CHRISTCHURCH TEPID BATHS COMPARE WITH WORLD’S BEST.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 380, 23 March 1932, Page 8

CHRISTCHURCH TEPID BATHS COMPARE WITH WORLD’S BEST.

To-day’s Special Article

New Zealand Lady Swimmer Gives Her Experiences in Famous Pools.

By

Lily Copplestone

Through mg swimming in various countries, I have had ample opportunity of studying and comparing our swimming baths in New Zealand with others. New Zealand has four tepid swimming baths, and many of the larger schools have their own swimming pools. No other country that I have visited can boast of this. Sydney swimming baths are mainly partitioned off from the sea and the baths deepen and recede with the tides. I did not come across one fresh-water pool in Sydney.

QOOGEE AQUARIUM BATH is the latest and is an open-air pool, salt water, 100 feet by about 30 feet, and is emptied daily. This pool is the best Sydney can claim. From Australia I had the opportunity of a swim in the Galle Face Hotel, in Colombo, Ceylon. This pool is also salt water, open air, and with a tempera-

ture of something like 80 degrees. The pool is constructed with a roof over the sides of the pool supported with gaily-coloured pillars, thus leaving the pool proper under the sky. The pool itself is composed of coloured tiles with lighting effect under the water. The depth of the water under the diving boards is only six feet, so it is

not a wise plan to do any stunt diving. My next interesting swim was at Malta, when I decided to go overboard just outside the harbour while our ship was at anchor for a swim, only to find on hitting the water that our ship was not at anchor and was moving slowly on. This meant a little swim of about one and a half miles ashore and then a very unpleasant run round through the town in bathing suit in the boiling sun, through native quarters, and so back to the ship. I did not find any swimming pool at Malta, for one thing I had had enough of swimming for one day, and for another there is not one in the whole city. London’s Latest. Arriving in London on the longest day, which, strangely enough, was fine, I made a few inquiries as to the whereabouts of the baths in the city, and was told to go to Marshall Street baths, in Westminster. After a lot of hunting, I eventually found them. They had only been opened to the public a few weeks previously, so I was expecting to find something good. I did. Marshall Street baths are constructed wholly of marble. They are 100 feet long by about 45 feet wide, and ten feet deep under the diving boards. The temperature of the water is kept at about 75 degrees. The roof is of marble with cut-glass fanlights let in and there is no danger of bumping one’s head on the rafters from the 15ft diving board, simply because there are no rafters there. The springboards are of international standard and are just wonderful to use. On a Saturday afternoon, when I usually go there for a swim, one finds the very best company for diving. Nearly all the English champion divers use Marshall Street baths regularl}’-. Swimming in Mud. After swimming in Marshall Street baths I decided to try several other pools, and even went so far as to try the Serpentine. Once was quite sufficient. I don't care for swimming in mud. Hammersmith baths and Chiswick were tried in succession, but as the days were grey and it was very

early in the season, a very short swim sufficed in these open-air pools. Hammersmith is a very large pool and divided to keep folk out of danger. The diving boards were very stiff and the water was 64 degrees. Having just been swimming in the tropics, I needed a lot of encouragement to go back there. Chiswick is just a very ordinary sized open-air pool, but has a depth of ten feet of water and has international springboards, so is used considerably for championships. Now for the East End of London. I only tried one, but it was quite a success. It was at East Ham —a tiled pool with only stationary boards and only a depth of six feet of water. Experiences in France. By this time training for the Channel was to begin in earnest, and after a very short sojourn in Dover, where I had a swim in a pool which was built over seventy years ago and smelt and looked like it, I crossed over to France. After training at Gris Nez for a few weeks, Burgess suggested that a trip to Le Touquet would be a change, and Le Touquet bound I was soon. I have seen some beautiful pools in .my life, but I was not ready for the pool at Le Touquet. I knew that Le Touquet was a millionaires’ paradise during the summer and that there had been no end of money spent on it. The pool was only opened in May of last year. It is purely spectacular, and, from a swimming point of view, all wrong. The construction is of white concrete with concrete diving stands and two springboards. The diving pit is ten feet deep under a 30-foot diving tower, but only directly under, and the diving boards are directly under each other. The pit comes abruptly to a wall, and unless great care is taken off the higher boards one is liable to land in only six feet of water. It is truly beautiful and on a fine day I ask nothing more than a dip and to lie in the sun at Le Touquet pool. Never Again. After the Channel had been adandoned and I had come back to London to pass the time until another year had passed, I was invited to swim in the pool at the Royal Automobile Club. This is a pool belonging to the club itself and is patronised by the Prince of Wales and many other famous people. It is closed in, of course. The pool is tiled in various coloured tiles, all very beautiful, and the roof is supported with pillars of coloured tiles. I enjoyed my swims in this pool immensely, even though the low springboard did .slope the wrong way. This pool is twenty-five yards long and has a depth of ten feet under the diving boards. The worst bath I encountered was at a small Midland town called Pontefract, where I had to give an exhibition of diving off a 15-foot diving springboard into five feet eight inches of water. Never again. When all is said and done, all the baths are very nice indeed, but this I will say, that the Tepid Baths in Christchurch are the best I have seen in the Southern Hemisphere, and our provision for schools does us credit.