THE SWIMMING CLASS

By Arnel Mirasol

The Swimming Class, 2002. acrylic on paper, 15.5 X 11 inches, Dr. Manolet Delfin collection

I am a Tondo Boy through and through. It is my father, Edmundo, who is a full-blooded Cebuano. (My mother, Regina, is Tagalog.) But although I was born and raised in Manila, I still consider Oslob my hometown.

During the mid 1960s, when my father was just into a few years of working overseas as a seaman, I got the impression that he suggested to my mother that we relocate to Oslob, Cebu. My mother apparently vetoed the idea; and we siblings went along with her, not only because we were only minors then, but also because we already led a comfortable life in Tondo.

I was only a year old when my parents took me and my elder sister to Oslob for a visit. It was only in 1981, when I was already 24, that I returned there. What I saw impressed me for I have always loved the sea. There is no sea near Metro Manila that would equal the pristine, coral-laden quality of the sea of Oslob (see painting above).

After 1986, I and my wife Carina, and our two kids - Bahgee and Kai - went to Oslob whenever my father was home from his trips abroad and brought us along with him for a vacation (below). Since our house there is only about a hundred meters from the beach, our visits there were always bliss for us. My kids also love the sea. They are good swimmers, having learned the rudiments of swimming from me way back when they were in grade school.

In this photo from left: myself: Carina, Kai, Bahgee, John Falsis, and Dulce Falsis

In this photo from left : myself, Bahgee, Beejay Labiste, Chris  Einar San Agustin, and Jerry Dean

Kai swimming

Bahgee swimming

They are lucky; my father never taught me how to swim. But I truly love the sea that I persisted in going on sea outings with my childhood friends, mostly at the breakwater just off the Manila North Harbor, where I almost drowned on two occasions. I almost got drowned again in 1988, in Oslob, while snorkeling with my compadre Roland San Mateo, who, being only an arm length's away , was there to save me.

After that, I made it a point to truly learn swimming. I hanged out at swimming pools to watch and get tips from the truly adept swimmers. I even enrolled in a one-hour butterfly-stroke course with a lifeguard in Malabon. which I successfully hurdled, that to this day I can say with confidence that I know how to do butterfly. Pabagal nga lang nang pabagal, dahil pataba ako nang pataba, (Only, I got slower because I began to grow fatter), hahaha....

Photo taken in 2012 of myself at Balaki Island, Infanta, Pangasinan