Swimming in the water here at my home on Manido-Mnising (Manitoulin Island) on Lake Huron in Ontario, Canada, is sacred to me.

Every year, there is only one priority in my life that comes above all else in Summer: Swimming the rivers and water surrounding the Island.

I grew up in water, on it, and around it. Most of my life has been spent seeking to learn how to swim in harmony and balance with nature. 

There is a way to swim that is not taught to us. How we are taught is not a natural way to swim. What we are taught, in the usual standard YMCA courses or typical swimming schools, is virtually the most inefficient way to swim possible. 

It is out of alignment with the Spirit of Water and all that lives in it. 

I am here to spread the word that there is another way to swim—an easier, better way to swim that allows us to be at One with water (Nii Bi), and everything in it. I also submit that one of the best places on earth to do this is where I live, on Manitoulin Island, the world's largest freshwater Island, and the Fourth Great stopping place of the Anishinaabe people.

To understand how to swim in these amazing waters, first I have to explain how I came to be on my Spiritual “swimming” journey.

I have been swimming since I was old enough to crawl. But my real journey started when I was 26 and was exposed to the teachings of Tom Brown Jr. 

For those who do not know, Tom Brown Jr. (recently passed on to the Spirit world) was a preeminent teacher of tracking and wilderness skills. 

Although highly controversial, Tom Brown Jr. showed the world how to properly track, have nature awareness, and teach many lost skills. Tom singlehandedly restored many lost wilderness skills to Europeans and Indigenous peoples. 

Tom's claim is to have been taught from the age of 7 by an Apache elder who had no contact with the European settlers, and gifted Tom with his knowledge. 

One of Tom's teachings that particularly influenced me was his tracking skills and nature awareness philosophy. Awareness in nature is a dynamic art, where the one who is tracking can become at One with the land and the animal being tracked. 

Around the same time I discovered Tom's work, the second life-shaping event that would lead to my swimming skills and philosophy was when I came into contact with a Haida Elder at a two-week teaching circle. Her name was Rosy. 

On the last day of the teaching circle, as we were walking around the circle to exit, she put up her hand and stopped me. She then pointed her long finger at me and said in a forceful way: 

“You have Dolphins swimming around you!”
“You go home and learn about Dolphin medicine!" 

I was shocked and honoured at the same time. Dolphin medicine!? I loved water and swimming, but had never seen a dolphin, captive or otherwise in real life. Nevertheless, I had always felt a strong connection to those beings. 

Of course, when I got home, I spent every waking hour studying and learning what I could spiritually and physically about dolphins, and particularly the Orca or The Great Black fish, as it is called by the West Coast tribes. 

I did not have any one moment of revelation about how to swim. My way of being in water was something that evolved out of years of swimming in the Lake I grew up on as a child, and countless hours swimming in fast water rivers, waterfalls, and diving off train bridges. 

Slowly over the years, especially the year or two following my life-changing influences, I came to a clear and very key but powerful understanding:

There are no long-distance surface swimming animals in nature! 

Whales, dolphins, etc. all display the same incredibly efficient movements. They swim below the water, and surface through a wave, but generally not above it. 

They swim as an undulating wave, mimicking the movement of the waves on the surface of water. All whales, dolphins, and orca swim according to nature, in the way of water, in a wavelike form, through and under the water, only breaking the water at key intervals to breathe. Their bodies are perfectly shaped for this. By doing this, they decrease all friction, and swim effortlessly. 

This is the most natural way of swimming!

We had got it wrong. What we are taught in modern swimming is to swim on the surface. The butterfly and the front crawl are prime examples of inefficiency. Both of these swimming methods require the body's torso to be out of the water, especially lifting the arms out of the water—and in the case of the butterfly stroke, the torso is airborne. Back crawl is the same. All of these strokes require a tremendous amount of energy to keep momentum going. This is why they are so tiring and only a few expert swimmers can do these for any length of time. 

Does this seem natural to you? 

Manitoulin Island has been my home for the last 25 years. I hand-picked this location because of the water. If you are looking for the most amazing swimming experience on earth, you will not be disappointed. 

The Island is peppered with incredible lakes, rivers, and best of all, the incredibly clear waters surrounding the Island. 

One of the best places to go and swim is at the lighthouse at Meldrum Bay. You will love the cold but clear water there. 

If you can make it to the Lighthouse, I have swum that area for years; it is without a doubt one of the most pristine places on Lake Huron. Be prepared for some cold water, though. If I had longer to discuss this topic, I would explain how to deal naturally with cold water, but that is beyond the scope of this article. 

