Leisurely days: leisure pools are taking over the traditional recreational facility, attracting more attendance and activity
For years, the residents of Lawrence, Kan., spent summer days by a large, rectangular swimming pool. Children splashed in smaller, shallower rectangles playing Marco Polo, while adults swam laps until it was time to go home.
In 1994, the town’s leisure pool underwent a major makeover. The Lawrence Parks & Recreation Department received a significant sum of money from the city, thanks to a tax increase. With the funds, the city gave its pool a face-lift and the ability to net a wider audience.
“We learned you could attract different markets by adding simple things like a zero depth,” says Jimmy Gibbs, aquatics supervisor of the parks & recreation department. “You add a whole new age group with infants and toddlers and their parents, and make your facility handicapped-accessible.”
A year later, the city was introduced to a $3.2 million, state-of-the-art facility. Nowadays children, and adventurous adults, zip down two water slides or splash in the kid’s area, complete with interactive play features. The main pool still contains a 50-meter competition area and diving well.
When the facility reopened, attendance shot up from an average of 400 to as many as 2,500 patrons per day. In fact, adding waterpark features to leisure pools attracts more participation year ’round, experts say. While traditional lap runs are still alive and well, the enhanced recreational facilities have found a way to bring more people to the water.
In the mid-1980s, the rectangular community pool began to take on new configurations. At the same time, the waterpark industry was growing at an incredible rate. It was the thrilling action of the waterpark that municipalities tried to mimic in their community pools, says Treadwell Jones, director of Larkin Aquatics in Kansas City, Mo.
For years, there was a clear distinction between waterparks and the typical box of water, but now that’s changing, aquatics experts say. “Everyone is starting to do a smaller scale waterpark at the community pool,” says Lee Yarger, coordinator of aquatics at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. “They realized that the draw is the waterpark, and they are losing market share by not catering to that crowd.”
Child’s play
Once upon a time, jumping off the high dive was good enough for most children. Today, they can choose from a selection of attractions: wave pools, water slides and other thrill-type activities. Shooting water cannons and sprouting rain showers also provide high entertainment value to small children.
“You’re serving different populations,” says Mindi Epstein Brooks, director of communications at the Arthur M. Glick Jewish Community Center in Indianapolis. “The younger kids enjoy the splash and play area because it’s safe, and parents can watch them with ease.”
The JCC, which underwent a $4.5 million makeover and reopened in 2003, opted for a wading pool with interactive sprays and a beach-entry. It also added two slides (a 125-foot-long tube and 150-foot-long flume slide) and a lazy river, winding around 300 feet in length.
But pool designs needn’t be complex to please a crowd. For kids, sometimes the simplest things are the most popular, such as splashing in a zero-depth waterfeature. “You constantly find tots sticking their hands in [a fountain] when there’s a $20,000 play feature behind them,” Jones says.
To swim or not to swim
While leisure pools often are equipped with sprays, fountains, beach entries and the like, many operators still find there’s no substitute for the traditional lap pool.
“[Lap pools] have their need, too, for competitive activities and training, along with the health aspects of doing laps with aerobics and therapy,” says Duane Wepking, aquatic project manager at Ramaker & Associates in Sauk City, Wis.
“Unless the business planner is focused on competitive swimming and training, it would be limiting to open a pool and expect it to succeed,” he adds.
Most leisure facilities offer traditional swim teams and water aerobics, but also are incorporating therapy into their programs. For example, the JCC has a competition pool and team, and offers lap swimming and lessons. Its therapy pool features a hydraulic floor that adjusts from 0 to 6 feet deep for people with injuries or health problems.
Experts say that basic lap runs lead to other aquatic activities, such as water polo and synchronized swimming, which require a traditional pool. Swim lessons and lifeguard training remain popular choices in aquatic activity.
Still, in the midst of all the slides and rushing water, aquatics professionals say it’s important to remember the aging population. Yesterday’s lap swimmers are becoming today’s resistance walkers as the baby boom generation reaches retirement age, says Steve Blackburn, principal and vice president of Barker Rinker Seacat Architecture in Denver.
“There are 76 million baby boomers in the United States, and every 17 seconds we get another person who is 50 years and older,” Blackburn says. “It’s going to have an enormous impact on the way we design pools.”