• Welcome to the DeeperBlue.com Forums, the largest online community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing. To gain full access to the DeeperBlue.com Forums you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

    • Join over 44,280+ fellow diving enthusiasts from around the world on this forum
    • Participate in and browse from over 516,210+ posts.
    • Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
    • Post your own photos or view from 7,441+ user submitted images.
    • All this and much more...

    You can gain access to all this absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!

Oversized pools

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
trux

trux

~~~~~
Dec 9, 2005
6,522
767
268
There were references to diverse huge pools around the world in the thread http://forums.deeperblue.net/static-dynamic/59248-end-pool-turns.html but I think it is an interesting and continuing topic, so am moving it to a separate thread. Do not hesitate adding other interesting pools.

A 140m pool, 1m deep, in Puerta Vallarta Mexico at the Mayan Palace Condo complex reported by Wes in this post
acc_2.jpg image credit © MayanPalace.com
​
There is the abandoned McCarren pool in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It is well visible in the Google Earth satellite view (lat=40.662947165 / lon=-73.912716144). Although it is "only" 100m x 50m, in its time it was the hugest pool in the world.
main_present1A.jpg image credit © PoolProject.org
​
There is a 137m saltwater pool in Kitsilano Beach Park, Vancouver, Canada (lat=49.273608935, lon=-123.158164406)
kitspool_tv.jpg image credit © Vancouver Picture Gallery
​
 
Last edited:
Another oversized pool is at the Adam & Eve Hotel, Belek-Antalya, Turkey. It is 104m long, 9m wide, 1.4m deep. It does not look too bad, but turn would not be easy at the entry end wouldn't be possible - that would require some mobile wall :). They have also a 65m, 50m and couple of smaller pools in the hotel complex too.
5.jpg ​
Coney Island is home to the Sunlite Pool that claims to be the world’s largest recirculating swimming pool. Built in 1925, the Pool measures to be 200 feet wide and 401 feet long.
photo_sunlite_main.jpg ​
Biltmore Hotel, a South Florida landmark built in 1926 is home to a 700,000-gallon swimming pool, claimed to be the largest hotel pool in the USA.
image_4646508.jpg image credit © PalmBeachPost​
 
Last edited:
Deep pools

Currently the deepest diving pool Nemo33 in Belgium (33m):
image credit @ Fred Buyle
​
The Submarine Escape Training Tank (S.E.T.T.) in Portsmouth, UK. is "just" 30m deep, but it is not bad too:
image credit © DeeperBlue
​
The technical Deep-Sea testing facility in Japan is even slightly deeper. But although it is only 35m deep, depths up to 6000m can be simulated in it. That should be sufficient for most freedivers.
image credit @ NMRI​
 
Last edited:
Reactions: Marwan
Technical pools

Just reorganizing the posts little bit, sorting the pools by categories. This one is for the technical facilities:

The Offshore Model Basin in California (300 feet long) is also an interesting facility and a home of human powered submarine contests. Maybe it could be interesting for some freediving competitions too.

image credit © UCSD​
The David Taylor Model Basin is much bigger though, but because of frequent classified tests, it is usually not accessible to the public (though it hosted another human-powered submarine race). The shallow water basin measures 3200 feet (~1km)! Pretty enough even for Tom Sietas with or without fins.
image credit © Verdant Power​
Another technical facility, this time in Japan - 400m Experimental Tank: This is one of the largest towing tanks in the world (Length=400m, Width=18m, Depth=8m).
image credit © NMRI​
The Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL) is 202 ft in length, 102 ft in width, and 40 ft in depth (20 ft above ground level and 20 ft below) and holds 6.2 million gallons of water.
photo credit @ NASA​
 
Last edited:
Nasa has a pretty big one too. There was an article in some of the diving magazines recently about it.
 
Originally, when creating the thread, I looked at it too and hesitated whether to put it here or not, but it's not that big - just little bit bigger than a 50m pool, and deeper. Well, I've added it above too, for the peace of mind
 
Last edited:
Used to be one at the Landmark Apartments in Tampa, Florida. The pool is gone now, but it used to be somewhere over 300 ft long, narrow, with a few mild curves, maybe 5 ft deep. Wonderful for swimming laps at night when few people were in the pool. Wish I had been into dynamic at the time. Longfins had just come to town.

Connor
 
I recall seeing pics of a huge though shallow saltwater swimming pool in Morocco. I don't remember the details, I thought it was one of the biggest.
 
Yes, I saw this pool in Casablanca too. It should be the biggest saltwater pool, but I did not manage to find any pictures, that's why I did not post it. Well, I did now at least a screen-shot from Google Maps. Besides it, it looks more like an artificial lake than a swimming pool.
​

Same goes for the 380m long [ame="http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&om=1&ie=UTF8&z=18&ll=-22.839032,-43.250631&spn=0.00356,0.004989"]Piscinão de Ramos in Brazil[/ame] - it also looks just like an artificial lake (no walls, just beaches all around).
​
 
Last edited:
Not bad, they claim 7 times the size of an Olympic swimming pool. Unfortunately it also does not look well suited for freediving - in big parts it is just knee deep (or less):
​
 
trux said:
Not bad, they claim 7 times the size of an Olympic swimming pool. Unfortunately it also does not look well suited for freediving - in big parts it is just knee deep (or less):
Click to expand...

Hmm guess your right, only frogs could freedive there. The sea is very near though, so using the pool for statics (except for the kids) could be for prep.
 
I found another one while looking in Marine Technology Magazine.


The pool is 200m long and 20m wide. It's 8 feet deep, and filled with salt water.
It is primarily used to test oil spill clean-up methods.

Link:
http://www.ohmsett.com/Facility.asp
 
Last edited:
Reactions: trux
Thanks! The link does not seem to work, but I found other photos anyway. It does not look too bad:
 
This pool is near my house in Madrid.The "small" one is 50m.The big one is 133m long,the biggest in Europe.It is for public use in summer time.I think is 1'20m deep.
Rafa
 

Attachments

  • piscina.JPG
    84.1 KB · Views: 278
You must log in or register to reply here.