📘 Part 3: Water sports

This episode's vocabulary

Baltic (adj.) - very cold

Scuba (noun) - the sport of swimming underwater with special breathing equipment.

Parasailing (noun) - a sport in which you wear a parachute and are pulled behind a motor boat in order to sail through the air.

Resilience (adj.) - the quality of being able to return quickly to a previous good condition after problems.

Conditioning (noun) - the process of improving someone's physical condition.

Isolated (adj.) - happening alone, separately, or only once.

To confer (verb) - to exchange ideas on a particular subject, often in order to reach a decision on what action to take.

Landlocked (adj.) - surrounded by the land of other countries and having no coast.

Rust (noun) - a reddish-brown substance that forms on the surface of iron and steel as a result of reacting with air and water.

To corrode (verb) - if metal corrodes, or if something corrodes it, it is slowly damaged by something such as rain or water.

Meticulous (adj.) - very careful and with great attention to every detail.

Vigilant (adj.) - always being careful to notice things, especially possible danger.

Reckless (adj.) - doing something dangerous and not worrying about the risks and the possible results.

To be off one's head (idiom) - to be crazy, insane, or eccentric.

Adrenaline rush (noun) - a physical feeling of intense excitement and stimulation caused by the release of adrenaline from the adrenal glands.

Intrinsic (adj.) - basic to a thing, being an important part of making it what it is.

Risk-averse (adj.) - unwilling to take risks or wanting to avoid risks as much as possible.

Conservative (adj.) - averse to change or innovation and holding traditional values.

To appeal (verb) - to interest or attract someone.

To draw (verb) - to attract attention or interest.

To die off (phrasal verb) - if a group of plants, animals, or people dies off, all of that group dies over a period of time.

Novelty (noun) - the quality of being new and unusual.

To dent (verb) - If you dent someone's confidence or pride, you make them feel less confident or proud:

Riverbank (noun) - the land at either edge of a river.

To flood (verb) - to cause to fill or become covered with water, especially in a way that causes problems.

Questions and Answers

M: What types of water sports are popular in your country?

R: Despite the fact it's in the far north and the water is absolutely Baltic. I think, you could pretty much do whatever your heart desires in terms of watersports, especially in the summer. I mean, in my local area alone, there are clubs for everything, including scuba and parasailing. And that's in a small city. I'm not sure about how popular they are, though. My guess would be, compared to things like rugby and football, they don't rank nearly as high though, because rugby and football are supported by millions of people.

M: What do you think are the benefits of participating in water sports?

R: Well, at least where the water is cold, you probably get all the benefits that might come with being in cold water anyway. Like greater immune resilience and skin conditioning. Aside from the health benefits, you also get the chance to become fitter, though that's not isolated to water sports. That's something you could get from any kind of sport. Something specific to water sports might be the social advantages that it confers, since it's usually a certain type of person that does such things. And it's always cool to say that you're a trained scuba diver and watch people's reactions.

M: What are the disadvantages of water transport?

R: Are you sure you didn't mean sport? Regardless, it's going to be useless if you live in a landlocked country, isn't it? Water is, sort of, essential for both. The other thing is maintenance, as saltwater tends to rust or corrode materials faster, so the upkeep could be quite expensive. And they're both slow and meticulous, which could be quite boring if you prefer things that are fast-paced.

M: Do you think water sports are safe?

R: These days, they're probably as safe as any other sports, frankly. You can break your leg playing football, though there's less chance of drowning. Generally, though, it seems like safety equipment and procedures are pretty good as long as you're vigilant and not completely reckless.

M: Why do people want to try an extreme water sport like skydiving or bungee jumping into water?

R: Because they're off their heads. Some people just really like an adrenaline rush. So throwing yourself out of a plane or off a bridge into water is a pretty good way to achieve that. I don't think it's something intrinsic to the water itself. It's just something to make you feel alive and to show that you've lived.

M: Why do some people dislike such activities?

R: I can see more risk-averse people who are rather conservative not wanting to take such chances despite all the safety measures. This is not something that appeals to them because of their personality makeup or maybe some past trauma. I imagine a few people also find it boring if they don't like showing off.

M: Are there many people in your country who often go diving?

R: I have absolutely no idea, to be honest. I would say given the conditions in most bodies of water, i.e. it's freezing, that there aren't nearly as many as in places like Fiji or Egypt. Moreover, in those countries, there is a lot to see underwater. But in Scotland, visibility is quite poor, especially once the sand gets all stirred up, you can't really see much.

