October 4, 2024: deferred costs

Welcome back everyone. I've got a real potpourri of topics in this week's newsletter, so sorry-not-sorry if you don't immediately see the throughline that's obvious for me! One of the Aquatic Industry Insider topics that keeps getting punted (ha!) is deferred maintenance

September 27, 2024: lessons from the Titan submersible

Happy Friday! As if I don't have enough going on at this time of the year, I've been absolutely riveted by the YouTube livestream of the US Coast Guard hearings on the Titan submersible. It's a textbook example of project management failure, but it&

September 20, 2024: drool in the pool

Happy Friday! Fresh off of teaching a Certified Pool Operator (CPO) class in Calgary, I wanted to comment on new facility trends. I don't think we can necessarily extrapolate a wider aquatic industry shift from what I'm seeing, but I do think all three of these

September 14, 2024: why I'm spending 50% of my work hours on YouTube

Good Morning, YouTube has become a big part of what we're doing at Lakeview Aquatic Consultants in 2024, so I thought I'd share a little bit about the why & how. Prior to the Pandemic, my use of YouTube at work was limited to playlists I

September 6, 2024: all quiet on the Western Front

Happy Friday for those off work on Saturday & Sunday, and a big THANK YOU to those who work a different schedule to support evening & weekend aquatic/recreation staff. I heard a podcast recently that talked about September 1 (after Labour Day) as the second biggest "New Year&

August 30, 2024: news roundup

Good Morning, I fully realize this email is standing between you and a relaxing long weekend, so I'll keep it as brief as possible. ICYMI we have a developing aquatic/recreation infrastructure crisis. Many swimming pools were built to celebrate Canada's centennial (1967), and now we&

August 23, 2024: are swimming pool assaults increasing?

Friends, we had a technical glitch: last week's newsletter was not sent out as an email, but it was published to the site. Please click here if you'd like to read it. For the first time in over a decade, I decided to take a two

August 17, 2024: Lazar Dukic, CrossFit drowning fatality

Welcome back, or welcome if you are new here. These weekly emails are an opportunity for me to share what I'm reading and thinking about the aquatics industry after Bill C-18 shutdown sharing news on Facebook in Canada. Let's jump right in. CrossFit Games Suspended After

August 10, 2024: unpopular opinion, but there is NOT a lifeguard shortage

Good Morning, I've worked in the aquatics industry for how long - 20 years?! - and my mother is still taken in by clickbait instead of actually asking me what's going on. Here's a recent text message: TL;DR as I say in a

August 4, 2024: aquatics at the 2024 Paris Olympics

If you run an outdoor pool, hang in there: we are less than 30 days away from Labour Day and your reprieve from summer staff shortages. I don't know about you, but I have been on a steady diet of replaying Olympic Swimming narrated by Byron MacDonald (who