[Ramius]

Hmm... no deep end, so the kids don't really ever have to learn to swim.

Yep. That'll keep 'em from drowning.

[JoeSchem]

Of course we have to ban municipal pools. Wouldn't want inner city kids to be distracted from sex, drugs, and alcohol, would we?

[Ramius]

We could be increasing the likelihood of catastrophic neck injuries if we don't aggressively sign it,"

I can't believe this guy actually said this. Signage? Uh... like the signs that say "don't pee in the pool"? Like the other signs that just get ignored?

[Sabertooth]

Hire lifeguards. No one ever broke their neck or drowned in a pool I ever guarded.

BTW, people drown at the beach. Will there be a move toward shallow oceans?

[Moose4]

True sign I saw at the edge of a wave pool in a water park near Charleston, South Carolina--"0 FT 0 IN NO DIVING".

This no-deep-end thing is getting ridiculous. Most motel and apartment swimming pools nowadays are barely bigger than hot tubs and only four to five feet deep. I love the older-style concrete motel pools with 8- or 9-foot deep ends, the kinds with the rough bottoms. Nothing like swimming in one of those at night, lit up all nice and green, to relax you at the end of a long trip.

Oh, and as for shallow oceans, aren't more and more beaches putting in lines of "don't swim past here" floats to keep people in 4 or 5 feet of water there as well?

}:-)4

[PhilDragoo]

Huh, teaching them to swim would be a threat to their self-esteem; and, tough, no-b.s. lifeguards would be too judgmental.

We will henceforth paint a large rectangle of the municipal parking lot a nice aqua blue.

There, try to drown in that.

As for diving, read the sign: No standing or stopping 6am-7pm M-F, No diving ANYTIME.

No toy guns, no dodgeball, no swimming pool.

Listen up! It's time for Ritalin! Line forms to the right!

I'm from the government. Resistance is futile.

[Rudder]

If these bozos keep this up someday the entire universe will be perfectly safe.

[Libertina]

I'm waiting for the day people will have to commit suicide to get a little excitement. This safety thing is bound to snuff out life as a result of sheer boredom.

[whereasandsoforth]

Here in my little burb we have a choice of pools. From the old deep-ender to the new water park type. There's something for everybody. But I live in Texas.

[FreedomCalls]

In Upper St. Clair, a planned water park-style pool will be 6 feet at its deepest point.

Brilliant reasoning there. Small children will surely not be able to drown in 6 feet of water. Good thing they left out the deep end, now I feel safe with my kids in there. < /sarcasm >

[gitmo]

Pools are pulling plug on deep ends, fearing safety hazard

I was wondering how they managed to pull the plug on the deep end. Reminds me of the story of the guy who drilled a hole on his wife's side of the boat.

[Think free or die]

I sure hope this trend doesn't take over the Phila suburbs next. Yikes!!!

Our kids were motivated to learn to swim so they could play in the deep end. They have a grand time jumping into the water and diving for pool toys in the depths. Without a deep end, they'd be bored to tears. Having a deep end also means that there's one section of the pool where adults can swim a bit without interfering with games of Marco Polo. Of course, that's assuming the adults can swim . . .

[Dr. Frank fan]

Fun is too unsafe. For the sake of safety, this country will outlaw all forms of fun over time.

[FourPeas]

The old-style "drowning pools" won't be missed, aquatics expert Tom Griffiths said. By having an all-shallow pool, more people can enjoy more of the pool, said Griffiths, director of aquatics at Penn State University.

In the older pools, "people were breaking their necks, so they took out the [diving] boards, but then they were left with a drowning pool. Children were sliding down that slope into the deep end," Griffiths said.

Wrong Mr. Griffiths (I shudder when I type this -- Griffiths is my maiden name), they WILL be missed. At nearly 40 years of age, a former lifeguard and avid swimmer, your characterization of the many dangers is over stated. Everything in life poses some sort of danger; life simply can't be made entirely safe. Trying to do so has created our current generation of victim whiners.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I heard on the radio last year, that many American families are removing their backyard swimming pools. I cannot say that I am surprised, with the threat of civil action looming. Also, I doubt if a pool increased your property value at all, in a great part of the country.

[Henchster]

"And less depth means less water, which means lower water bills, he said."

Do these liberal idiots actually believe this crap?

OK, you may save water on chemicals and electricity/gas with a smaller gallonage, but a pool that is simply shallower, with the same surface area, uses the same amount of water, as water can only evaporate from the SURFACE of the pool, not the bottom.

[Thud]

ping

[Theophilus]

Hmmmmm, this sounds familar. At our zero depth entry, 4ft max "water park" with slides, fountains and squirters, there have been repeated problems with ruffians who know not the meaning of "desist" and for whom the whistle has to be blown every thirty seconds. I recently remarked to my wife, that if the water depth were increased by mere 2ft, those kinds of problems (quite dangerous) would quickly go back to the public basketball courts from whence they came.

[FourPeas]

These aren't "swimming" pools, they're splashing pools. Splashing in shallow water requires much less physical exertion. Actually swimming, keeping oneself afloat while playing is much more strenuous. Article after article bemoans the fattening of America and at the same time, we're removing opportunities to exercise, because they're not safe.

I've enjoyed recent family vacations we've taken to area waterparks, but the one thing missing is the swimming. With maximum 5 or 6 foot depths, and usually one a few few square feet of these, any sort of meaningful swimming is difficult. This is sad. Mr. FourPeas may yet talk me into a pool in our backyard -- one with a deep end.

[PogySailor]

You can drown in 2 inches of water. Maybe we should just put our children in a bubble at birth and not let them out for 18 years.

How I ever survived childhood I'll never know.