I’ve got a theory now that lifeguards or pool supervisors enjoy shutting off the pool for bad weather so they don’t have to work. I’ve been thinking this has been the case, now I am quite certain of it. Let me say right now that I am not complaining about shutting down the indoor pool when I see lightning or hear thunder, “in the vicinity.”
Heavy rains and dark clouds, ONLY, ARE NOT GROUNDS for closing the pool. The lifeguards should keep on working and sitting in their high chairs and not quit on us and make us get out.
I find that where I swim they are lightning quick to shut the whole thing down over absolutely nothing.
A mere strike of lightening 4000 miles away in California, as seen on the weather channel will cause all of them to stop pool work, and go mess off, where I swim. Earthquakes in Oregon…floods in Africa will “close the pool” where I swim.
“Did you see that mudslide in LA?”
“Yeah.”
“But we are here in Little Rock.”
“I know. State health department rules: Shut down the freaking pool, now. Let’s go to the break room.”
Thunder in the far off horizon in Kamchatka will do it, too.
The sounds of transport trucks or bulldozers 2 miles away pounding on road, since it might be thunder, means “close the pool” where I go.
I mention this because I suspect a heavy rain is fixing to fall and knock me completely out of a swim workout today.
Oh it’s no secret, life guards love to close the pool. It means them getting paid to goof off in their break room.
I know quite a few life guards, they are not always the most motivated people in the world, but they’re not all bad. I’d just mention to their supervisor/ or the person in charge of the pool, tell him that you pay money to swim and that you don’t appreciate getting kicked out of the pool for frequent false alarms. That should take care fo the problem asap. If not, time to find a new pool.
I know there are times when it is only prudent to shut down when lightening is in the area. And most lightning occurs with the leading edge of the storm, so I don’t have to see it to believe it is coming. But what really gets me is when the pool staff continues to roam around the pool deck, while they force everyone else into the locker rooms. I was at a swim meet in Central Florida, outdoor pool, lightning detected somewhere in Florida. The pool staff shut down the pool and meet, in the middle of a race! They herded everyone into the locker rooms, where we waited for 90 minutes until the meet director cancelled the meet. During the whole 90 minutes, the pool staff roamed around the deck, cleaning up and performing their end-of-day duties. I asked the person in charge, asst pool mgr, how it was safe for the lifeguards to be on the deck and around the water while it was unsafe for the rest of us and she told me she was just doing her job and if I didn’t like, I could speak to her supervisor! Needless to say, I wrote a nice letter to the city manager, citing the asst pool mgr’s total disregard for the safety of her staff!
I lifeguarded summers in college For insurance purposes, we’d have to shut down any time there was a storm watch or warrning, or tornado watch or warning anywhere in the county.
Never mind that the storm was actually 20 miles north of the pool, there really wasn’t a chance of a tornado here and that it was sunny, humid and 85F, we were required to close.
I like that concerned “look” they give you when they shut it down. Its sort of a “I can’t help this, this is just the way it is…you can wait this out…”
Like it wasn’t up to him but rather to science: like he’s one part meteorologist and one part electrical engineer.
I can’t complain about the outdoor pools (municipal) here in Manhattan though. These guys sit in the pouring rain (I guess not to happy though), as long there is no lightning. Kind of nice actually, to swim in the rain.
It may help that we have this competition between the pools. People count their laps and the pool with the most yardage wins something. So the lifeguards are also pushed to their competitive edge.
My old pool (outdoor) had some on going heater problems. One night, a guy in the next lane was swimming in a wetsuit and I was envious. A few nights later, I had just completed my warm up when the gas heater blew up, blowing both doors off of the control room on to the ground (about 10 feet from the pool). No one needed to tell us that the pool was now closed.
“It is never too late to fix your childhood!” Tom Robbins
I don’t think they ever shut our pool down for weather. It seems like the only time they turn the heaton is in the summer to boil us. It got so bad one year people were jumping into cold showers between sets.
They do ocassionally chase us out for a “code rainbow” (kid puke) or other gross things that kids sometimes do.
I workout at a private university long-course pool with a top-tier Div. I swim team. The swim team “officially” begins their workout right at the end of my workout, but half the team is there early warming up during my workout, and the coach is there, too. The coach doesn’t let them close the pool. I’ve been there working out on very cold, rainy days where the life guards were up in the seats with rain gear, sweaters, stocking caps, scarves and gloves. I can only recall one day in the past 3 years when I showed up and the pool was closed.
The university I swim at has two pools. One routinely shuts off the lights and locks its doors before the weatherman gets the word “rain” out of his mouth. The other (the main pool) will stay open through a hurricane.