good swimmer since the first time I was in a pool. I loved being in the water. When I was much younger a part of my saw it as something that I was just better at than everyone else I knew. No one I ever knew was ever quite as good as me overall. I could hold my breath a long time plus I was faster than most in spite of my obvious disadvantages (namely bulk and lack of any physical prowess whatsoever).