Various Pool Sizes

As a winter resident of NE Ft. Lauderdale, FL I have a membership at the Pompano Beach municipal pools. I usually swim at the main aquatics center which is usually set up for 25 SCM, occasionally 50 LCM. The other day I went to swim at the Pompano’s other pool facility, Houston/Sworn Aquatic Center. It was my first time at that pool. Thinking it was 25m, after just a couple laps, and looking at the pace clock, I realized that it’s 25 SCY. Anyway, that got me thinking about the different pools I’ve swam in, and their various sizes. That is, pools that are lined, and set up for lap swimming. What odd-size pool have you swam in?

20 yards — Oliver Bath House, Pitt, PA.

25 yards — numerous

25 meters — numerous

100 ft (33.33 yards) — Deep Eddy Pool, Austin, TX.

35 yards — Naval Station Newport, RI (two indoor pools now razed), and at Fort Meade, MD (outdoor, converted to 25m using Jersey barriers.)

50 yard — Purdue Univ Rec Center, and NAS Jacksonville, FL

50 meter — numerous (Including the Olympic pool in Sydney, Australia where I just narrowly missed learning the hard way that “circle swimming in Australia is in the opposite direction than in North America.)

Dan

Parents

ForceDJ 3 months ago

Regarding the pools in my OP that are 35 yards…one was my regular pool for many years. It was on the local Navy base in Newport, RI (I’m retired Navy), and in the 60s or 70s it had been converted from a water survival training pool, then turned over to the base recreation department and set it up for lap swimming (there were actually two of these pools on the base). I sought the answer to why 35 yards for a long time. No one knew. Then, I transferred to Fort Meade, MD and encountered one there. That’s where they had used jersey barriers placed in the shallow end set precisely to make the lap swimming area 25 meters. The remainder 9-10 yards of shallow area was a play area for kids. Someone there explained that the military built their training pools at odd lengths so that swim teams wouldn’t request use of the pool for meets since it couldn’t be used for official results.

Regarding the 100 yard pool at Deep Eddy in Austin…someone told me that in the early 1900s, 100-foot pools were a common size at high-end resorts. Interestingly, that’s a pretty cool pool. There are actually two, side-by-side. On alternating days, they’re filled with water from the Deep Eddy aquifer spring, around 75°F. No chemicals are added. While that pool is used, the other is drained and slightly scrubbed. Then re-filled and used the next day. Open every day (even Xmas I believe). Lifeguard told me he’s even sat on the stand in snow.

Dan

Reply

ForceDJ 3 months ago

Regarding the pools in my OP that are 35 yards…one was my regular pool for many years. It was on the local Navy base in Newport, RI (I’m retired Navy), and in the 60s or 70s it had been converted from a water survival training pool, then turned over to the base recreation department and set it up for lap swimming (there were actually two of these pools on the base). I sought the answer to why 35 yards for a long time. No one knew. Then, I transferred to Fort Meade, MD and encountered one there. That’s where they had used jersey barriers placed in the shallow end set precisely to make the lap swimming area 25 meters. The remainder 9-10 yards of shallow area was a play area for kids. Someone there explained that the military built their training pools at odd lengths so that swim teams wouldn’t request use of the pool for meets since it couldn’t be used for official results.

Regarding the 100 yard pool at Deep Eddy in Austin…someone told me that in the early 1900s, 100-foot pools were a common size at high-end resorts. Interestingly, that’s a pretty cool pool. There are actually two, side-by-side. On alternating days, they’re filled with water from the Deep Eddy aquifer spring, around 75°F. No chemicals are added. While that pool is used, the other is drained and slightly scrubbed. Then re-filled and used the next day. Open every day (even Xmas I believe). Lifeguard told me he’s even sat on the stand in snow.

Dan

Children

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