I have to admit, I'm spoiled. Masters at a local university. Coach creates workouts for us each day. Only 4-5 of us in the pool. Each get our own lane. Proper etiquette in the locker room.

So that basically makes you a denizen here ;-)

There are no speeds in any lane in any Hong Kong pools

Inevitably every lane has floating seniors who stop for no reason. It’s an utter shambles

I swim at my local YMCA. Over time I’ve sort of figured out the best times to go to limit the amount lane sharing I have to do or at least minimize it to lane splitting as circle swimming is next to impossible there. There are no slow or fast lanes and it’s mostly people swimming strictly for fitness. They’re not training so they’re doing slow breaststroke/sidestroke/???? and aren’t the best at swim lane etiquette. The pool only has 4 lap lanes max.

I swim in the sea - I've gone head to head or fist to head many a time. I now swim outside the shark nets.

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My race site: https://racesandplaces.wixsite.com/racesandplaces

More of a locker room denizen situation......


I swim when the Y pool opens at 5:30am. Being in my late 40's, I'm by far the youngest person in the water most days. One of the older guys is a kind of update central on the whereabouts/medical issues/family matters for all the other swimmers. He and I have lockers next to on another, and he provides me with all the intel on our swimming friends every day. "Shirley that's been swimming here for the last 40 years, you remember her? She passed away last week. Jim in lane 5 had two stents put in earlier this week. And meanwhile, the other Jim from lane 2 is out in Colorado visiting his grandchildren".

Really nice guy. I don't know how he manages to obtain and recall all this information. He does this after his workout which usually includes a 500fly (at a slow loping 3:30/100scm pace). Good on him for that.

Haha. That is pretty funny that being a spoiled swimmer makes you a denizen. I am similarly spoiled. This is after work (5:30?) at my pool (which is open 5am - 9 pm). If you squint, you can see somebody on the wall in lane 3. I think the last time I shared a lane was a solid 10++ years ago. This is actually a major factor in why I am willing to pay for the high cost of living here.

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Hillary Trout
San Luis Obispo, CA

Your trip is short. Make the most of it.
https://www.slogoing.net/

What pool is that in SLO?
For my next visit to that great area.

Phone Lady
She’s on overweight lady who comes to the pool daily, 7 days a week. She places a bottle of blue liquid at each end of her lane, gets in, then stands at the wall and pokes at her phone for 20 minutes before starting. I’ve timed her, and it’s consistent. Then she “launches”, with her head out of the water, in a slow, smooth breaststroke like stroke with her body at a 45 degree angle. It’s like her head is moving across the water alone.
After 50-100m, she stops and pokes at her phone another 10-20’. Repeat. She uses a kickboard to float the bottle of blue liquid to the far end of her lane, and returns it that way at the end. I’ll swim 90 minutes, and she’ll get in maybe 500m, at best. I’m sure there are a lot more calories in those 2 bottles than she is burning.

HK pools are nice, but the patrons are unpredictable.

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"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5

Paddle Board Guy

In a three lane indoor lap pool, a man appears out of the locker room with a paddle board almost as tall as him. He asks to split the lane with someone, who I imagine is confused beyond belief, and proceeds to paddle on his board back and forth for at least an hour.

This is the Cal Poly competition pool, which is next their other Olympic sized pool. Both highly recommended. Also great is Cuesta’s Olympic sized pool. Cuesta’s doesn’t require a membership.

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Hillary Trout
San Luis Obispo, CA

Your trip is short. Make the most of it.
https://www.slogoing.net/

Today in the lane next to me... A guy on his front with his feet hooked up on the deck and two of those "dumbell" thingies they use for aquasize (one in each hand). Maybe practicing some kind of stroke? I was in the middle of my set and tired, so I didn't get a good look at what exactly he was doing. He finished up just as I finished my set. Very disappointed. :(

Which pool? Maybe I can keep an eye out and ask him for workout advice :-D

At the local pool in Gothenburg, Sweden, there is a pretty large changing room with an open area next to the hair dryers and mirror wall. There is also a long shelf in front of the mirror wall (which stretches about five meters wide) where people put their deodorant, hair gel etc. when drying and making themselves look pretty again (yes, men do that in Sweden).

