Swimex Pool Enclosures Blog

More than a hundred swimmers took part in the Heron Island Inaugural Great Barrier Reef swim this October.

But perhaps none stood out so much as two hearty grandmothers, who are no lightweights: Given the choice of a shorter, 800-meter swim or longer trek, they both took the latter.

Mary Davis, 69, swam the 3km length in just one hour, 55 minutes. To make things more impressive, Ann Herbert, also a grandparent, went the distance, too.

“It was the most amazing week ever,” Mary told reporters. As she described the swim in an interview: “We had to swim out 500m from the end of the island and then across 300m to a second buoy and then swim about 2km down the length of the island to the finish which was around the other end.”

Mary good-humourdly related, “(I started the wrong way and) a guy asked me where I was going.” Undeterred, the Bournda, NSW, Australia resident got the correct directions and then kept going rather than head back for the island to rest.

Coming in second to last, she nevertheless was rightfully proud of her accomplishment. “I think it is the hardest thing I have ever done in my whole life,” Mary added, “but I felt just great.”

Amazingly, both Mary and Ann took in some snorkeling following a party in honor of the participants. Now that’s good health!

Inspired? Wish you could use your pool year round. Why not consider installing of our EasyGlide pool enclosures

Swim fans and blog readers alike can rejoice: British Swimming a website we’ve referenced in the past, has guest bloggers, including swimming professionals who reveal where they’ve been, where they’re headed and the challenges they’re facing today.

Blogs can be found here. Scroll down and look to the left for a list. Be sure to click on the “Read More” tab under each entry. We were a bit confused at first ourselves at what looked to be lists of the same brief paragraph over and over. But if you can get past these technical issues, there’s some good reading here.

Swim pros blogging on their progress include Ross Davenport, Elly Gandy (from Australia), Chris Walker-Hebborn, Jazz Carlin, Gemma Spotforth and Jemma Lowe.

Happy reading! We’ll be keeping an eye on these blogs as the Olympics draw near. We have a feeling there’s going to be some exciting commentary that we won’t want to miss, and we know our readership includes a good few pro aquatic sports fans. Let us know what you think.

3. Great Britain Racks Up Gold, Sets Records at FINA World Cup

We know anyone here that’s a swim fan has already heard the news, but just in case: wow, did Britain make a golden sweep of things at the FINA World Championships last month.

The World Cup was held in Berlin and concluded the third week of October with Brits shining bright: an impressive 13 gold medals went to Britain this go-round.

But it isn’t just the glitter that’s such big news: we also broke a few records at the international event, with swimmers testing their own limits and surpassing expectations.

British swimming professionals of note at the World Cup this year included James Goddard, who set a new record in the 200m event. Also notable for an outstanding performance for Britain was Aimee Willmott, who placed proud first in the 400m at a time of just 4:34.27.

Britain also boasted its share of silver and bronze, finishing up a hardworking and very proud competition this year.

For a complete roundup of events, first place winners, finalists and news of the event, go to the FINA Berlin site. http://www.fina-arena-worldcup.com/ (Here’s http://www.fina-arena-worldcup.com/Deutsch/competition/results.html a link to results.)

Having just read about yet another school pool closing, I felt I had to comment.

If you’ve been watching the news or get a feed, you may be receiving notifications once in a while of either school or city pools closing. At the same time, for various reasons, beaches this past summer were being closed off (usually due to a danger factor of swimming in open water).

To us, “once in a while” is too often! Few sports compare with swimming when it comes to ease of movement, ease on joints, therapeutic benefits and weight control/general health. The buoyancy of water takes much of the stress off aching places and allows freer movement if performed properly. And for little ones who don’t know from aches and pains yet (lucky, those), supervised swimming has excellent coordination and overall conditioning benefits.

If your child’s school pool is closing, suggest the PTA and Governors see this school pool enclosure refurbishment video in the school suggestion box. (The same goes for your town pool.) Sometimes a simple upgrade can revive a public swim pool. We’ve had quite a bit of experience breathing new life into ailing pools at a low cost. Our school pool reviving projects are fun for students and teachers to keep track of and (safety and rules permitting) even take part in.

Don’t let this excellent form of exercise disappear from your district. Suggest an upgrade or replacement, or if you’re involved in your city administration, suggest and vote for a refurbishing of the

local “watering hole.” You’ll be glad you did.

With indoor winter swimming close upon us, we wanted to say a quick word about cold-weather swimming and water temperature.

Although a cooler water temperature on a very hot day is bracing and feels oh so good, experts warn during the winter, you should keep the pool a degree or two warmer than usual.

That’s because you haven’t been hot all day, as during the summer. Instead, in the chilly fall and winter, the body has already been working double time to keep you warmed up by the time you get into the pool.

Chilly temperatures cause the blood to be squeezed from your limbs toward your chest, forcing your heart to work harder than usual. Though this action normally poses no danger, at least to a healthy person, a cold burst in the pool places further stress on your body which is already working double time to keep your internal organs warm. Particularly for heart patients or for senior citizens, this sort of strain is best avoided at all times, including in the pool.

Warnings are particularly important for the elderly, anyone who has recently experienced or is currently experiencing illness, anyone who is in recovery (physio) for a physical issue and people who are very thin and lean, without much of a fat layer to protect against the cold.

Don’t warm up too much, though – try one degree at a time until the pool water feels comfortable lukewarm to just cool. High water temperatures can be just as much of a health hazard as overly chilly ones and can be a danger if a person grows dizzy or exhausted from the heat.

Our last bit of advice: always take a friend with you to swim. Or invite him or her over to your own pool as long as it has a retractable pool cover that’s in good repair and will retain warmth in the surrounding air. It’s more fun than swimming alone, and you’ll be able to watch out for one another. Perfect!

