what's the deal with mixed swimming?

in terms of?

swimming in a mixed crowd why do us MO do it is there a basis for it in halacha?

If you do it, it sounds to me like you'd be best positioned to answer your own question.

i do it because every one else does it, but now that i think about it iam just trying to figure out why we do it?

oh, i don't know; sorry. i don't do mixed swimming.

Because you are sinners who only follow halacha when convenient???

because you want to go to the beach?

Is there any halachic reason that mixed swimming would ever be ok?
and I don't think it's a MO thing, I know a lot of MO people who won't mix swim and a lot of yeshiva people who do (especially on a beach in cancun where they assume no Jews are)

Well I'm not an expert in this area, but it seems like the issurim are for a man to see a women in a bathing suit, and a woman to expose herself in front of men.
It seems like there might be ways to get around both issurim (man not to wear glasses so he can't 'see anything', woman to wear a bathing suit or other garment that covers the areas that need to be covered) but I still think most people that hold that it's a problem wouldn't swim with other members of the opposite sex that they know. It's probably best not to do it at all. I'm not sure where a heter of people who know each other and swim in regular bathing suits can be found.

why does it matter if they know each other?

same here

I would guess that it's something people have been doing and it's hard for them to give up so they just don't think too much about it. This doesn't answer your question in terms of halacha but it seems to make sense given what I know about human nature.

'Cuz if they know you, then they might tell on you. Best leave it to Cancun, where (supposedly) no Jews are.

Yes, we modern orthodox are so dumb. If only we modern orthodox could be more like those smart chareidim, which we're not, because we're modern orthodox, us.

One could make the argument that you're there to go swimming, not to appreciate nature. I guess it's a question of degree. I would go walk on a beach on a fall day, even though there will likely be one or two people there in bathing suits. Other people might go in spring, when there'll be a couple dozen. Other people might say, screw the rest of the people, I can swim no matter what they are wearing.

Seriously? So according to these people you mentioned mixed swimming is OK as long as no one on the beach is Jewish? How do they know that no one on the beach is Jewish? Do they ask everyone? Hand out a survey?

I know tons of Jews who've gone to Cancun. If the beach being free of Jews is their supposed justification for mixed swimming then I don't know how they can say that there are no Jews there with a straight face (ignoring for the moment whether it would be allowed even if it was true that no Jews were on the beach).

I'd also like to know if this logic can be applied to other halachic matters.

And what's the deal with New England? It's not new, and it's not England!

Speaking of new and deals... what's the deal with the New Deal? It was neither new, nor a deal?

Let us not forget the Holy Roman Empire....

...nor chilean sea bass nor egg creams...

Didn't egg creams used to have raw eggs in them back when people were more manly???