Wreck-Diving.org

I’ve been a certified diver for over 30 years. Swimming on the surface is not the same as swimming underwater. I was not a strong swimmer when I got certified, but I was able to pass the swim test. I think it’s more important that you feel comfortable in the water than you be able to swim long distances.

If it was me, I would go to a local pool and practice swimming laps. You’ll probably only be able to do a few at first, but you should be able to increase that soon. Practice good form, regular breathing, etc. If you’re not sure what good form is, watch the other people swimming laps. Notice how they turn their head to breathe rather than lifting it up out of the water, how many strokes they take before they breathe, which side they turn their head to, etc. You can also sign up for an adult swim class, and get some regular training and practice.

Stay with it – scuba is great. It’s a good way to meet a bunch of outgoing, friendly people, and it can be a lot of fun to go somewhere different and exotic and go diving.

tae some classes at a local scuba school.

classes.
to know how to swim is a good basic skill to have before going to dive

Contact a scuba shop in your area. The classes is about $250 and up its been several years so its probably more now, so you kinda have to be sure you wanna follow thru. It does not take alot of swimming skill per say. I am not a strong swimmer, but I love to dive. There is classroom work then confined water work in a pool, you will tread water for like 20 minutes, float for 20, swim anyway so many yards, in my pool it was 10 laps. Then you will work on the equipment excercises in the water, and underwater. The ending tests will be open water dives in the ocean or lake. I did my class over 2 evenings and all day Sat and Sun. I chose to do my open water dives at the resort I was going to in the Caymans, much better than a lake. The only thing is if you are not going to dive often its kind of hard to keep up the skill, at least for me, its not like riding a bike. I forgot alot when I went on my last dive in Mexico, I kind of guessed at it and got it right thankfully. So you kinda need to go once a year to keep it up. It is also a very expensive hobby. My wetsuit was on sale for $200 from 400, my mask was 50 and my snorkel was 40, my fins were 65. I happened to find a sale and I did not buy most expensive.
Good Luck. Its AWESOME!!!!!