Is it really time to winterise already? The summer season always feels so short. Of course, it gives way to autumn’s glorious colors, which helps take the sting out a bit.

This time of year, we’re battening down all the hatches: changing our tires, weather-proofing our windows and putting up summer fun for another year. Have you winterised your pool yet? Time to do some troubleshooting, draining and covering. Not sure how to begin? Here are the basics.

1. Clean the pool. Thoroughly. The idea is to remove as much bacteria as possible and have a cleaner slate to work with next year.
2. Lower the swimming pool or drain it, per the manufacturer’s instructions.
3. Add winterising chemicals.
4. Put your pool cover on securely. Check first for holes, tears or weak areas. If it’s time to invest in a new roll out pool cover, do so now. You’ll save headaches at the start of next season when you open things up and take a peek inside.
5. Shut down and remove swimming pool power (including the filter).
6. Clean ALL units, such as the filter and motor, thoroughly per the manufacturer’s instructions.
7. Store all pool items in a dry place.

Yes, that’s it. That wasn’t so hard, was it? Getting into good habits with cleaning and securing your pool mean an easier job of it reopening and refilling next summer. Take good care of your pool now, and it will give you years of good use in the future.

We absolutely love this.

Five-year-old Kelly Loftus, Lancastershire, diagnosed three years ago with verbal dyspraxia, said her first words, and specialists are saying her swimming activities could have been a help.

Mum Kelly Loftus, a teaching assistant, enthusiastically credits the physical exercise, coordination and sociability of swimming with helping her daughter speak at last. So do some experts who have taken an interest in the breakthrough for the youngster.

According to Dr Tom Smith, who spoke to reporters about the breakthrough, “If you can find a skill that a person with (verbal dyspraxia) can excel in, it improves co-ordination…This then works to create new pathways in the brain function to overcome (the) condition.”

There is a precedence for the idea that physical coordination can lead to improved brain coordination. Some experts believe using hand signs and gestures to communicate can get typical children talking earlier and may help speech-disabled people improve their brain-oral communication, most notably in autistic children.

One thing we know for certain: supervised, gentle activity can’t hurt and can only help any healthy child. If you’d like to start your child on a physical therapy program, including swimming, have her checked by a doctor first, then proceed under his or her advice.

So if you have a pool at home one of our low cost BabyDome pool covers allows you and you children to use you pool year round, great exercise for people of all abilities.

A recent news item about a child injured in a fall at a playground reminded us that we should really be spreading the word more on rubber flooring and safety.

In fact, it isn’t the first we’ve heard of incidences like this during this past summer and fall. We all know children don’t hold back when they’re playing. It’s so easy for a child to get hurt that it’s really up to the adults (and businesses) to do a little prevention. Here’s what we recommend:

*****

Rubber safety flooring isn’t just for swimming pools. Gymnasiums, golf courses and – yes – playgrounds use them too.

If you’ve ever been on a rubber-floored play area, you know how well it “grips,” preventing many falls and slips. The difference truly is amazing v. other filling/ground level methods such as sand or wood chips.

Follow this link for additional information about non slip rubber safety flooring. Please note that if you’re a business looking to fill a commercial project, playgrounds require Grade A flooring. For other uses, see the Grade B and Grade C designations. Or call one of our representatives for advice and information on which rubber flooring you need.

Kids play hard. Spills are bound to happen. Keep children safer and reduce that risk with a “grippable” surface that won’t send them skidding. Call or e-mail us for information and price quotes.

Getting adequate exercise is vitally essential for controlling a person’s high blood pressure. Even moderate forms of exercises like walking and jogging will help significantly. However, you should work the physical activity into the program slowly and gradually. Swimming is one of the best exercises for controlling high blood pressure and is definitely not bad at all. Since swimming exercises all the muscles and joints of the body, it can effectively control high blood pressure. Regular exercise can also help people totally give up medication. In order to be able to continue swimming in the winter months also, you can install swimming pool enclosures over your pool in any design to suit the orientation of your pool.

The blue green cloudiness that sometimes forms inside the water in the pool can be from the growth of algae in the water. Stagnant water encourages the growth of microorganisms, which the algae feed upon for their survival. In order to clear the algae, you need to cut off the food source completely. You can do this buy adding HTH Super shock to the water in your pool. Follow that by brushing the walls of the pool in order to dislodge any algae still sticking to the walls of the pool. Then circulate the water by running the equipment non-stop. Then add Silvertrine, which is an effective algaecide. Finally add a water clarifier to clear the water. Having a simple roll out pool cover can also protect it from debris and also improve safety when children are around.

Retired breast cancer surgeon Roger Allsopp made news last week when he became the eldest individual to swim the English Channel.

Allsopp, 70, swam from Dover to France in 17 hours, 51 minutes, beating the record of four-months-younger airline captain George Brunstad, who made the swim in 17 hours, 59 minutes.

The Guernsey native told reporters, “I feel really, really good about (having completed the swim)… It was very hard work and I had to work all the way.”

However, Allsopp has no plans to try to replicate his feat, telling reporters, “My body has told me not do anything like this again.”

Even so, Allsopp’s achievement beats the attempts of thousands of others younger than he, which is a testament to the amazing shape he has remained in, even into his eighth decade.

Experts recommend swimming (though a much easier and less body-stressful method than Channel-crossing) for physical therapy, to get into and to maintain one’s bodily condition. If you’re not a swimmer already, take things slowly. Start by simply being in the water whenever you can and doing some simple leg kicks at the beginning. If you have never swum, seek a qualified professional to instruct you. And remember never to swim alone, even if you’re experienced in the water.

The Swimex Group can help people who have pools at home swim all year round with a range of telescopic pool enclosures which are custom designed to suit any outdooe pool.