Rest Break: International Swimming Hall of Fame

The 50-year-old International Swimming Hall of Fame has long been a must for any visit to Fort Lauderdale. Aquatics are on a pedestal in this collection that is part historic, part fine art, and part kitsch. John and I explored the museum the day after his birthday swim.

There are many points of entry to the collections. Whether you are interested in competition and records across all aquatics disciplines, swim technology and gear, civil rights, gender equality, swim history, notable figures, fine art, or memorabilia, you will find plenty to enjoy here. One of my favorite displays includes Gertrude Ederle’s self-fashioned bikini and memorabilia from her return to New York after her record-breaking swim across the English Channel. Videos of great moments in Olympic competition are always fun to watch, too.

If I were to make any suggestions, it would be to add modernizations such as video touch screens and an interactive database of Hall of Fame inductees, especially to engage with all the young swimmers who find their way here. A bit more selectivity in what makes it onto display would also help. (USMS pin collection: I’d nix you.) Finally, the “international” angle feels half-baked. Why not be an unabashed booster of U.S. swimming?

Unfortunately, Fort Lauderdale has become disenamored of this trove, so the Hall is being wooed across the country to Santa Clara, California, where it may set up in temporary quarters as soon as this summer. During my visit back in March, it seemed that a decision on when to pull the plug was imminent, but nothing is set as of yet, and there are still some working to keep the collection in Fort Lauderdale. The loss would be not just Florida’s but the whole East Coast’s, as the balance of power in swimming tips ever westward.

#85 and 86: Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex

Location: Fort Lauderdale Beach, Florida

Configuration: 2 50-meter pools, one set up long course with 10 lanes, the other short course (25) yards with 20 lanes

Fee: $5 nonresident day pass

Fort Lauderdale is where I crossed the line from recreational pool user to addict. It took multiple exposures for the addiction to set in, and now the responsible pools are endangered, a troublesome development for this junkie.

My first visit here was inauspicious. It was January 1993, and my college team drove down in a van from Connecticut, leaving behind our new 50-meter indoor pool to cram workouts into a single lane alongside dozens of other northeastern teams. We stayed somewhere inland, equally crowded, and had to jog to and from the pool complex. I don’t remember much else about the trip except toasting my 21st birthday at the Elbo Room. Driving, running, cramped swim conditions, and an infamous beach bar–not much to like there.

You know you’re at Swim Camp when your hotel room looks like this (2007).

Fort Lauderdale redeemed itself on my second visit, in 2007, for my team’s annual Swim Camp. Wisely avoiding the crush of collegiate teams, TNYA plans its camp for early spring, when the cold in New York has gone on far too long and Florida is all but guaranteed to be warm and sunny. We took over a full pool for some workouts and joined in with the Fort Lauderdale team for others, practicing twice per day and leaving ample time for eating, socializing, and lazing on the beach. It was bliss, solidifying many friendships and setting me up for a great summer of open water. Ever since then, pretty much all I’ve wanted to do is swim outdoors.

The next year was more of the same, but with three practices a day since my addiction had festered and I was training for the Manhattan swim. Two other people on the trip were, too, and we’d have a whole pool to ourselves as the sun came up over the ocean, silhouetting the palm trees visible out front. I was so focused that I doubt I traveled more than a quarter-mile from the pool except during an ocean swim. The pool, the smoothie place, the pool, the breakfast place, the beach, the pool, the Greek place, repeat.

Since then, my schedule has unfortunately precluded a repeat trip with TNYA. One year, Piezy and I found a different camp at a different  pool that worked with our schedules, so we spent a week swimming and biking through other parts of Fort Lauderdale with some beach visits thrown in. Once again, a fantastic trip. Other years, I’ve gone farther afield in search of fixes–Walnut Creek, Panama City, Australia–but have always craved a return to the simple, swim-centric life in Fort Lauderdale.

The place that facilitated my obsession–then the Swimming Hall of Fame, now the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex–is on life support. As I write, TNYA’s Swim Camp is taking place in Miami for the first time due to constant threats of closure at Fort Lauderdale. Once again, the timing wasn’t good for me anyway, so I was extra glad to make a trip two weekends ago for my friend John’s birthday. He and I have shared many swim and bike adventures, but his job has taken him out of New York, and I was glad to have the chance to catch up.

With that long-winded lead-up, let me tell you about the pools. Not since Stanford had I seen so much sparkling pool water. The complex has two deep-water 50-meter lap pools perpendicular to each other with a diving pool off the end to the west (in the foreground, above). Although I’ve seen different configurations previously, the present lane setup is all east-west: short-course yards in one pool and long-course meters in the other. Visible from the whole complex, not to mention from the Intracoastal Waterway and the Las Olas Bridge, is a gigantic digital clock, perfectly synched with smaller digital clocks at strategic poolside locations. A giant set of bleachers along the north side makes clear that competitions here can draw an audience, however, the bleachers were condemned in 2011 and are blocked off.