M: How do you think climate change will affect water sports in the future?

R: Well, if the sea levels rise, then there will be more space for all of those boats and divers, I suppose so. They might actually become more popular. Whether you want them to or not. Seriously, though, all the changes that come with... Well, changes in climate are destroying most of the things that draw people to the water, like the scenery and wildlife. If it all dies off, then it'll be kind of pointless. I mean, sure, there's the risk and novelty aspects, but I imagine the fact the world is dying might put a dent in your spirit.

M: Do you think schools should teach children how to swim?

R: Oh, well, in my country, at least they already do. And it's definitely a good thing too, since lots of people will go to the beaches and riverbanks, so they should know how to operate in the water or at least operate safely. It's like when we were talking about water transport earlier though, if your country doesn't have much water, then there might not be any point in doing it because there's no reason to go swimming.

M: And what watersports will be popular in the future?

R: Well, someone was talking about horse surfing, so who knows what kind of crazy combination they'll come up with next, but perhaps something like that. I don't know if it'll be popular or not, though. Which water sports now might be more popular? That could be something like... Well, just swimming in general, especially if the sea levels are rising and more places are experiencing flooding, then this is an important skill to have.

Discussion

M: Thank you, Roy, for your answers. Yeah. Horse surfing, dear listener, can you imagine? You can just Google horse surfing and you'll see this picture with a rider on a horseback and then a person just on this board in the sea. It's crazy.

R: It's cruel.

M: But like a horse is just like, you know, you can ride a horse on the beach. The horse, I think, is happy. The water, kind of like fresh, the breeze...

R: They will never cease to amaze me how unbelievably lazy people are. Just go surfing somewhere. Why do you need a horse?

M: New water sports pop up. So you can go all right, so maybe some new water sports such as horse surfing or underwater walking. They put some stuff on your head, a kind of like a helmet kind of thing. And you can just walk on the bottom of the ocean.

R: How is that different to scuba diving?

M: I think they put things only on your head. You don't have a tank.

R: Oh, God, that sounds terrifying.

M: Yeah. And also, you don't swim. You walk. You walk... You know, on the sand.

R: You can do the same when you're scuba diving.

M: Really?

R: Yeah.

M: Just walk? But you have special... What do you call them? Flippers?

R: Fins.

M: Fins, oh, yeah. Fins on your feet. So it's not really comfortable to walk. I don't know. You know, it's very strange. But the topic of water sports does require certain vocabulary, dear listener, and certain knowledge. So maybe go to Google, google water sports, choose four, five names. Maybe some crazy names for you to mention for this topic, okay? Rory told us something about scuba and you just didn't say scuba diving, but you just said scuba. Scuba. It's enough. It's kind of... We understand that it's scuba diving, right?

R: Yeah. There's no other time when you're going to have self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, which is what scuba stands for.

M: Parasailing... Oh, gosh, what is it?

R: It's when you attach a surfboard to a kite and the kite guides you along.

M: Oh, okay. A kite.

R: It's a bit like horse surfing, but, you know, it doesn't involve laziness and animal cruelty.

M: Oh, gosh.

R: I should say before before we started this recording, I was watching a film called Dominion and now I just feel I'm all for animal rights. Maybe I'll calm down later.

M: So what water sports are popular in your country? You can say, oh, like in terms of water sports, you can do whatever your heart desires. So people do whatever their heart desires, so whatever they want.

R: Yeah. Although, I would like to point out that I wandered away from the topic. I was supposed to talk about which ones are popular, but I don't know what's popular. Like, you can do whatever you like. I'm more about doing whatever you like than things being popular.

