Swimming in L.A.

This is an ongoing chronicle of the many and varied public, semi-private and private pools of the Los Angeles area for those avid swimmers out there who want the low-down on where to dive in and get wet in our fair city.

[nevver]

Isolation party, Raphaëlle Martin

[swimminginla]

Missing you, LA.

[swimminginla]

is roosevelt pool open on sep 1 labor day??

Yes, from 1 to 5 pm!

[swimminginla]

how much does it cost to get to swim please let me know thank u

It's funny that you ask; here is what LA city pool rates are as of June 2014:Adults (18 – 64 ) $3.50Children ( 0 – 17 ) $1.00Seniors ( 65 & Up ) $1.00Persons with Disabilities (All Ages ) $1.00 Lap Swim Pass $87.50

[swimminginla]

"Social Pool" by artist Alfredo Barsuglia Click on the photo to read more from the LA Times: 'Does the Mojave desert need an artist-built swimming pool? Maybe' by Carolina A. Miranda This pool/art project is somewhere in the middle of the Mojave desert. You need a key to access it and to get the GPS coordinates for its location. You can keep the key for 24 hours and only 4 people at a time can access it. To get the key you must visit MAK Center for Art and Architecture in West Hollywood. The artistic message is meant to be one about luxury, exclusivity and consumption. If I had the luxury of time, I would so go on this adventure!! If anyone else out there is able to visit, please let swimminginla know all about it.

[swimminginla]

(via 12 Vintage Photos of People Learning to Swim | Mental Floss) These photos are mostly creepy and not wholly insipring of summer, but....

[theatlantic]

Chemists Decree: Don’t Pee in the Pool

Here’s the thing. One-piece bathing suits, when wet, are very annoying to take off. And when you’re swimming three hours a day, as I did for practice on my high school swim team, climbing out of the pool, taking it off, and putting it back on every time you have to use the bathroom starts to feel burdensome. So maybe you just… go…somewhere in between the one millionth and one millionth and first lap you’ve swum that day.

Urine is sterile, and chlorine is sterilizing, right? This is the justification we offered ourselves, to counter our shame. Plus, decorated Olympic swimmers Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte do it.

Turns out that was a pretty bad idea, for more reasons than just the ick factor. A new study published in the American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science & Technology, looked at the chemistry of what happens when urine meets chlorine, and it isn’t pretty.

Read more. [Image: Matt Dunham/AP]

[swimminginla]

From the Los Feliz Ledger: "A Possible Plunge in the [Silverlake] Reservoir?"

Community support is building for an idea that is admittedly outlandish, but wonderful nevertheless - turning the decommissioned Silverlake reservoir into a grand pool complex with a beach area and a pier! Efforts to make this fantasy into a reality are currently underway and you can help spread the word. Check out swimsilverlake.org for more information and details on how to get involved. 

My fingers are so crossed on this one, Angelenos!

[jk-lee]

Idea & Concept: Benedikt Groß & Joseph K. Lee

Graphic Design Books: Anna-Luise Lorenz & Julia Laub

Developed With: ArcGIS, Basil.js, Processing, Python, QGIS and Shapely

Crowdsourcing: Clipping Factory and Amazon Mechanical Turk

Special Thanks: Frank Weiprecht

[swimminginla]

Here is lots more on the LA pool atlas, from the co-creator of the project

[swimminginla]

"Two academics wondered about the number of swimming pools in the L.A. Basin. They got their answer with computer mapping, but the easy access to the data was unnerving."

(via LA Times: Mappers spot all the pools in L.A. Basin)

Here is Bob Pool's LA Times story on how this project, the "Big Atlas of L.A. Pools", came to be and how the researchers went about collecting and collating all this information. Fascinating! 

[swimminginla]

"The LA Swimmer — 43123 Pools I Have Not Visited and Never Will: Imagine swimming across Los Angeles as if pool-by-pool they form a river through the city; 43123 oases stitched together in a desert of hyper-urban reality. You float unabashed down your unmapped highway of water, but are confronted very quickly by the fact that you are not welcome in this realm of kidney and clover bowls, Olympic-sized parallelograms, and hot tubs. Threatened by an unforgiving obstacle course of disgruntled homeowners and an impending court order you continue from pool to pool, your reconciliation awaiting you in the next chlorinated ecosystem."

Concept & Idea Benedikt Groß / Joseph k. Lee

This video, and its accompanying 74-volume(!) "Big Atlas of L.A. Pools", is my dream come true: meticulous research + inspiration from Cheever's "The Swimmer" + maps = total knowledge of the 43,123 pools in all of LA! Amazing work here!!

[swimminginla]

(via Swimming Pools at the Beach? When L.A. Took the Plunge | LA as Subject | SoCal Focus | KCET)

Here's a lovely trip down memory lane via KCET, with lots of great photos of the many bath houses and salt water plunges that dotted the SoCal landscape around the turn of the century. I would love to go back in time and experience what it must have been like to swim in these magnificent temples devoted to aquatic rest, play and relaxation!