Me and John after his birthday swim, looking not a day over 39.

John chose to celebrate his entry into Club 40 by swimming for four-plus hours under the blazing sun in the west pool. He churned out 40 reps of 400 long-course meters while I did a mix of 350s and 300s on the same interval. This being Florida, we each had our own lane the entire time, and when John’s sister and another friend joined us, they got their own lanes. In between reps, I was able to watch some synchro diving practice over yonder.

Approaching 50 years old, the pool has some rough patches. Its lanes are narrow by today’s standards, and there are no infinity gutters, super-high dive towers, or other now-common enhancements. As I tired, I actually hallucinated that some of the blobs of exposed concrete on the bottom were creatures swimming into my lane. (I thought I hallucinated the smell of donuts, too, but that turned out to be legit, wafting over from brunch at the restaurant next door.) I am unsure of the purpose of the weighted cones lurking underwater. John felt currents from the vents, and I’d like to be able to blame them for my occasional run-ins with the lane line, but it’s more likely that faulty technique and a propensity to circle swim were to blame.

The next day we returned for a less taxing swim, and I opted for the other pool for the sake of this blog. It is closer to the street and set up with an endless array of lanes the short, 25-yard way across. The water was ever so slightly cooler in that one, although it’s supposed to be the other way around. Not only did I have my own lane, but I was several lanes away from any other swimmer.

After both swims, I luxuriated in the on-deck shower and then changed in the spacious locker rooms. Though worn, the rows of lockers, sinks, and showers attest to the numbers of swimmers this place can support.

How did this pool paradise come about? Its predecessor was the 50-meter Las Olas Beach and Casino Pool, saltwater, built in 1928 a a short distance north. Soon discovered by northern swim coaches, it became such a popular training and competition destination that it is credited with (or blamed for) starting the Spring Break phenomenon. In the 1960s, that pool was demolished to make way for new development, so a new pool and swim museum were built on nearby public land/infill. The complex expanded to its current configuration in the early 1990s with the second training pool and distinctive, wave-shaped edifice added then. Originally run together as the nonprofit International Swimming Hall of Fame, the pools are now managed by the municipality while the museum remains distinct. (More on the museum in a future post, and in the meantime see its comprehensive history of the complex.)

The one-time prominence of the facility is clear–see the record board boasting the likes of Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin, picture the bleachers filled with crowds, the results on display on the giant clock, the light towers keeping the action going long after dark. However, its age is apparent, too. I love that the spots in Fort Lauderdale I got to know in 2007 are almost all still alive, but the reality is that the city and southern Florida have changed tremendously since the 1960s and even since the 2000s. Yachting has become a mega business, and 50-meter pools are no longer a commodity. There is a contingent that would love to get out of the pool business and have a giant parking lot and expanded marina instead.

The pace clock, peeking out among the yachts, is readable from far beyond the pool.

Gloom-and-doom predictions of closure have grown stronger the past few years. Everyone agrees that new construction will be expensive, but there are gaping differences of opinion regarding what exactly should be constructed, how much it will cost, how much the city can afford, and whether the deed requires a pool on site. (Diving pool on top of parking garage, anyone?) The museum, meanwhile, has found a welcoming new home in Santa Clara, California, but its moving date remains elusive. When John and I visited, there was much anticipation of a meeting that was scheduled for the day after I left, however, I can’t seem to find any reports of the outcome.

All this to say, you should probably visit the pool soon. No matter how nice any replacement pool may be, it won’t have the authenticity of the place that made me the addict I am today.

Rest Break: Museum of Man in the Sea

My visit to Florida wasn’t all fun in the sun. We also educated ourselves at the Museum of Man in the Sea, a name I cannot say without a deep, authoritative voice reminiscent of a 1950s documentary narrator. Quite close to the pool, the museum proved too tempting to resist. We made a bet about whether we’d be the only visitors, and I’m glad to report that we weren’t. However, the family with young children that I expected to see did not show up, nor did more than four other people, so none of us won.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the name, but it turns out that the museum is dedicated mainly to diving and submarines, important local industries in the Florida Panhandle, with its Naval Surface Warfare Center (not to mention the more recently opened Morrison Springs). They had interesting displays of the technology that has evolved to facilitate underwater work, including wreck recovery, which could have been undertaken by someone in an armored dive suit such as the 1913 model above. One of the items I found most curious was called a bathythermograph and could be used to record underwater temperature changes. Unfortunately, it is too heavy to tie to your suit during a swim at the beach.

