Long before I learned what Amy Logan did for a living, I knew that she loved to swim.
Amy, the type of neighbour who makes you look forward to the small talk, has always prioritized the less pursued pleasures of life.
When my husband and I first moved onto our Strathcona street, getting to know her involved seeing her leaving her house every day, just a few hours before sundown, with her bike.
When asked where she was off to, she’d always reply “Kits Pool!” with a wave of her hand or a story about her day, depending on how much of a hurry she was in.
That answer didn’t change all summer.
Amy was introduced to Kits Pool shortly after moving to Vancouver by her friend Pam. It was right before Amy’s wedding, and she recalls with a smile how, the day of her bridal shower, she asked her girlfriends if they’d mind moving the party to the pool.
She jokes she’s not a Parks user but a Parks abuser. Even at her poorest, the college instructor still made sure to buy a pass; but she’s not the only person who never misses a day of the season. Even going back the 10 years she’s been a true regular, there are others who have been using it longer.
But Amy is as much a part of the Kits Pool story as the pool is part of hers.
August is her favourite time of year to go, when the pink of the summer sunsets gets picked up by the mountains and the water and she feels like she’s “swimming through light.” She says it’s only after that many weeks of aquatic communion that she becomes the best Amy she can be.
An I Saw You ad once inquired as to what she did “the other eight months of the year.” She never replied to the woman who wrote it, but the answer was and continues to be that she bikes the seawall in the off season. Every day, for the entire winter. In the height of foul weather, it’s sometimes just her and one other man who greet each other as they pedal past.
If that doesn’t surprise you, then you’re starting to get to know Amy, too.
It drives her husband Mark a little crazy, losing his wife to Vancouver’s public spaces for three hours a day. But he spends his own alone time in their yard hewing wood and carving wooden spoons as a hobby. After their time apart, Amy always walks through the door of their charming carriage house with the supplies for that evening’s dinner, and their quietly dedicated routines reunite.
She says the pool never changes, but the people do. She lists off some familiar faces she doesn’t see anymore, and shakes her head with a grin at a bit of excitement – a ladies’ locker room brawl involving a broken vodka bottle and pulled hair – that shocked them all last summer. Then there is the growing mermaid fad that sees women of all ages flitting down the length of the pool with a flash of their sparkly, artificial tails.
There’s apparently room for everyone across the pool’s 137 metres.
She says the vastness of Kits Pool is actually part of the appeal – one of its joys lying in how long it takes to do just one lap. You don’t even notice how far you’ve swum, she says, because its so incremental.
Alongside the other aficionados – extreme athletes of inspiring tenacity and humbling ennui – is Amy, often with a kick board, cruising along the edge of the pool, past the other pleasure users and aquacizers, and out of their way. Largely ignored by these tours de force, it isn’t until the final day of the season that a commiserative bond tentatively bridges the gap.
But, admittedly, Amy doesn’t go to Kits pool to meet people or make friends. She says it’s swimming that fends off depression, with the languid journey through nature putting her problems in perspective. And it was her long swims alone that helped her cope when her friend Pam, the one who introduced her to Kits Pool and accompanied her on many of her outings, was dying of cancer.
Now, when she dips in her foot on opening day, she says it’s 15 years of wonderful memories that warm her in the undisturbed waters. And when she emerges after her last lap, she’ll know there’s four more months of it to come.
Kitsilano Pool is open May 17 to Sept. 14 at 2305 Cornwall. Hours vary.
Amy's advice for enjoying Canada’s longest pool?
1) You can rent towels. “Completely worth it,” she says emphatically.
2) Go in the early morning or evening to avoid crowds.
3) It has surprisingly hot showers to get you through the chilly first few weeks, but the water truly starts to warm up in July.
4) Use it! Even after 15 years, she says she still can’t believe that it exists as a public pool.
Share your own stories from Kits Pool in the comments below.
