Re: fear of water
I used to be so scared of water. I wud look at it from distance and wud get dizzy spell or something. But I had an approach since childhood, whatever scares me, I try to do it more to get the fear out! I was scared of dark as a child. I started sitting in the dark room alone, until I didn’t fear anymore 
Water? Yes scary. But do you know the main reason for drowning is our fear and panic? Have you tried floating? You lay your whole body relax, and you don’t drown, but the moment you panic, you actually force your body weight down the water. If you leave your body relax, you will eventually come up the surface (reason why dead bodies come afloat…lolllz)
Swimming pools are good start. Try mastering, holding breath under water. In shallow water (abt 3-4 feet), sit down in the bottom. How? Breath-in and blow it out slowly while going down. Empty your lungs of the air, if your lungs are full of air, you won’t go down. So try to go down, by slowly breathing out and sit at the bottom for as long as it makes you comfortable. when you want some air, just stand up calmly and ur head will be out of water. I know it may sound difficult to do, and I tried with a friend who could not do it in the start but later on, it came easy. Stay in shallow water and try relaxing exercises, sit or lay in water, float as much as you can (floating is easy in little deeper water (4-5 ft deep).
About beach: I know I still can’t swim in deep water but I try playing at the shore. stay at the start, where waves bring the foam of waves. Sit there, play with it and start getting into water slowly. Make sure you wear a life-vest, that protects you and it gives you huge confidence. I have been in the ocean several times with life jacket, just playing with water, jet skiing or even hydrosliding. I had the life vest on so no fear of drowning. Even when I got into water, and ended up gulping some of that bitter salty water, I had the confidence that life-vest wud make me come up the surface. So Life-vest actually takes the fear out that you wud drown (God forbid). Be careful at the sea shores, the tide comes with such power that it has thrown, beaten me on the ground several times, lolzz.
So take it slow and try to control ur fear/panic. Start from shallow water 3 ft, where wud u drown in that? 
then start slowly going in deep water. IT won’t be quick. It’s easy and quicker to learn as a child but much more difficult when you are grown up and I satrted learning as an adult so even now, I can’t be on the deeper end of the pool, but can play with shallow water though 
Good Luck :biggthumb
Oceans scare me. They are like monsters ready to devour you. They are huge, we are so little. Even the pool at time seems like its there to just eat me up and let my dead body float