November 1, 2024: a few of my favourite things
Happy November everyone.
I have a few news articles to share before we get to some new products I'm really excited about.
Winnipeg seeking input on outdoor water park for St. Boniface
This seems like an about-face after plans to close 20 outdoor wading pools and replace them with 10 splash pads over the next six years. My previous comments about why that's a really bad idea are here. Click here for the official background from the City of Winnipeg about why they want to build a "water park." Click here to see design proposals and the resident survey.
Alberta Mounties seek more witnesses to girl's drowning as major crimes unit takes over investigation
Trust that I continue to follow this developing story closely.
Brazilian Influencers Drown at 'Devil's Throat' After Refusing to Wear Life Jackets to Take Selfies and Tan
Brazil is a completely different country from Colombia, however I was still surprised to hear about this incident after having a very positive experience on a speedboat tour out of Cartagena last year. The tour operator was militant about having every passenger properly clipped into the right size of lifejacket. Our tour also did not appear to be the exception: Coast Guard officials were walking up and down the piers and everyone seemed very committed to water safety in these boats that go extremely fast through bumpy open water. The comments on the article show us that we still have a ways to go when it comes to adult water safety. 🤦♀️
After 3 years of waiting, Port Hardy pool operating and under budget
This community in British Columbia just spent $5m to keep their 45 year-old pool running. Honestly, that's what it takes. The sooner other jurisdictions realize this, the better chance we have of slowing down our future recreation infrastructure collapse.
The ABCDE’s of Water Safety for Children With Autism
This is a free Zoom event in November for parents of autistic children. Statistics vary by region, but children with autism are at significantly higher risk of drowning fatality than neurotypical children because of their heightened interest in water.
One of the reasons I enjoy going to pool/recreation conferences & tradeshows (like my recent trip to WWA in Las Vegas) is to see what challenges other operators are facing, and how they solved them. I also pick up ideas from other industries that are adjacent to aquatics. Sometimes all it takes is a fresh set of eyes to solve the obvious.
Note: these are products I found through my own research and interests. I do not accept payment for promotion, endorsement or referral bonuses. I just love these products or think they meet an otherwise unmet industry need.
AGL Synthetic Grass
If you haven't thought about artificial grass as a transition or landscaping around your spray park or splash pad, it's going to come up in the next five years as we wrestle with global warming. From droughts and water shortages to hotter temperatures that make bare concrete scalding to little feet, this was a really exciting (albeit expensive in terms of longer ROI) product that helps the pool operator not fight with mowers who leave grass clippings on the pad to end up in the filters.
Blue-White A1A FLEXFLO
If you watch the video, so many features of this peristaltic (chemical feeding) pump have me excited. Adjustable feed in liters or gallons. Lockout system. Self-priming system. It's *chef's kiss * for a lot of the problems we face as operators.
MecH2O by Aquatix
What you mean to say is that I can put my entire spray park mechanical system into one box and I don't have to deal with permits to build an entire structure?! This won't work for every facility, location or system complexity, but definitely a win for many.
Loungenie
As someone whose phone is often dead at the beach from taking hundreds of photos and videos and also wants to lock it up while going into the water, the idea behind this product immediately resonated with me. I also saw these in use at the WWA reunion party at Cowabunga Canyon.
AquaZip'n
Honorable mention to this product that was hugely popular when I featured it recently on Instagram. I don't think it completely replaces a Tarzan rope, nor does it appeal to all ages, but it is a nice option with a relatively small deck footprint and it keeps the lifeguards happy (because teenage boys aren't high enough to do back flips!)
Hot Pod Yoga
Yoga, what? Bear with me, I know some of you are recreation or facility managers with other activities in your portfolio. As a hot yoga aficionado who also understands the challenges of heating a retrofitted space or older building, I was amazed to try this inflatable dome yoga while in Chester, England earlier this year. I haven't seen this product or franchise yet in Canada. The dome itself would fill a huge gap for a lot of multiplexes throwing a lot of money away heating the fieldhouse for a 10 person weekly yoga class.
Don't forget about Daylight Savings Time for some of you this weekend! I've got it tattooed on my forehead due a 8am swim instructor inservice this weekend.
All the best for a great week.
Katie Crysdale
Lakeview Aquatic Consultants Ltd.