Not until after visiting the interior displays did we appreciate the amazing collection of submarines and submersibles outside. The lot around the museum was practically littered with them, including personal transport pods, pressure chambers, the world’s first underwater living facility, and, yes, a yellow submarine. After seeing these, a lot of other things started to look like submarines–the heating/cooling tanks at the pool, electrical substation equipment, and detritus outside storage centers, for example.

There was very little about other seaborne activities like, um, swimming, but I still recommend a visit on your next trip to Panama City Beach. If you time your trip right, you could even enjoy an oyster and grits fundraiser to help save SEALAB-1.

Not a Pool: Gulf of Mexico

Today we were able to swim in the Gulf, which previously had been too populated by man-o-war. I dedicated the swim to Gustav and my mom’s new cat, Toby, adopted 15 years after Gustav.

Not a Pool: Morrison Springs

The PCB Aquatic Center is the only lap pool open to the public in the vicinity of where we’re staying, so Janet did some research into other venues that might qualify for this project. After a nice long course workout in the PCB pool this morning, we drove about 45 minutes north to check out Morrison Springs, a park in Ponce De Leon (pronounced: Pons d’lee), Florida, that opened a few years ago. The groundwater that is used to heat and cool the pool is the same temperature as the springwater that comes up from a dramatic underwater cave here–68 degrees.

Best known as a dive spot, the 200-plus-foot-deep spring-cave was being explored by dozens of wetsuit-wearing divers, who would periodically bubble up from the depths. We basked in the sun for a while and then waded in from the sandy beach for a beautiful little swim. It was hard to imagine doing a real workout here, so it’s not going to count as a pool, but it’s so pretty that I couldn’t resist adding a post about it. Along the sides are Cypress trees dripping with Spanish moss. The aqua water is amazingly clear, and there’s some interesting vegetation on the bottom, including bunches of large, lettuce-like plants. We saw schools of minnows and several larger fish, and Janet spotted a big turtle.

The water flowing out of the spring made a twisty, turny river that eventually feeds into the Choctawhatchee River. I went down a few hundred yards and didn’t like how shallow it was getting, or that I couldn’t see the beach, so I turned around and headed back against the gentle flow of the springwater. Anyone looking to do a qualifying swim in 68-degree water would do well here.

#4: Panama City Beach Aquatic Center

Location: Panama City Beach, Florida

Fee: Free due lack of attendant (otherwise $8)

Configuration: 20 lanes of 25 yards (or 8 lanes of 50 meters)

Total to Date: $40.33

Woohoo, I swam outside today! For the second year in a row, I’m down in the Florida Panhandle for the holiday weekend. Last year, the outdoor pool was closed most of the time because of cold air temps, so Janet and I swam in alternate venues. Happily, that’s not the case this time (although back in New York, the first snow of the winter fell on those poor souls today). Adding to the fun, Piez–also a Janet–is along for the trip this time around.

I do a lot of swimming with both of them, in pools and open water. Piez (rhymes with “cheese”) and I were roommates twice at TNYA’s Fort Lauderdale swim camp, and we did our own camp down there a third year. Janet never met a body of water she didn’t like, and she’s always game for an expedition–usually with home-baked treats to share.

Janet is also a very creative swimmer, constantly coming up with clever workout ideas and new ways to improve. Back in December, she dreamed up a 12 Days of Christmas workout, but due to sickness, pool closures, and holiday travels, none of us swam it . . . until today. The PCB Aquatic Center was a great place to do it, as we each had our own lane and were able to take the swim at our own pace. Having my own lane ensured I avoided collisions, which otherwise would have been an issue given the amount of backstroke and back-dolphin kick in the workout, and the lack of a ceiling to look at to stay on course. Amazingly, my lane had some graffiti in the black line on the bottom that read “I love a swim [heart] Hannah.” I swear I didn’t write it, but I certainly do love a swim in this pool, even if it puts me at risk for a cap tan.

Less than 6 years old, the pool complex is perhaps best viewed by helicopter, as in this aerial shot. The water is so clear that you can easily see all the way from the shallow end down to the deep end, where the pool manager got in with the biggest fins I’ve ever seen to train for free-diving. His goal is to dive down to a wreck in the gulf and spear a fish!

Meanwhile, he’s got a pool to run–a Myrtha pool, no less–and he said it’s been putting him through his paces lately. The ground water here is highly corrosive, so it’s eaten through some gaskets, and thus he’s got new ones on the way from Germany. New gutters are coming from Italy, and vacuum parts are on the way from Sweden, so it’s practically a European pool! The geothermal heating and cooling system is local, though, taking water from nearby wells that hold steady at 68 degrees year-round and using it to warm the pool water in the winter (supplemented by electric heat to get the water up to about 80) and cool it off in the summer. As far as I know, this is the only geothermal pool I’ve swum in, but I hope to experience some others this year.