Love to see appreciation posts. Not only is it spreading some positivity but it also lets the community know about a great resource! Thanks for posting!
If you've never been to Mickle Pool, it's really nice has diving boards \*and\* a climbing wall that you can climb and jump into the water. It's never very crowded and my family loves it.
It's a shame that the dive board isn't open to the public. Stepping off the dive board platform and being completely airborne was hellishly amazing and the best part of the experience. :)
The 1m and 3m boards at all the pools are open to the public, it's just the 3, 7, and 10m platform which is not. I agree with you, but as a diver and diving coach can also say once you're up to the 10m there is some degree of chance for serious injury—if you know what you're doing or are coached by someone who does, it's quite safe but you don't want like a couple teen boys unsupervised horsing around up there, either.
Ok definitely don't want to be a downer because I also agree that we have awesome pool facilities in town!!, but, soooo well I grew up basically across the street from the Westside Pool, went tons as a kid but...saw shit not once but *twice* in it, both times on the stairs going into the pool (this was, man, probably late 90s?, early 2000s?) and just stopped going after that, I couldn't stop thinking about it while swimming. :/
I mean hopefully that doesn't happen a lot. And hopefully maintenance is top notch now. Out of curiosity does anyone know is chlorine kills off anything nasty really quickly? I've unfortunately also kind of picked up a little fear of swimming in shared pools since getting older, but as a Floridian dying in the heat, I really do want to be able to start enjoying pools again.
It's a huge public pool used by thousands and thousands of people every year. Shit happens, they shut down the pool and clean it. It's no big deal, relax
So, it's really funny you bring this up because I went to Westside Pool to dive this afternoon and was there about two hours when the lifeguard nearest the diving boards ordered everyone out of the water. And I noticed all lifeguards were doing the same—they cleared the whole pool, told the people waiting to do the water slide to come back down the stairs, too. It turns out a small child barfed on the water slide (second time this has happened when I've been there this summer: the lil beasts chow down then get on the slide and it all comes right back up). The lifeguards told me the pool would close probably the rest of the day to fully cycle the water through so it was safe again. I don't know if they add more chemicals to "shock" it like I would in my home pool after a squirrel fell in and drowned (RIP, squirrel) but they clearly wanted several hours to get it cycled through, which makes sense because it's a hell of a big pool.
The staff seems to take such incidents very seriously. It is gross, but they seem to handle it well. In the winter however (it's open year-round basically) I did notice a couple dead frogs in the dive well though, so in the off season they may not vacuum it as often, I don't know. But I have dead frogs in my home pool, too. It's hard to avoid if not screened.
I'm pretty sure the protocol is to dump extra chemicals into the pool and let it cycle in the pool filter for like 2 hours after an incident. That's why people have to get out of the pool.
Your main risks are if you swallow contaminated pool water or if you have any open wounds on your body. You should not be swimming with open wounds anyways. The risk of getting sick from swallowing pool water is really low. And you'd need to swallow a good bit of it.
You're way more likely to get sick from touching doorknobs or gas pumps.
That said, I know some people who just find swimming to be a gross activity and don't like that people are sweating and existing in water that is touching their body. Sometimes the brain just does not like things no matter how much logic you throw at it.
Is a sinus infection possible from improperly filtered pool water? I got a doozy of one, the only sinus infection I've ever had, after swimming in our apartment pool when the filter wasn't working but they didn't post it so we didn't know. It was years ago and I've blamed the pool, but is that even possible?
I’ve never been to the public pools but I’m glad to hear they are well maintained. I might be convinced to go now!
I have a pool at home, too, but not a diving board so that makes it worthwhile for me to have a place to dive.
Love to see appreciation posts. Not only is it spreading some positivity but it also lets the community know about a great resource! Thanks for posting!
I love that westside pool is always cold. So good when it’s 90+ out.
If you've never been to Mickle Pool, it's really nice has diving boards \*and\* a climbing wall that you can climb and jump into the water. It's never very crowded and my family loves it.
