Lap Swim Exercise at Huntington Beach High School | Huntington Beach, CA

Huntington Beach -- There's a lot we Californians take for granted...fine weather, beaches, and a lifestyle beyond compare. But as a former lap swimmer, we don't take for granted our lap swimming pools. As you fly into Los Angeles, Orange County or San Diego, you may find it astounding that out of all those swimming pools you look out of a jet window and see in back yards, there aren't decent pools for lap swimmers.  Those kidney shaped pools aren't big enough for work-outs generally.

Exercise facilities such as lap swimming pools and tennis courts are hard to come by, believe it or not. I swam at the community college pool a few miles from my home till it grossed me out. Huge globs of hair from other people stuck to my skin as I exited the pool each night, the only time open to public lap swims. After a few months of looking at this goop floating in the polluted water and rinsing it off my body each night, I knew I had to find something better.

I  signed up and joined a health club with an outdoor olympic size pool and really got serious about swimming, driving 20 minutes each day to access the pool so I could get a quality workout. I swam 4,000 meter daily without fail and improved my style, swimming next to triathletes and swim competitors.  I even got to swim next to some of the world's great swimmers, and found their stroke efficiency inspirational. But then my friend who was a maintenance manager for the club told me the sewers had been backing up and overflow was going into the pool. I could even smell it.  That was unacceptable, so I quit my club membership,  giving up my beloved outdoor pool after 10 years of passion.

One of the few places to swim in north Orange County is Huntington Beach High School.  The public lap swim program is open only a few hours each week, but it's better than nothing for those who continue to find that swimming is the best exercise for cardiovascular workouts of the upper and lower body. When citizens asked the city not to cut funding for the public lap swim program recently as the program had been on a list of  eliminations due to cutbacks in budget, my heart sank a bit. If you take swimming away from people, they can lose their health. There is a long list of benefits  to the exercise of swimming.

For those who want to save the swim program, a swim-a-thon fundraiser was held, called,  COMMUNITY LAP SWIMMING & AQUA AEROBICS SWIM-A-THON.  Members of the community  launched a fundraiser to save the community access to the high school aquatics facility. Due to budget cuts the City Staff and the City Council proposed to close the community access to the facility or double the current fees to close the $8500 gap for maintenance costs.  Lap Swimming is held 4 times a week and the popular Aqua Aerobics classes are held Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Both of these programs would be cancelled along with the conditioning programs of Junior Lifeguards and the Police and Fire Departments if funding isn't secured. SwimHB.org.  If you're looking for an end of the year write-off (tax laws permitting,) give a donation and keep the love of swimming alive. This is an ideal program for local hospitals, medical centers and big pharma companies to support.  Keep swimming, or start swimming for better health!