When I came there to dry my hair I noticed from a bit away that someone had put all his belongings on the shelf in an I-am-homeless-and-this-is-where-I-keep-my-stuff manner. Not too strange, but a bit unusual since there are plenty of lockers and you get an electronic key when you enter. Anyway, coming around the corner of a row of lockers, I found the owner of the belongings in the middle of the open area by the mirrors. He was a very well-groomed man in his sixties-seventies with no hair except a soul patch on his chin and - for some inexplicable reason - on his balls (don't ask why I know that), who had placed his yoga mat on the floor and was performing a naked quadriceps foam roll exercise resting on his elbows and, sort of, also on his penis (well, to be accurate, the tip of it was more of dragging back and forth on the yoga mat).

I didn't know what to say or do as I was equally disturbed and fascinated by this completely unrestrained gentleman. So I dried my hair in silence and positioned myself in front of the mirror to have my image blocking my view of him. When I was going back to pick up my things at my locker the man had switched to stretching his hamstrings, standing up, knees slightly bent, back straight, arms forward reaching for the ground. As the clock had just passed 09 (at which time senior citizens may enter the pool for free and there is normally a line waiting to enter) a lot of people were coming in to witness his gymnastic display, his behind turned firmly against the passage everyone passes on their way to the lockers.

I don't consider myself prude by any means, but this... I just don't know what to say.

Wow. I didn't realize how long it had been since the last report of a denizen. I guess Covid put a beat down on our ability to observe these wonders in their natural environment.

I'm back at my pool three nights a week, and I am starting to enjoy the lane reservation policy. It is a bit strange and the pool is much more quiet than when there's a bunch of swimmers sharing lanes.

Along with the new policy has come a shift in who's showing up to swim (and when they are swimming). I used to be a 5:30am swimmer, but now I'm in the pool at 7:10pm. So far, I'm batting 1000 for having a 20-something male in the lane next to me. It has been a different guy every night so far, but each night, there has been a young guy in the next lane. As an added coincidence, each night the swim trunk cladded pool warrior on hand has chosen to "race" me for one or more 25m stints (as I am swimming 100's, 200's, etc.). All of them have been pretty fast for a 25 despite the added drag of the swim trunks.

Hopefully more folks are getting back to the pool and getting to see their resident denizens.

I feel like I should start a Strange Denizens of Open Water.... I haven't been to the pool, but the scariest denizen of open water is the one who shows up with a snorkel and mask-goggles and very ill-fitting wetsuit. Our regular group politely starts asking questions about their swim background. They usually have been swimming in a neighborhood pool (ie, 15 yards). So we take them out in the ocean...

The other OWS denizen is the young post-college kid swimmer who covers 500 meters in choppy water in 5 minutes and then gets cold waiting for the rest of the group and then starts thinking about sharks while waiting alone and then doesn't come back out.

I guess OWS denizens don't have much staying power.

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Hillary Trout
San Luis Obispo, CA

Your trip is short. Make the most of it.
https://www.slogoing.net/

So yesterday I became the Strange Denizen of the Pool when I went to the pool and completed the Iron Cowboy Challenge: 43 100’s on the 2:00 to recognize his completion of 50 Ironman’s in 50 days on the way to 100.

My moment came when I accidentally showed up and swam with my swim suit on inside out!

Anyone willing to share where they were the Strange Denizen of the Pool?

I have; I think I even shared this story way back when this first thread first began but it’s worth repeating. When I first got interested in triathlon (this was in the late ‘90s when I was in my early 30s), I went to the local Y for my first swim workout and a kids swim club had just finished practice. I jump in and start bombing down the lane as fast as I could, head out of the water whipping back and forth, arms flailing away and splashing water everywhere. I get to the end, turn around and repeat the same thing all the way back. I touch the wall and am gasping for breath, my chest pounding and I was legitimately afraid that I was having a heart attack. A bunch of the swim club kids (looked like 8-yr olds) were still on the deck as I got out of the pool, ran to a trash can in the corner and proceeded to puke my guts out in front of them.

