After talking to many involved in sftl (Swim Fort Lauderdale) as it was being rebuilt for those four long years; I really wanted to experience it. So we planned a trip to be there for a week. Well, what a week!!
The structure:
It is impressive to say the least. The towering monolith that people will do their acrobatics from the sky is the first thing that grabs you when you walk in. This 27 meter tower; impressive to say the least just in it’s height, then in its design. You have to keep looking at it to see all of the detail. Its function is a series of platforms at increasing heights, increasing freights! All around those functional ledges are big unsafe gaps that have been filled with beautiful design making it not only safe, but breathtakingly beautiful! The rules of diving just define the heights and nothing of design. Many of these towers are bare concrete and railings, nothing else. Some have even placed fake brick to make them more pleasing to the eye. But this one, in its stark concrete, the longer you look at it, the more you discover the design. At one angle you see a giant tiki idol, at another, you see the yachts that surround it where it somehow fits in. Go around to the back and you discover no elevator. This is the point where you realize it is for athletes, not the public. This side of the tower is not for me. I am the viewer, so it’s back to the other side for me. The funny thing about me trudging up these stairs on an incredible tour that I am so grateful for receiving: Every new ledge, higher and higher,
I could see the other pools better. Yes, I am a swim coach. The higher I went, the more I loved the place!! I see pools for their surface. That is where we live on the swim team. As long as their depth exceeds a level we can dive into, I don’t need more. Well, this place has surface!! Two 10 lane 50 meter pools and an enormous dive well. So many people can find their love of swimming in a place like this!! Beautiful offices for all of the Coaches and leadership, locker rooms that meet the needs of all comers, bleachers that afford a view of whatever is happening inside. But that stuff is for everyone else. The things that made me truly geek out were the things like the covers for the starting blocks. Not just the fact that they have 40 starting blocks. All new!
The People:
It wasn’t even the covers, but it was that two of the leading coaches, when showing me the covers, turned into 12 year olds showing me what they got for Christmas! They were, since we are in the Yacht capital of America, custom made from the best sun resistant outdoor yacht seat cover material. It was such a refreshing experience in seeing the pride of the leadership, the way they were geeking out by how this material will preserve the surface of the starting blocks. These two guys know from life experience how hard it is to fundraise to replace starting blocks someday. These cheap, custom covers will postpone that effort! This is pride of ownership and this is by far my favorite part of this new facility. Next, to me, is the pride in the facility that everyone has already bonded with in their new home. The diplomatic method of the guards seeing that you have a purpose for being there if you are wandering about. The mops that come out at the first sign of dirty footprints on the deck. This is pride in its greatest definition.
The locks are still a bit loose on the gates and a few have already crept in where they don’t belong, but that has a tendency to flush itself out in good time. The payments are not yet coming in but it is more important that for now, the patrons are coming in. And they are coming in! They have waited literally four years to come in while this aquatic cathedral was built.
It is used all day every day without discrimination as long as you are there to get your swimming and diving done and go along your day. It has already had the heels of Royalty treading its deck and that is yet another foundation setting future success. But most of all it welcomes the heels of the young, old, and all in between.
By far the best thing for me that has already been found in this pool is freedom. The freedom my wife Julie found in the very first time in its waters. The freedom from all that pulls her in the directions she would not otherwise choose. That, for me is the gift that swimming gives us all. Freedom.
This new facility will continue to host the greatest athletes of our aquatic sports family in its big shows of sport but more importantly: the heels that contact this deck every day will grow a stronger community for it being here than without it. The aquatic elders here daily will teach by living their health forward into their sunset as the youth chase their sunrise!
There is not a better place in aquatics, and I have been to them all. Be sure to wear a great sun hat while on deck!! Here’s a kink to my favorite!! https://amzn.to/3NFDN8d
Every Four Years™ 