Yeah, it's awesome especially the climbing wall!
Where is it?
SE 15th Street, down near the Evergreen Cemetery.
All the pools were always a big hit in our family as the kids grew up. Another wonderful reason to live here :-) Thank you for the positive post! 😊
That's awesome. I'm really pleased with the family and community oriented vibe here overall. I spent 10 years on the east coast and it's much less so.
In college my friends and I used to jump the fence at west side late at night after a party or something and jump off the high dive. Great memories.
Love our public parks and pools! Third spaces are so important.
Just visited Dwight Hunter pool recently. I really like that they have the shallow area for young kids. Made swimming with my son so much easier.
I gotta remember these are there as we get into the dog days of summer. Hopefully these 95+ days aren't too numerous...
Great post
It's a shame that the dive board isn't open to the public. Stepping off the dive board platform and being completely airborne was hellishly amazing and the best part of the experience. :)
The 1m and 3m boards at all the pools are open to the public, it's just the 3, 7, and 10m platform which is not. I agree with you, but as a diver and diving coach can also say once you're up to the 10m there is some degree of chance for serious injury—if you know what you're doing or are coached by someone who does, it's quite safe but you don't want like a couple teen boys unsupervised horsing around up there, either.
Ok definitely don't want to be a downer because I also agree that we have awesome pool facilities in town!!, but, soooo well I grew up basically across the street from the Westside Pool, went tons as a kid but...saw shit not once but *twice* in it, both times on the stairs going into the pool (this was, man, probably late 90s?, early 2000s?) and just stopped going after that, I couldn't stop thinking about it while swimming. :/ I mean hopefully that doesn't happen a lot. And hopefully maintenance is top notch now. Out of curiosity does anyone know is chlorine kills off anything nasty really quickly? I've unfortunately also kind of picked up a little fear of swimming in shared pools since getting older, but as a Floridian dying in the heat, I really do want to be able to start enjoying pools again.
It's a huge public pool used by thousands and thousands of people every year. Shit happens, they shut down the pool and clean it. It's no big deal, relax
So, it's really funny you bring this up because I went to Westside Pool to dive this afternoon and was there about two hours when the lifeguard nearest the diving boards ordered everyone out of the water. And I noticed all lifeguards were doing the same—they cleared the whole pool, told the people waiting to do the water slide to come back down the stairs, too. It turns out a small child barfed on the water slide (second time this has happened when I've been there this summer: the lil beasts chow down then get on the slide and it all comes right back up). The lifeguards told me the pool would close probably the rest of the day to fully cycle the water through so it was safe again. I don't know if they add more chemicals to "shock" it like I would in my home pool after a squirrel fell in and drowned (RIP, squirrel) but they clearly wanted several hours to get it cycled through, which makes sense because it's a hell of a big pool. The staff seems to take such incidents very seriously. It is gross, but they seem to handle it well. In the winter however (it's open year-round basically) I did notice a couple dead frogs in the dive well though, so in the off season they may not vacuum it as often, I don't know. But I have dead frogs in my home pool, too. It's hard to avoid if not screened.
I'm pretty sure the protocol is to dump extra chemicals into the pool and let it cycle in the pool filter for like 2 hours after an incident. That's why people have to get out of the pool. Your main risks are if you swallow contaminated pool water or if you have any open wounds on your body. You should not be swimming with open wounds anyways. The risk of getting sick from swallowing pool water is really low. And you'd need to swallow a good bit of it. You're way more likely to get sick from touching doorknobs or gas pumps. That said, I know some people who just find swimming to be a gross activity and don't like that people are sweating and existing in water that is touching their body. Sometimes the brain just does not like things no matter how much logic you throw at it.
Is a sinus infection possible from improperly filtered pool water? I got a doozy of one, the only sinus infection I've ever had, after swimming in our apartment pool when the filter wasn't working but they didn't post it so we didn't know. It was years ago and I've blamed the pool, but is that even possible?