Copyright, 1910
by
American Sports Publishing Company
New York
INTRODUCTION
❧
Oh, do you remember, how, when a small boy in the country, in the months of April, May, June, July, August and September (it mattered little what time of the year it was, just so the ice was out of the water), you used to run to the river at a “twelve-second gait,” make two simple twists of the wrist, thereby removing a waist and pair of trousers, and plunge into the water with speed equalled only by the rapidity with which you say your prayers on a cold night? Of course you do. Great fun, was it not? I used to think there was nothing like it. I could not get into the water quick enough. That was before I learned to turn the “back” and the “flip,” however.
After I learned to turn the back and forward somersault, when I was about eleven years old, I would linger on the bank, or soft sandy beach, “tumbling,” until I saw the other boys coming out to dress, then I would dive in, swim a few strokes, just to say I had been in swimming, come out and dress with the rest.
Like the proverbial “Wandering Willie,” the water lost much of its charm for me after I found what royal fun the turning and twisting on the bank afforded. I have wondered many times if the Almighty, when He created beaches like Manhattan, Rockaway and Nantasket, making them slope gently down to the water, and put the soft, but not too soft, yielding sand there, if He did not think how admirable they would be to “tumble” on.
Any one who has experienced the pleasure of a few “backs,” “flips,” “snap-ups,” etc., on the soft sand, immediately after donning the light bathing suit, will agree with me that it is “great fun.” And he who has never been taught, never practiced any acrobatic work, I hope will begin “easy” at first; a few simple feats and practice carefully every opportunity he has.