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.

[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?

[July 4th]

Bingo. If a kid can stand up in the water, good luck teaching him that he needs to learn to swim.

[Ron in Acreage]

People diving in SHALLOW pools is what breaks their necks. They are now increasing that risk. It's always for "the children".

[Argus]

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

[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.

[nygoose]

I'm sure the stupid soccer moms are behind this crap. Their sons are so overprotected they will all turn out to be girley-men, if not full fledged sodomites. Even soccer has probably been re-defined as too tough for these future pansies.

[Sabertooth]

People diving in SHALLOW pools is what breaks their necks.

It's not knowing how to dive that breaks people's necks. I can dive in 30" of water and miss the bottom by a half a foot.

You know what the real problem is?

Soccer.

Kids spend too much time playing the sport of socialist Eurotrash, and don't learn how to cope with the substance that covers 3/4 of the planet.

[riri]

LOL. Aint it the truth. I refuse to buy my kids bike helmets. I just will not succumb to the lunacy.

[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 >

[Ron in Acreage]

What about shallow water soccer?

[redhead]

"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?"

I agree. I think a person can drown in a couple of cups of water. It doesn't take the deep end of the pool to do it.

[redhead]

"People diving in SHALLOW pools is what breaks their necks. They are now increasing that risk. It's always for "the children"."

Hubby's nephew did exactly this. Came home after two unwounded tours in Viet Nam, and dived into a shallow pool and broke his neck at level I. He's been dead since 1975.