Pools are pulling plug on deep ends, fearing safety hazard

Post Gazette ^ | June 30, 2003 | Jason Straziuso

[hole_n_one]

PHILADELPHIA -- The diving boards were pulled up in the 1980s, and now deep ends are being deep-sixed.

The rectangular municipal pool that many Americans grew up swimming, splashing and diving in is fast being replaced by shallow water park-style pools featuring spray toys and water slides.

[POGIFFMOO]

Get ready for Olympic Free-air High Diving (Imagine diving done much the same as 'air-guitar') much safer and uses less water.

[FourPeas]

It is a wonder I survived childhood.

Ain't that the truth. I look around and, yes, many of the things we did 30+ years ago (wow, I'm old) had more than a little measure of danger in them. I got bloody noses from dodgeball; I jammed a lot of fingers playing basketball and volleyball and got smacked in the face with the ball a few times; I fell off swings onto hard ground and flipped my bicycle landing on my head. A favorite neighborhood activity was jumping off a seven foot concrete block wall onto the street below. (What were we thinking?) We all survived and, more importantly, we learned from the times when someone did something stupid and/or got hurt. That was an important life lesson that I fear we're removing from our children's lives.

[hole_n_one]

Let it load, it's worth it.......

Iraqi High Diver

[Think free or die]

When we were kids, my dad would sometimes take us to a nearby swimming hole after work. It had a marvelous tree, in which there was always at least one "Tarzan" rope. The kids who were brave enough would climb the tree, swing on the rope (yelling like Tarzan, of course), and drop into the water. What a thrill it was!

Now the pond is gone. Some blithering fool drained it in order to repair the dam, but of course the dam wasn't repaired, and the underbrush took over all but a small streambed. It was good fun in a simpler day. I wish I could take my kids there when we go visit. I suspect they'd be a bit scared of the dark water and unknown things lurking below the surface. Kids today live a more sterile existence, unfortunately.

[riri]

Yep, once flipped over the handlebars attempting to go down a steep hill not holding on to said handlebars.

[Centurion2000]

So basically it becomes a giant public wading pool for kids to pee in.

[luckystarmom]

Well, I can swim laps in the pool, so I know it is good for swimming. The swim team goes to age 18, and lots of the 18 year olds are on their high school swim teams. The public school has an award winning swim team.

I know the older kids have to swim 50 feet without stopping, and most of them do that in under 40 seconds.

The swim team practices last from 30 minutes for the 6 and unders, 45 minutes for the 6-10 year olds, and an hour for the 11-18 year olds. They swim laps continuously for that duration.

I figure if the pool is good for swimming laps like that than kids can get enough swimming in it. You can also dive in 6 feet of water, so my kids are learning how to dive.

All of my kids swim better than I did at their age, and I had access to a pool with a deep end and a diving board. My parents never signed me up for a swim team. The swim team is why my kids are good swimmers.

[Nowhere Man]

As a kid, I fondly remember dropping objects to the bottom on the deep end and swimming the 10 feet to the bottom to get them. It developed good breathing, muscles and good planning skills. Six feet just wouldn't have done it. Children need this sort of activity, whether it's in swimming, biking, dodgeball or whatever. All this silly take-away-the-risk emphasis is breeding sissies.

We used to do that too, it was fun going down 10 - 13 feet and grab the object at the bottom. We used to pretend we were in "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," "Six Million Dollar Man," and so on. I miss the diving boards were you did funny dives to impress friends or make 'em laugh, cannonballs, and the infamous "Jimmy Superfly Snuka" (a wrestler) dive. B-)

We also made up a game called "Devil" where you had one guy who was "it" be the Devil and the others were "Angels" where the object is to have the "Devil" drag 'em to the deep end, then whoever was dragged became the new devil. The Devil could only spend so long in the shallow end before he had to go and touch the bottom to "recharge" or the Angels would grab the Devil, hold him to the shallow end's wall (for a 10 count) and "drain" him of power. If the Devil escaped, he would have to go and recharge. If the Devil was "it" for a long time, sometimes we'd do "rock, sissors, paper" to choose the new Devil. Every once in a great while, two Angels got dragged to the deep end and you had two Devils. Toss in some growls from the Devil(s) and righteous sayings from the Angels, you had a good time. I think in today's world, that game would be too un-PC, imagine, showing kids that it is good to fight evil. B-P

I'd hate to be a kid now.

[Exit148]

Ugh!--- to your picture in #49. Looks as much fun as sitting in traffic.

When I see pictures of people and pools, I rarely see anyone swimming. They are jumping or splashing, or just standing there. They seem to be enjoying themselves, but the only place I see actual swimming is at a pool in the Y.

The same with the beach/ocean. People float or jump waves, but there's not much serious swimming. I like to swim -- really swim. I like to get way out there and let go. Just the water, the sharks and jelly fish and me.

[luckystarmom]

The one in Texas was smaller, not crowded, indoors and only cost $3/person.

Raging Waters is out here, but it is crowded, expensive and outdoors in the blistering heat.

[FourPeas]

Lap swimming is one part of swimming, but certainly not all-encompassing. See my previous post for other types of swimming for which shallow depths are not adequate.

[POGIFFMOO]

Lawyers!!??? I have seen swimming pools in motels in this country with fire sprinklers every 4 feet above the pool. Figure that one out!

[AFreeBird]

imagine all the piss in that pool.

[Think free or die]

It's so true. Our kids are shielded from so much of what our childhood contained, that it's like another world. If all these thing were really so dangerous, none of us should have survived to adulthood, and yet most of us have. I had a lot more skinned knees than either of my boys has experienced. Our bikes were basic transportation, with the resultant falls and skinned knees. Our roller skates were the key variety, which had the tendency to fall off when we hit cracks in the sidewalk. When I think about the trees we climbed, it's a wonder we didn't fall out more often and break our necks, but we didn't. I only knew one classmate who ever broke a major bone falling out of a tree, and we all climbed trees and metal monkey bars.

Our experience of recent weeks is that part of the whole safety thing is not just fear of mortality, but fear of medical bills. Our 10 year old son has recently learned not to jump from high places onto hard surfaces and not to get too close to his brother's swinging bat. These encounters have resulted in bills to our insurance company to the tune of nearly $6,000 and co-pays for us of ~$250. All that to diagnose a bone bruise to the heel and place 2 stitches over the eye. Sigh.

[POGIFFMOO]

What a riot. At least there's no chance of drowning.

[stands2reason]

The Liberal cry: Just Say NO to FUN!! Remember, fun can kill! Circle/slash fun, etc.

[Nik Naym]

The way things are going, I envision a day when it will be mandated that EVERYTHING be made of "Nerf".

Nik

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

A sad trend, for me. What's wrong with having to actually learn to swim? Oh, the horror.

I noticed this happening in Las Vegas throughout the '90s, all of the new strip hotels featured waste deep pools where you were lucky to get 4 ft. When I was growing up, we called them 'kiddie pools'.

Moral of the story, build your own or go abroad. Switzerland has some awesome public swimming pools (indoors which means they're 365-available, warm water, and plenty of good diving area). The city I live in spent millions on a 4-pool public facility, very nice. But the forgot the 4 walls and a roof that would make them useful more than the 3 months of swimmable weather we get around here...

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

They should fill 'em with sand. Then they couldn't possibly drown no matter what they do.

Obviously the best reply to this kind of lunacy.

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

Screw the soccer, promote water polo.