I have had the idea of a retirement community centered around a 50 meter pool. There would be condos, apartments, houses and mobile homes available all very close or on the ocean for OW swimming. The Villages near Orlando just seems too big and spread out and not close enough to the ocean.
I am keeping my eyes open for a retirement community with a swimming pool/health club/social center, grocery store, pharmacy, and doctor's office all within walking (or golf cart driving) distance. If you find one, let me know!
I am keeping my eyes open for a retirement community with a swimming pool/health club/social center, grocery store, pharmacy, and doctor's office all within walking (or golf cart driving) distance. If you find one, let me know!Check out Saddlebrooke Ranch near Tucson and their Masters team, www.saddlebrookeswimclub.org/. They have a huge and engaged tean. I don't think they have a 50M pool, but my understanding is that it is a pretty sweet, active community.
I have had the idea of a retirement community centered around a 50 meter pool. There would be condos, apartments, houses and mobile homes available all very close or on the ocean for OW swimming. The Villages near Orlando just seems too big and spread out and not close enough to the ocean.
There was an attempt to build a swimming community that included a retirement community about 30 years ago and it was a success for about 6 years until folded. It had two 50 meter pools plus two 25 meter/25 yard pools and one of those could be used as an instructional pool. It also had a separate diving well as big as the major NCAA Division I programs have and it had diving towers as well as boards. It was set up to be the ideal swimming community for families and retires.
This complex was called Mission Bay and it was arguably the greatest outdoor facility in the world at that time and I would say that would be true back then. This was before Stanford, Irvine, Rose Bowl, and others who today could maybe equal but not surpass this aquatic complex. I remember the first time I visited there and I just turned 35 and it was the winter of 1987. I was shown the different homes in the subdivision and was told they were marketing to not only families but retirees that want to include swimming in their lives. They had just started a masters program and the two coaches they had at the time were age group coaches and they were from Michigan and I knew them in the late 1960's and early 1970's. There names were Phil Bradford and Larry Liebowitz and they were filling in until they hired a masters coach and by the beginning of the year Judy Meyer was hired from Univ. of Alabama, where she was coaching a masters team.
The facility was fantastic and they hired some of the best coaches in the country to coached the Mission Bay USA Swimming team. USMS had there 1989 Short Course Nationals at this facility and it was just a great place. I always wondered how they could maintain upkeep because the operation facility costs seemed to be more than what member families and teams would bring in as revenue and this would include meets. This place was the site of many national swimming and diving championships. In the early 1990's the place went bankrupt and James Brady, who was the money man that got this off the ground went into bankruptcy and some Tennis Professionals bought it and they went bankrupt.
They ended up filling the pools making tennis courts over them. Today it has changed hands and its still operating but a lot differently. Many of you out there swam at this facility either as an age grouper, college swimmer or masters swimmer. I have provided two links and one is of the past and one is what is going on today. When I saw this thread, this facility immediately came to mine especially with people wanting a 50 meter pool.
articles.sun-sentinel.com/.../mission-bayhttp://mission-bay.com/
Many of you out there swam at this facility either as an age grouper, college swimmer or masters swimmer.
My team at Michigan State did our winter training trip there my freshman year (1988-89). Awesome facility.
In addition to Mission Bay, another community that seems to have tried to incorporate swimming into its DNA is Mission Viejo.
To attract young families to the end of the road in Saddleback Valley, the Mission Viejo Co. designed its master-planned community around sports and recreation. The epitome of the endeavor was the Marguerite Aquatics Center and its tenant, the Mission Viejo Nadadores swimming and diving club.
The first families moved into MV in 1966, amid construction of the Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course, dubbed Mission Impossible – and two years before the formation, in 1968, of the Mission Viejo Nadadores. The developer, the Mission Viejo Co., supported the Nadadores financially as part of the company’s marketing efforts, and it wasn't until 1992 that the developer transferred MVN ownership to today’s nonprofit foundation.
As Skip noted, local communities have to reach pretty far to support a world-class facility, as even MV is finding:
www.ocregister.com/.../city-656388-nadadores-center.html
Check out Saddlebrooke Ranch near Tucson ...
It's getting there! They have indoor & outdoor lap swimming pools & what looks like a large fitness center on site. Not a bad choice. But the nearest grocery store is 8 miles away, a little too far for a golf cart ...
Rather OT for this board, but what do people do when driving becomes a problem? My dad, for example, is 88 years old, and in terrific health. But he has to drive everywhere. There's nothing within walking distance. In 2 years, he'll be 90. What then?
Fairfax County Park Authority. Not a "community" per se, but pretty much anywhere you live in the county you're within a short drive of a rec center, and most have pools. Two Masters programs are located here, L4Swimming and Alexandria Masters, both of which have practice day and night most every day. www.fairfaxcounty.gov/.../wp-recenter.htm
Here's my rec center:
www.fairfaxcounty.gov/.../lee-aqua.htm
Personally, I won't be moving into a retirement community until I'm too old to get out of bed by myself.:banana:
Rather OT for this board, but what do people do when driving becomes a problem? My dad, for example, is 88 years old, and in terrific health. But he has to drive everywhere. There's nothing within walking distance. In 2 years, he'll be 90. What then?Uber?
Actually, there are a few 55+ communities in the Northern Virginia/MD corridor, and they pretty much all have indoor and outdoor pools because they're meant for people who are active. Here's one: www.55places.com/.../leisure-world-virginia. They don't say how big the pool is, but I went there once for a performance and the outdoor pool looked to be the standard 25 yards.
