Wednesday, April 25, 2018

The Lost Files Vol. 10: Pullman Aquatic Center


Dip your toes in the Pullman Aquatic Center
The Pullman Aquatic Center offers a chance for all different types of individuals to daydream that they are the Michael Phelps or Dara Torres of the Palouse.
            The Aquatic and Fitness Center, which is located adjacent to the Pullman High School, offers residents a 25-yard multipurpose pool as well as a 92-degree therapy pool that includes a children’s play area according to the city of Pullman’s website. The center was opened in September of 2000 and constructed through endowments made by the Schweitzer family.
            But why should you spend your hard earned money and drive a minivan full of kids ten minutes to the Pullman Aquatic and Fitness Center after a tough day’s work?
            The aquatic center has a variety of swim lessons that have the potential to turn your child into the next Ryan Lochte minus the vandalizing of soap dispensers in Brazilian gas station bathrooms. Private lessons are also available if you are intent on making your child spend their high school years waking up at five to swim countless laps in an abandoned elementary school while a guy with a goatee screeches drill sergeant orders at them. The facility also provides small group and semi-private lessons if you are only partial to torturing your offspring.
            What are the goals of the Pullman Aquatic and Fitness Center?
            According to the city of Pullman’s website the center is looking to put safety at the top of their list of priorities. In addition to emphasizing the criticalness of safety in the water, the aquatic center is also looking to promote swimming skills in a productive, family friendly environment that is not too expensive.
            Under the headline “Making Family Fitness Fun” on their homepage, the aquatic center lists drowning as one of the five leading causes of accidental deaths for children seventeen and under. Although this is a tragic piece of news, I do not think this is the wisest use of marketing strategies on the Pullman Aquatic Center’s front page of their website. It is akin to the Empire State Building having a sign on their observation deck that reads, “Leaping off tall buildings is the number one cause of death.”
            Despite the questionable advertising tactics of the aquatic and fitness center, they have a bevy of activities that can be enjoyed by the entire family. As well as their pools, the center also has a fitness room with free weights, elliptical machines, treadmills and recumbent bicycles as found on the city of Pullman’s website. If I ever open a microbrewery in Boulder, Colorado it will be called “Recumbent Bicycle” and my number one IPA will be “Tour de Fresh Hops”.
             If you do not come out to the Pullman Aquatic and Fitness Center this summer then you will be missing out on a swath of enjoyable physical activities.

           

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