I went in the locker room, changed real quick and went home. I don’t think I was even gone for 15-20 minutes when I got back and my wife asked what happened, so I signed up for swim lessons to learn proper technique.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

I usually swim during our local pool's public swim time, and there's always a couple of guys down from the gym trying to swim laps in those big swim trunks, tarzan-style with no goggles on. I guess maybe they feel self-conscious about wearing the tighter brief-style suits (kind of like wearing bibs for the first time), but all I can think about is how much harder that would be.

That said, the other day I lost my swimsuit and had to swim in a bright red Pamela Anderson bikini that was only holding on through the flip turns through some kind of divine intervention, so I'm hardly one to judge..

Only just seen this, but if this second one isn't me....

I mean slightly younger and slightly slower but if I go for an open water swim with people from my tri club being a stronger swimmer I'll swim out to the buoy we're swimming to, stop and kinda wait as there's normally a range of abilities. I'll start to get cold/nervous and swim back out to the others and swim with them for a bit, before heading in to shore and remembering why I like lakes/pools/swimming in races where there are others to eat who might be more of a meal than me nearby.

Best thing about it is I'm doing this swimming in a shallow bit of sea between the coast and an Island that blocks off this bit of sea at only a mile out, and am swimming parallel to the coast at a max of 50m offshore, and the scariest thing someones seen in the water in living memory is the people cooling off after parkrun in it!

replying to last post.....

There are always "strange denizens" in most public pools. Even in a wealthy ski town (only pool I have access and it's still a bit of a drive for me), there are those pool dwellers who get a second glance or are downright distracting and annoying.

We have this one older lady who does over an hour of non-stop breast stroke (she must have IT bands made of steel). Normally I wouldn't notice or care, but she swims very close to each lane line and comes close to kicking me if I share a lane with my significant other where we circle swim. So now I make sure I don't book a lane next to her. She books the same lane so I book on the other side of the pool.

Last Saturday an older guy stopped swimming (my husband thought it might have been a cramp). And for at least 30-40 minutes he just stared at the rest of us swimming in the middle of the lane. I try not to let this stuff bother me but it's distracting and I found him to be a creeper.

Sharing a pool with strangers is not my cup of tea. The Endless Pool on order can't come soon enough. I am a hermit. And it gets worse as I age.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

We have this lady from Eastern Europe swimming early in the morning like 6-7AM everyday for 30 min no matter what. I don't know the water temp but during winter, outside temp is like 35-50F. It's dark too but she keeps swimming. How????

In my early days of triathlon and when I was at my lightest I would buy lyra speedo type suits. I didn't realize how much chlorine affected them until I looked in the mirror and my crack was visible through the suit.

I now wear only all-poly jammers!

I had a female split lanes with me despite open lanes -- I always swim to one side so I'm not interrupted for sharing requests. I thought that was strange, but as I stopped to changed drills she started to flirt with me. Totally flattered as I'm definitely not an adonis, however who comes to the pool to flirt and decides a person you just seen swimming is a good candidate?

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Swim - Bike - Run the rest is just clothing changes.

Dick Gawker

A few weeks ago I met a nice guy at the pool. He's a bit of a novice swimmer and asked where I found my workouts. I exchanged numbers with him and texted him a few base workouts.

I meet him there the next day, and dude is just staring at my junk the entire time we're talking. He's not even trying to hide it or look in another direction. I'm pretty fit and do have abs, but it really weirded me out. My gf made a joke that she would stare too. I told her "Yeah but you're a chick. It's totally different when a guy stares".

The next day I see him again and immediately he's fixated on my lower region. I'm about halfway tempted to crack on him with a comment like "Take a picture it will last longer". Lmao.

Interestingly enough, I did have a lady also look directly at my junk at the same pool a few months back. She did look away as she caught herself doing it. Funny thing is that never happened at my old pool over a period of years, or I didn't notice. Full disclosure, I wear a race cut Speedo, but still I'm kind of taken aback by the staring. Maybe it's time to get some jammers?