AnonymousSource: City of Santa Barbara
Parks and Recreation staff will reopen Los Baños del Mar Pool for lap swimming starting Tuesday, May 26, 2020. This modified reopening is in accordance with recent Santa Barbara County Department of Public Health orders issued that provided new guidance for essential businesses and recreation facilities.
Lane assignments must be booked online in advance; to reserve a spot, please visit https://bit.ly/LosBanosSignUp. Lane capacity will be limited to one swimmer per lane, which means fewer people will be able use the pool at one time and the pool will not operate at full, pre-COVID capacity.
Social distancing protocols will be in place at Los Baños del Mar; details will be posted at the facility and staff will ensure all necessary safety measures are taken, in accordance with state and local public health guidelines. If you plan to swim at Los Baños, please bring all needed equipment with you, including a mask or other cloth face covering to wear until you reach your reserved lane, and for restroom access.
To maximize swim times while following local health orders, lane availability has been adjusted and includes two 50-meter lanes, ten 25-meter lanes, and two 15-meter lanes. Lap swim times will be one hour with fifteen-minute transitions, and staff will disinfect high-use areas of the pool facility between swim times.
Key Information for Swimmers
Lap Swim Times
Monday – Friday: 6:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m., and 11:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Saturday: 10:30 a.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Sunday: 10:00 a.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Pricing and Sign-Up Information
Swim pricing and sign-up information can be found online at https://bit.ly/LosBanosSignUp.
Questions
Please email Aquatics Coordinator Todd Fahlstrom at TFahlstrom@SantaBarbaraCA.gov or call (805) 897-2552 with questions.
Guidelines for a Safe Swimming Experience
These pool rules will be posted for swimmers at Los Baños.
- If you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 (dry cough or flu-like symptoms, fever, respiratory illness, or difficulty breathing, for example) you must not swim or come to the pool facility.
- Participants must follow all directions from lifeguard staff.
- Lap swim hours are as follows:
Monday – Friday: 6:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Saturday: 10:30 a.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Sunday: 10:00 a.m. – 2:45 p.m.
- Advanced lane reservation required.
- Swimmers will arrive dressed in a bathing suit and ready to swim. No deck changing allowed.
- Limited restroom facilities and sinks are available, but swimmers are encouraged to arrive without the need for those facilities. Masks must be worn while using indoor facilities.
- Swimmers will enter through the west gate entrance at the rear of the pool.
- Swimmers will be greeted by a City employee when arriving to check in.
- Swimmers will be directed to their assigned lane.
- Swimmers shall wear a mask until entering assigned lane.
- Lifeguards will sound a horn twice as five (5) minute warning before the end of each session. Lifeguards will sound one long horn to signal the end of each session.
- At the conclusion of each session, swimmers will exit the pool promptly, gather their belongings, and exit the facility via the east gate.
- Lifeguards will disinfect all high use areas and surfaces between swim times, including but not limited to restrooms, sinks, and facility fixtures.
- Swimmers must swim in the middle of the lane. No congregating in the water, on the walls or bulkheads, or on the pool deck. No spectators.
- Locker and shower access will be unavailable.
- Kickboards and pull buoys will be unavailable
- Public drinking fountains are closed.
- Poolside benches shall be removed or made unavailable.
- Items left behind will be discarded.
- Pool safety rules are not optional. Failure to adhere to these rules will result in removal from the facility and possible suspension of future lap swim privileges.
About Los Baños del Mar Pool
Los Baños del Mar, located at 401 Shoreline Drive, is the City’s only Olympic-size public pool and has served Santa Barbra since it was built in 1939. The pool is operated by the City of Santa Barbara Parks and Recreation Department.
Q: Why do we put chlorine(amongst other disinfectants) in pools?
A: I think its to kill bacteria and viruses, no?
So why the limitations on user capacity?
What about the masks that people(shouldn’t bother wearing at all) be required to wear right up to the swim lane, if they get wet, and required to wear on way out…wouldn’t that be considered waterboarding?!?!?
There’s so many holes in the Illogic, one could get a virus through it!!!
@12:17. Los Banos means “the bathroom” in Spanish.
Wow LCP – it means The Baths!
DTOM… the chlorine isn’t concentrated enough to disinfect immediately and it only does so below the surface. It’s the transmission ABOVE the surface that is what concerns people. Asymptomatics are responsible for the majority of contaminations and you can’t tell who is or isn’t just by waiting for them to sneeze or cough (or even blow according to some) on you. You can be cavalier and say it doesn’t worry YOU but who are you to make that choice for everyone else?
These mitigations seem reasonable. If you’re not an avid swimmer, don’t go. There will be plenty of folks ready to take your spot.
The chlorine in the water can’t jump up and kill virus particles that a nearby swimmer coughs onto his neighbor’s face. The pool is not the problem; the people who breathe and cough around and above the water are the problem.
Just the name of that pool is a put off for me.