Another fantastic place to swim is Little Current. Be warned though, in summer there is a lot of boat traffic in the channel. 

So to play it safe, I recommend a swim around the shoreline of Goat Island, an island that sits right outside the swing bridge which connects Manitoulin Island to the rest of the world. Goat Island offers beautiful cool water to jump into and just watch the sunset in. Both the east side and the west side of Goat Island offers good swimming options. and is usually free of boat traffic. There are many places to dive, freedive and just practice the Dolphin stroke.   

Another amazing place to swim locally here is South Baymouth. 

This is a swimmers’ or freedivers’ paradise. Rocky outcrops, and shoals in deep, crystal-clear waters offer the adventurous swimmer hours and hours of water time that you are likely to never get bored of or forget. 

So how do you swim, in the way of the Orca?

Well, that is something I cannot teach in words.

If you are highly intuitive, or if you have an understanding of what shapeshifting is, then you will easily figure it out. 

In any event, I can offer a few tips to maximize your enjoyment while swimming the surrounding water of Manido-Mnising (Manitoulin Island).

1. Learn to swim with some good fins. Ideally a monofin for the deeper waters, but they can be adapted to pretty much anywhere. I ALWAYS swim in fins. 

This gets me the closest to being able to swim like an actual Black Fish (Orca). Fins allow for longer travel distances, and they help to develop the emergency speed needed in a critical situation. They are essential. Once you get used to them, you will never want to swim without them. In my opinion, they are the Great Spirit’s gift to mankind to allow us to swim with the water beings.

2. Learn the drownproofing technique.

This was taught to us growing up. It now seems that this incredible technique which can be used for everything, from saving your life when tired to meditating in the water and increasing your freedive times, has been taken out of mainstream swimming courses. Many times, this technique has saved me from drowning when I was too tired to swim anymore. It is sadly missed, and for water lovers, it really is an absolute must know!

3. Practice the Dolphin kick. 

This is one of the few techniques that can be transferred, albeit at the highest levels, from mainstream swimming lessons. Think of moving like a wave while in the water. Practice going slow and fast. A whale has an emergency reserve of speed. They are able to accelerate to nearly 40 km/h when needed, but usually prefer to travel slowly.

4. Swim slowly. 

Traveling slowly is the mindset of the Anishinaabe while walking in nature. The First Nations people always understood that to hunt, you had to be quiet. You always walked, slowly and softly, to respect the earth and all that lived in it. 

There is something called the Foxwalk, which allows you to "feel" the earth with your feet so you do not trip on roots, rocks, or other objects.

This way of walking makes us stealthy and it also connects us to our surroundings. The same is true while swimming.

Nature tends to show us more when we are relaxed and at peace internally. 

Trying to swim fast all the time defeats the purpose of swimming in a way that is in balance and harmony with water and Nature. 

5. Arms are always outstretched to make your body as narrow as possible. 

This may seem awkward at first but in time, it will be second nature, and you will immediately notice that if the head travels first, it is nearly three times as much resistance as when creating a slender shape with your body to move through the water.

6. Learn to breathe. 

Dolphin is about Breath. It is about sound and Harmony. Dolphin represents the connection between the elements, water, and air.

Dolphins live in water, but breathe air.

The water teaches us how to breathe if we listen to it. 

There are ways to increase your dive times, if you’re interested. I won't go into them here. Seek out a professional freedive instructor to help learn these techniques. 

Lastly, there are endless places to swim on Manitoulin Island. There are people who dive here, both freediving and standard compressed air assisted diving (scuba).

If you are looking for a place to get the most out of the hot weather, if you are seeking adventure in a way that connects you to water, if you are interested in being immersed in some of the most powerful healing water on earth, then Manitoulin, the Fourth Great stopping place of the Anishinaabe people and its water, offers the opportunity of a lifetime: to experience what it means to truly swim naturally. 

It is the only place I would ever be in summer. It is by swimming in these Great waters in the way the Great Spirit gave us that allows us to connect with ourselves and the Spirit world using the way of water! Miigwetch! 

Water~Man grew up in the Precambrian shield area of Northern Ontario, where he learned to swim whitewater at an early age. He was given many of the teachings of the Ojibwe/Algonquin Culture and the Northwest Coast Indigenous people. He first gained recognition for his swimming ability in Little Current, Ontario, by swimming the dangerous fast currents of Lake Huron's North Channel. In 2016, he received his Eagle feather in ceremony. Water~Man continues to live his vision to help others through the traditional Ojibwe language and teachings and through his own journey.