Swimming Pools

Curious about the public swimming pools I visit? See the list below for a summary on each facility and a short review for each one. Each summary includes information about each pool, available equipment, fees, hours, the locker room, and overall quality of my visit.

Culver City Plunge

The Culver City Plunge was opened August 31, 1949 and is part of Culver City’s Veteran’s Memorial Park. The facility is an outdoor year-round pool and offers lap swimming in both short and Olympic lengths. The pool itself is always clean but seems to run on the cooler side. Lanes are frequently rented out to private clubs and private school athletic programs.

I first visited this pool in 2006 when I was taking a recovery break from marathons, and came back to it in 2016 when I moved to Village Green (the intervening years were dedicated to more running, CrossFit, and back to swimming at Echo Park Plunge, Van Nuys Sherman Oaks, and the Glassell Park Pool which were convenient to my Los Feliz apartment). I swim there on Monday evenings as part of SCAQ’s coached workout, and every other weekend or so when I don’t visit the Santa Monica Swim Center.  

Santa Monica Swim Center

The Santa Monica Swim Center opened as a new pool in 2002. It is located at the Santa Monica Community College campus along Pico Boulevard and is one of three public pools in Santa Monica. There are two big pools here: one is entirely a fitness pool meant for swimming and diving and the other is a shallower recreation pool for families and kids. The rec pool also offers lap swim lanes. I think this pool has the highest availability of lap swim lanes in the entire metropolitan region (it feels like it outshines the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in terms of lane availability!).

John Argue Swim Stadium at Expo Park

More information soon!

Echo Park Deep Pool

More information soon!