Swimming pool safety

One of the greatest things about hiring a Florida villa is that 99% of them come with a swimming pool. Now most people in the Uk do not have private swimming pools and so having a pool for me is a major part of the holiday as there is nothing as nice as coming back from a great day in the park, going into your bedroom to change and then 5 steps later you are in your own pool. This is possibly the biggest reason I could not cope with a hotel as it turns into a real effort changing and packing a back with all the things for the pool rather than it just be outside.
Earlier in my life both Mel and I have worked as lifeguards for for local leisure centres and so we have been keen swimmers as well as whenever we are near water we are watching other people to not do dangerous things! As such we love swimming pools but always want people to be safe as it is all too easy because you are “on holiday” to forget common sense especially when it comes to kids in the pool.
Florida villas with swimming pools normally have sliding doors out to the pool area. These doors are required to have alarms on them so that you as the adult can hear the door opening in case it is a small person that is opening it. The alarm is a great idea as it both let’s you know when someone is heading out as well as making sure it is closed for the purpose of air conditioning. If the alarm in your villa does not work then you should let the owner or management company know immediately so that it can be fixed, this is the same principle as a fire alarm, it seems a minor thing until it is too late!
There are a number of other common safety rules you should think about when using the pool area, and these include:

• Glass and ceramics – these do not belong anywhere near a swimming pool or the area where people will be walking with no shoes on. Most villas will have some plastic glasses and tableware for just this reason. If sharp glass or ceramics go in the pool a pool vac might get some out but really the pool needs emptying cleaning and refilling and the guilty party will need to cover the cost! This was the reason cameras were not allowed near swimming pools in the Uk before the photo police came along and said no photos even at parties within 15 feet of another human !
• Swimming Pool covers – some villas, especially in the cooler months, use a heat blanket on swimming pools as most the heat in a pool is lost overnight, most of which can be saved by covering the pool. This is both cost effective and good for the environment bit there is a need to be careful especially with regards to the kids. There seems to be some overwhelming desire to try and stand on these blankets, problem of course is they will not hold the weight and then they are very hard to get out of again. If a villa has one of the blankets please use it to keep the water warm but be careful to
• Inflatables – this one is a bit of a flash back to working in the leisure centre but let’s admit it that we have all seen funny videos on the TV of people doing silly things. Often villas will have lilo’s and similar toys and again it seems to something the feel compelled to jump on to which is great fun until you do it wrong, fall backwards and crack your head. I have seen this happen too many times and it is the last thing you want to have on holiday
• Swimming Aids – those with smaller kids (and grown ups as well) that need arm bands,life jacket swimming aids need to make sure they are used. Most private Florida pools have a shallow end of about 70cm but deep ends will be deeper than 6 feet and as the pools are not 25m long it is easy to be out of your depth.

As I have said swimming pools are a fantastic part of a Florida villa holiday and often when we go to Florida we will try and book a villa with more bedrooms then we need jus so that we get a larger pool as the larger villas tend to have larger swimming pools (normally from about 5 bedrooms up). Accidents in swimming pools always happen to other people though don’t they?? Let common sense prevail and have a fantastic time in your pool.

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