How about some reminiscing about the worst pools you ever were forced to work out and/or compete in ??
Our old pool was 20 yards long, with gutters and the deck was about 2 feet above that. The water level was always low, so it was like ocean swimming every day. There were no starting blocks and the "lane lines" were nylon cord with a plastic bobber every 3 feet or so. The water was always quite warm to accomodate the family swims and lessons that were also sharing the pool during the day.
Since goggles had not yet been invented and the only antiseptic method was chlorine (lots of it), we would have those chlorine "light halos" until the next day. The kick-boards were solid, varnished wood and they doubled as pull-buoys. There were no fins or hand paddles.
Thank the higher power of your choice that we had a GREAT coach.
Oh, did I mention that they used to beat us with knives???
Bert
Former Member
The worst pool I have ever swam in is at the Danvers Y (in Danvers, MA). 5 lanes, 25 yards, full of the aquajoggers and warm water aerobic types. the lane lines were the kind that are just glorified ropes and the chlorine level was through the roof.
as a side note, not so many people seem to be contributing to this topic thats so interesting.............
This swim wasn't in a pool, but it was BAD!!
This triathlon featured what was billed as a 1/4 mile swim. Actually the swim part was even shorter as a good part of the beginning of the "swim" consisted of running because the water was too shallow for anything else (like knee deep). Eventually the water got deep enough to swim to a marker and then turn and swim at an angle to where we had been. At the very end of the swim the width of the swim area got narrower and narrower and narrower, while the water grew increasingly dark, murky, and ominous. I swear they had us swimming in a drainage ditch of some sort. Most of us finished the swim with a water polo version of swimming - it was the only way to see.
After the race everybody found that they had all sorts of dirt inside of our bathing suits, and we took turns hosing each other down to the point of putting the hose down our bathing suits. Even so, when I went home and took a shower, I still had a lot of caked dirt on me.
It seems funny now, but at the time ---- UGH!!
The worst pool was in Titusville, Florida. The pool was outdoors, no pump, and green water. The algae in the water was so bad we could not see the wall. I swam the pool in the spring and it was extermly cold. I remember that it was so cold the coaches canceled the 500 free in concern for our health. As far as seeing the wall forget it. We put white towels in the water to get a shading difference and still hit our share of walls with the heels. This was a long time before goggles and no one had to worry about chlorine eyes as there was none in the pool. I swam that pool twice in 4 years and the conditions were the same both times.
On a happy note I now swim in a great pool in Spartenburg, SC. It is a 4 or 5 year old YMCA pool much better than the one in Columbia (see a prior post).
I just got my Masters card Friday.
Have a great day
Paul
Good lord, I've been to the Danvers Y pool...that's another one! I was just limiting it to one state, but now, you've spurred me into remembering how much fun 75% of the whole of New England was in 1977-1984. Great. Then, there's those two Y pools in Cincinnati and New Orleans. Gotta love the YMCA of America.
There are quite a few pools in New England that qualifies for this thread. One that comes to mind (with some fondness because we don't swim there anymore) is the outdoor Cambridge MDC pool near Magazine Street. (Right near " magazine beach" on the banks of the Charles to old-time Cantabrigians). This pool is 55 yards long (we did wonder if we could legally break some of the 110/220 world records). This pool has no lane lines, no painted lines on the bottom of the pool, is 3.5 feet "deep" and no markings at the wall. Our ever enterprising coach Rob Berry imported some lane lines and cleverly rigged a towel at the wall so that we didn't knock heads. We used the lifeguard stand at the side as a visual que to start our backstroke turn. The pool had a "slow" leak so that they had to refill it over night. That meant, that we had a echilly experience getting in each morning especially on those early morning workouts in late August. The lockerooms (no lockers just benches and bathroom) reminded me of a boilerroom on a slow freighter to China--only not so clean.
I respectfully defer to some of these horror stories........
Sort of makes you admire the tenacity of people who just want to swim, no matter how awful the facility might be.
Bert
Worst pool I have seen was the one I started swimming in. This one was so bad it was condemned. The water was fairly well maintained for the era so it was run well, but here are the features.
1. 2 1/2 deep on the shallow end.
2. Diving board had a square hole cut in the ceiling and a luxirous 6 foot depth to recover from the dive in.
3. Fortunately it was rectangular and not trapezoida.It had 4 lanes which were wide enough to allow circle swimming. But lanes 1 and 4 had metal rings every 2 feet the whole length of the wall. These metal ring stuck out of the wall about 4 inches, and were about 6 inches above the water. I still have the scars on my arms from run-ins with those rings.
I think it is those rings that make this pool a worthy addition to this thread. The rumor on the team was that the coach had them installed to make sure we recovered with high elbows. But I think they were put in before his time.