M: Yeah, you mentioned scuba and parasailing and then you compared them to rugby and football. Like, my guess would be compared to things like rugby and football. Scuba diving, and parasailing don't rank nearly as high. So rugby and football rank high, so they're super popular, but water sports don't rank nearly as high, so they're not as popular as other sports. But in terms of popular water sports, you can mention surfing, kayaking, rafting, wakeboarding, windsurfing, parasailing, right? Water skiing. So just they're popular everywhere, water polo, kite surfing. So pretty much in like everywhere. Also now stand up paddle boarding is really popular. This, you know, sups or paddle boarding. Paddle and boarding one word. So stand up paddle boarding or paddle boarding, they are really popular in pretty much all the beaches. You can see these paddleboards standing there. Free diving, sailing, rowing, you see? There we go, dear listener, now you can answer questions about popular water sports. And even if they are not popular in your country, just name them. So the benefits of water sports, if the water is cold and in some places like Scotland the water is always cold. Then you get some benefits like greater immune resilience. So greater immune system. So you are resilient to different diseases. You swim in cold water, which makes you, you know, tough. And then you kind of you don't catch colds, but your body, your immune system is resilient to different diseases, you know. It's just like it doesn't get ill. You don't get ill. And also skin conditioning. What did you mean by...?

R: Cold water is good for your skin If you are having a shower and in the last few seconds that you're having a shower, if you switch the water to cold, then it's better for your skin. It's to do with making the pores open and close.

M: There are health benefits. Well, if the water is cold, but some people do engage in water sports in cold water, but other benefits, you can become fitter so you can keep fit and also social advantages. Like it's cool to say you are a trained scuba diver and Rory, are you a trained scuba diver?

R: Well, I am a qualified scuba diver. I haven't been scuba diving in quite some time, but yeah.

M: Wow. If you stop doing this podcast, if you stop teaching, you can just go out there and teach people how to scuba dive.

R: I can't teach them. No, I could do it myself. I don't think I could teach other people how to do it. You have to do a separate qualification for that.

M: Oh, okay.

R: We had a great question. The third one.

M: Yeah. About water transports. Yeah, dear listener, they can ask you questions about water transport.

R: What a random question to ask.

M: No, I think like some questions could be about water sports and other questions could be about water transport. So the advantages, disadvantages of water transport. Maybe like will people use water transport in the future or is it popular in your country. So please be ready to talk about water transport and the disadvantages of water transport. It's going to be useless if you live in a landlocked country. So a landlocked country, we don't have access to the sea.

R: Yeah. So water transport, you probably won't do. And then if we talk about water sports then... I think most landlocked countries don't really have many indoor swimming facilities either, so they're just not going to have the opportunity to do that many water sports.

M: Water transport. We talk about ships. What else is included in water transport? Different... What do you call them? Ferries. They go from one island to the other. Ferries. Ferries, ships, yachts, I don't know, boats, boat taxies. Like in Venice, for example, there are a lot of ferries. They are kind of like local taxis. And you can say that maintenance is expensive. So to maintain these water transport vehicles, to take care of a ship or take care of a boat is expensive. So we call it maintenance in salt water is expensive because salt water tends to rust materials, so the materials get rusty. You can see this orange thingy on the materials. Or corrode, you said. Salt water tends to corrode materials.

R: Yeah. Rust is specifically something that happens when iron is exposed to... I think it's exposed to moisture. But corrosion is the whole thing. It's for other metals. Science.

M: Yeah, and this is a very good idea, yeah? So the disadvantages of water sports, there we go. Maintenance is expensive, salt water corrodes the materials. So the upkeep could be expensive. Another synonym for maintenance is upkeep. So how do you, kind of, take care of your boat? Or your yacht? Or your speedboat, for example? And also it's slow. So there are like these huge ferries, huge ships which are very slow. And if, for example, there's a storm, there's a sea storm, like nothing works. So you pretty much can't go anywhere. You can get stuck on the island. So yeah. But so what could be the advantages of water transport?

R: If you like a more relaxed pace, then it's good. If you don't like flying.

M: So those people who are afraid of flying, this is a good option. And also you can enjoy the views. So people who enjoy water, it's just maybe more comfortable and there are very comfortable ferries. There are VIP services. So yeah, it's kind of like a comfortable way of travelling. And there are speedboats as well, so maybe it's the fastest way to get to a certain island or the only way is by a speedboat or by a ferry. And then we are back to water sports. They are safe, they are probably as safe as any other sport. So we make a comparison as safe as. But then you can break your leg playing football. So you can break your neck playing rugby. You can break your leg playing football.

R: You can.

M: Yeah.

R: But there's less chance of drowning. And what I meant was, you know, there are some unique dangers when it comes to swimming or water sports, but it's not... I don't think they're that serious or that there's a high chance of it happening.

