If the definitive history of Canadian competitive swimming is ever written, the 6000 block between University and Student Union Boulevards on the campus of the University of British Columbia will deserve a chapter, if not more. This relatively compact plot in Vancouver has been or is now home to three aquatic centers … The 1954 Empire Pool constructed for the British Empire and Commonwealth Games The 1978 UBC Aquatic Centre … and now, the 2017 UBC Aquatic Centre In spite of my physical therapist’s orders to stay out of the water (I’m in shoulder rehab right now), I could not pass up the opportunity I had this past weekend to get a ‘sneak preview swim’ at the #newUBCPool. Before I swam in t

I've got various partial attempts at a 'Bucket List' of pools I need/want to swim in, as well as recommendations from friends strewn across Facebook messages, emails, tweets, bookmarked pages, Instagram posts, etc.. I began to pull some of those together this week, but the task got to be too daunting so I decided to narrow my focus: The Olympic Pool Bucket List. Huge props and a shout-out to Jeff Commings from his time as a writer at Swimming World as his five-part 2012 series "Olympic Pools: Where Are They Now?" allowed me a one-stop reference guide to the Olympic Pools built since 1908. Taking a cue from Jeff's multi-part series, I'll split this into three posts and start on a positive n

I was a busy little pool tourist in 2016, outpacing all previous years .. ...and putting me well on my way to achieving the 1,001 goal. And, while I've got a handful of pools on my list outside of the US and Canada (e.g., 3 in England, 2 in India), when I do a quick heat map of where I've swum in North America, I see A LOT of potential: As I look ahead to 2017, my new resolution for this blog (above just adding new pools and their pictures) is to add more content: my aim is to commit to one blog post a week. My ask of anyone who happens to stumble upon this site and find it worthy of a comment to do just that: please comment and let me know what you'd like to see more of and less of. Stay w