After reading some of the replies in this thread, I know that Fleisshaker pool would not come up in the worst pool top ten list, but I think it was an unusual pool.
Fleishacker Swimming pool was build in 1922 (or thereabouts) in the west end of San Francisco. Well it had to be the west end of the land area as it was about 50 meters from the Pacific ocean which was across a road covered sand dune.
The pool itself was 1000 feet long by 100 feet wide at both ends and in the middle it was 150 feet wide. There were lifeguard stands on both sides of the pool and each chair was about 100 feet from the other. There were also two row boats keep tied to the side next to the main entrance. It would be much easier to row out than swim out to a person in touble; and for lifeguards, who wants to go IN the water.
The pool was advertised as heated sea water. Well it was sea water and the main heating element came up at sun rise and went down at sun set. No artificial heating element here.
At the deep end of the pool was a 1 meter diving board, a 3 meter board, plus a diving tower I am guess that it was a five and ten meter tower.
Most of the pools in San Francisco are indoor for a good reason, we get a lot of fog and good pacific breeze. Unlike Masters swimmers who will go out in the snow to swim, most San Franciscans will only go to the swimming pool when it is warm and in San Francisco we have about two warm spells a years (besides the normallly warm weather in September - warm spell being defined as anything over 75 degrees for more that two consective days).
On most days there were never more than five people who swam at the pool. During a heat wave, the number could raise to a couple of thousand - as I recall, but as memories fade the numbers may have gone up. To open the pool required about a staff of eight and as I recall the admission price was $0.50 for an adult and a dime for a child. (lifeguards made about $3.08/hr)
The water was a nice green most of the year. I dont think there were lane lines on the bottom of the pool. It would have been redicoulus to paint lane lines in as you could never see the bottom of the pool. You were lucky if you could see your hand when you started your pull.
As I mentioned the pool was next to a sand dune and the wind would blow wind into the pool. So much sand that twice a year the pool was closed down for a week. The pool was drained and the sand was swept to the deep end of the pool (In the deep end there was already two- three feet of sand) then loaded into dump trucks to be carted off - maybe to the sand dune from wence it came. After the sand was all trucked out, the pipe from the Pacific was opened and fresh ocean water was pumped back into the pool.
Lake Merced, a nice freshwater lake was about 1 km away. Boating and canoeing was taught at the lake in the winter and spring. A few times, the water was too rough to go out on the lake, so the canoes were brought over to the pool and basic canoeing was taught in the pool.
San Francisco had a common key that opened most of the aquatic facilities, which most lifeguards had a copy. It was thought that if you partied to hardy, you could go to the Fleishhaker swim in the heated ocean water and it would "clear your head."
(speaking of keys to aquatic facilities. I was never officially given a key to any of the pools, but after borrowing a key - having a copy made, I had keys to all the pools. Pools supervisors knew it and when being sent to a new pool asked if I had a key to open the pool. It was a much looser time then.)
The deep end of the pool was about 13 feet the shallow end of the pool (about the last 20 percent was very shallow, I doubt it was more than two feet deep. As a kid I swam the length of the pool and it was tough to do the breaststroke in the shallow end without scraping my knees.
For those of you complaining about high clorine, imagine high clorine count in a salt water pool. Its amazing we can see.
Of course, being salt water, swimmers would ride higher in the water. The city high school championships were held at the pool in the late spring.
As all things must pass, the pool finally closed in about 72-74 (memory starts to fade here and I was out of the country during that time). Now it is parking lot for the zoo.
It would never qualify as a "worst" pool, but it was unusual. We should have thought of it as an artifical lake aquatic center. It was a lot of fun though.
michael
Peter states that Bert forgot to mention that world champions came from there. But certain pools have a certain lifespan. And those built in the 1890's are not going to be competive to those of the 1950's and beyond. It was also true with the old LA pool built in 1932. It was world class in its time but by the early 1970's it wasn't anymore. And most pools today which probably date from the 1960's need a little fine tuning and some are kept in great shape. I saw a people of the belmont shores pool at Long Beach California and it still looks good for being almost 35 years old. It depends upon the up keep.
The pool i swim in now is quite alright. It's where i've swam the most under instruction. It's a lot like some one described about a pool. It's 25 meters i'm not sure how many lanes - it's 15 meters wide i beleive. Also, i don't have much chlorine level to compare it with, but you do get "chlorine eyes" if you don't wear goggles. Though i do only get in the pool after older people and adults use it so it's not as cool as i wish it was. We have a nice depth and diving board and rope too. The reason why i said that is because i now appreciate it even more since i've read all of your posts :D