M: And then you say like safety equipment, safety procedures are pretty good, right? So they tell you what to do. They keep it safe as long as you are vigilant and not reckless. So if you are reckless, you're crazy, you disregard all the safety procedures like, no, I don't need a mask. I don't need this jacket, life jacket, yeah? You just dive in there. So that's reckless. But what do you mean by saying vigilant?

R: You need to just be on the lookout for things that could go wrong. So have this awareness and be ready.

M: Could you give us a sentence? One more example?

R: Of course. When doing watersports, it's important to be vigilant because safety is important.

M: Extreme water sports. Like skydiving, you know, you jump from a plane into water, yeah? People do that because they're off their heads. So to be off your head is to be bonkers, to be crazy, to be nuts. And some people like an adrenaline rush. So when adrenaline kind of hits the blood, like, oh, yes. And they throw themselves out of a plane or of a bridge into water, yeah? Bungee jumping, when you jump from a bridge into water. Risk-averse people, who are they?Risk-averse people.

R: People who don't like risk. So they try to avoid it. If you're averse to something, then you avoid it.

M: So risk-averse people, people who don't like risk are more conservative and they dislike extreme water sports despite all the safety measures. You can also say, that such sports don't appeal to them. So they don't like such sports. Such sports don't appeal to them or for other people extreme water sports appeal to them, so they enjoy them. Many due to past trauma. So something in childhood, some traumatic event happened and people dislike water. Yeah, some people are afraid of swimming, maybe because something happened in their childhood.

R: Although, it's important to point out that not everybody that doesn't like to do water sports has had trauma. They just don't like it.

M: If you don't know the answer to the question, you just say, I have absolutely no idea, to be honest. That's fine, dear listener. It's okay. Then you say something else. So Rory told us about bodies of water. So a body of water is like a lake or a pond or a river. A body of water, water, bodies. And in some countries, people go diving because there is a lot to see underwater. So you see a lot of things underwater.

R: Like in Fiji, in Egypt, there's lots of coral reefs and there are reefs in Scotland, but you just couldn't see them because there's all the sand.

M: Yeah, so the visibility is poor, you can't see anything because of the sand. So the sand gets stirred up.

R: Yes.

M: So kind of like everything sandy and you can't see a thing. A question about climate change and water sports. Oh, gosh.

R: Yes. And you could tell I was bored at this point.

M: Oh, yeah. You started this science. If the sea levels rise, there will be more space for boats and divers, hey! So if the sea levels rise, then there'll be more water. So more sea for divers and boats, hey.

R: But to be honest, like I was obviously being... I was joking. I don't think that that's a good thing at all. Because if that happens, it will really affect how things in the water live and work together.

M: Yeah. And then, Rory said, seriously though, the changes that come with changes in the climate are destroying most of the things that draw people to the water. So maybe some good changes, or ir may not be good changes. Like what they are destroying? The scenery and wildlife, right? So the marine life, sea life. It gets warmer. Something happens to the wildlife underwater, yeah? And also like vegetation, underwater vegetation, coral reefs. And something can die off, okay? So wildlife dies off because of the climate change.

R: Well, that just means it all dies because of something happening to it.

M: Children should be taught how to swim at school. Hmm. Not all the schools have swimming pools. It's a great school, if a school has a private beach, can you imagine? You go to school and okay, beach time, everybody! Let's go to the beach.

R: I remember, I don't know if it's still true, but there is a school in Thailand, language school. They were looking for teachers and they had their own private pool in the school. And it's like, oh, that's so nice.

M: Chiang Mai.

R: Is that it?

M: Yeah. In Chiang Mai they have a swimming pool. Amazing.

R: That's awesome.

M: They run celta courses for teachers. Awesome. Yeah. But at school we need to ensure safety. So can you imagine all the crazy children swimming around? And, Rory, you used a synonym, it's a good idea to teach people how to operate in the water, how to operate in the water, it means like how to swim? Really? Operate in the water?

R: Yeah, like how to operate, how to be...

M: Active, how to just move your arms and legs in the water. Yeah? Did you mean that?

R: How to be active in the water. Well, yeah. How to operate, how to work, how to move and things. You don't like operate?

M: No, I just think it's very formal. It's very technical.

R: Okay.

M: But, well, still, it sounds good. How to operate in the water, how to kind of move underwater. Thank you very much for listening. Have some nice time in water or without it, okay? Please do your research on water sports in your country, right? And have a list of three/four names for water sports you'd like to talk about. And we'll get back to it in our next episode. Bye!

R: Bye!

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