Second Beach Pool

I spent a lovely afternoon at the Second Beach Pool today. It was large and never felt crowded even though there were lots of people. There are three dedicated lap lanes (slow, medium and fast) and as well an enormous free space that never goes above 5 feet.
There are a couple of things I wish I had known in advance to make my time even better:
1. Bring your own chair. There are maybe 2 dozen chairs that are taken as soon as the pool opens. Bring your own comfy lounger and you will be set.
2. Bring your own shade. There are a few scant trees around the far perimeter and nothing else. Bring an umbrella or some other type of shade device for some relief from that hot sun.
3. Hold it. The bathrooms are absolutely gross– try to hold it if you can! The bathrooms/​changing area are outside of the pool gate so if you need to go, you will have to get your hand stamped to allow you to re-​enter the pool without paying again. There are separate change rooms that don’t have doors or curtains on the stalls. Bring a large towel to drape over the door for a somewhat private changing experience. Don’t look at the floor, walls or anything in between… all dirty, so gross :(
4. Bring your own food and water. There are some over priced convenience food available at the snack bar but you are better off both health and wallet wise to pack some goods from home!

First open weekend of the year and i had a lane all to myself. Heaven.
I almost didn’t venture over because I was a little afraid of the crowds, but I remembered how, for some reason, even when the rest of the pool is crowded, the lanes are very rarely so (only exception maybe 5−6pm weekdays). Today, even though the weather was decent, i could count the number of people in the pool on both hands.
Another reminder that we live in an amazing city.

This is a fantastic pool in a stunning location. It’s a great place to take the family — the entire pool is no more than about 4 feet deep and it has 3 water slides of varying degrees of difficulty.
While the pool itself and the view is idyllic, its location does mean there’s not a lot of shade. The floor of the pool is very rough too — it’s great to avoid slipping, but the first time I went, I spent most of the time kneeling with the kids and ended up sandpapering through the nail on my big toe!
Bear these things in mind and you’ll have a great time here. It’s one of the things that makes living in Vancouver so great.

This pool gets big points for its picturesque location beside the ocean. It’s a cool place to unwind if you can grab one of the few chairs on deck. Also great for length swim. I’m a fan of the slow, medium, fast lane segregation. Went on a sunny Sunday and there was loads of room.
What the pool is lacking are proper facilities. I had to run barefoot through the concession stand to use theirs a couple times. Also, was really hoping it would be saltwater like at Kits Pool.

Ahhhh second beach pool. Closed most of the year but open all summer long! this is one of the most beautiful pools to swim at. I like to come here on a saturday morning when it first opens and swim laps. Outdoor in the crisp morning air with hardly anyone else in the pool. what is better than that? During the day, especially on a hot day, the pool can get pretty crowded but if you can brave the crowds and stake out a piece of real-​estate around the pool it is a great place to look out on english bay and watch to whole world go by.
This pool is part of the vancouver parks board so they are more than happy to use your flex pass from any other community centre…
oh and don’t forget your quarter for the lockers if you need one. Because the staff ant the entrance don’t like to make change!