[swimminginla]

I am going to watch a swim meet this saturday Oct. 12, 2013 and wonder if there are bleachers and/or shade. Is there a parking charge for handicapped? Is there a fee to watch the meet?

Do you know which pool is hosting the meet?

[swimminginla]

PATCH.COM: KEEP GLASSELL POOL OPEN YEAR ROUND

Here's an interesting tidbit about one of our favorite swim spots from patch.com. This pool should be open year round, so donate if you can!

The Glassell Pool is scheduled to close after Labor Day. Due to city budget cuts, this is the first year in over a decade that the pool will be operated on a seasonal schedule, open only during the summer. For years, swimmers from all over the Northeast Los Angeles community have enjoyed this pool, which offers lap swim, lessons for swimmers of all ages, and swim and water ballet teams. It also provides life guard training to youths and hosts the Marshall HS swim team during practice and meets against teams like ERHS.

The pool needs $470,000 to remain open between September and June. Friends of Glassell Pool have launched a SWIM FOR HEALTH fundraising effort. The group is looking for local corporate and community partners to help maintain and improve this neighborhood gem. The money raised will be used to supplement and enhance the Recreation and Parks budget. Your donation to the L.A. Parks Foundation, the City of L.A. Department of Rec and Parks fiscal agent, is 100-percent tax deductible. For more information on LAPF, please visit the website at www.lapf.org. Checks are made payable to L.A. Parks Foundation and should be mailed to the LA Parks Foundation at 11973 San Vicente Blvd., Suite 200, Los Angeles, CA 90049 and earmarked for the Glassell Pool on the memo line.

For more information, contact Ronnie Solman at [phone] or [email protected].

[usclibraries]

Two women in a swimming pool of oranges, 1929. Courtesy of the USC Libraries - Dick Whittington Photography Collection.

[swimminginla]

Classic LA!

[swimminginla]

Some interesting choices here; let's call it  a random but good mix of pools and beaches. I definitely give Hansen Dam a big thumbs up, but my list would look a little different. Oh and if you want to see true kid crazyness, go to the L.A. Swim Stadium kids' pool on the weekend. It's quite a show!

[swimminginla]

Here are helicopter views of fabulous pools in some of LA's most fancy backyards....

(via KTTV FOX LA, Rick's Pick: Cool Pools! - Los Angeles Local News, Weather, and Traffic)

[swimminginla]

CHEVIOT HILLS POOL

2693 Motor Ave (S. of Pico and W. of Avenue of the Stars)

Los Angeles, CA 90064

310-202-2844

http://www.laparks.org/dos/aquatic/facility/cheviotHillsPool.htm

SUMMER 2013 SWIM SCHEDULE (until 9/1, check website above for updates!)

Opening Day – June 15

Saturday ............................... 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

June 16 – June 22

Monday – Friday .................. 2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Saturday & Sunday ............. 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

June 23 – August 18

Monday – Friday ................ 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Monday – Friday (Lap Swim) 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Saturday & Sunday .............. 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

August 19 – September 1

Monday – Friday .................. 2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Saturday & Sunday ............. 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Labor Day, Sept 2 .............. 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Pool subject to opening late on Saturdays due to Swim Meets.

SEASONAL / OUTDOOR / UNHEATED / DIVING BOARD

COST: $2.50 / $2.00 with LA library card

$55 pass for 30 admissions

FREE FOR CHILDREN / SENIORS / ADAPTIVE

It has been an eternity since I posted a proper review of an LA pool on this blog and I intend to rectify that situation right now (and celebrate the beginning of summer) by telling you a little bit about the Cheviot Hills Pool, one of my neighborhood swim spots.

This pool is perfectly decent if you are looking for a place to cool off and have fun in the summer. It is not really made for lap swimming, although they do have an hour dedicated to it from 5 to 6 pm every weekday. The pool is an antique: it is built in a style common to many LA public pools such as Glassell Park and Echo Deep, with a deeper middle area (where the diving board is) and two “wings” that grow gradually more shallow. This pool has an odd length of forty meters, while its depth at each end is too shallow for flip turns or anything of that sort. So if you do end up doing laps here, they are going to be pretty low-key. Note also that Cheviot Hills Pool has a very high gutter around its perimeter that seems to have been repaired many times, and it is tough to hold on to the edge or hoist oneself out of the pool in the deep area as a result.  

Nevertheless this pool does have its charms – it is never very busy there and Ric and I spent a fun and successful day doing suicides instead of laps as our exercise one time. It has a big deck that you can lay out on and some benches in a little shady space on the north side of the pool. The changing area is very basic and feels semi-outdoor though it is covered: it is essentially a broad hallway, where there are two long benches and a series of changing stalls (an attendant will store your stuff in exchange for a safety pin). This vestibule then segues into a second hall of shower stalls. These showers are push-button but because they are so old-school they stay on for a long time and get really warm, which is nice. Perhaps what’s best of all is that this pool is part of a huge park and recreational center where there is LOTS to do, including a 3-par golf course, tennis courts, softball fields – even an archery range and a petanque court! So you can definitely make a sporting day of it at Cheviot Hills.