We are fortunate here on Vancouver Island in that there are no shortages of places to go to swim when the weather gets hot, like it is now.
There are many beautiful seaside locations to choose from, as well as numerous lakes and rivers for those that prefer fresh water, and they are within a short drive or walk to get to.
Just this past weekend, I mowed my lawn and then, within 10 minutes of completing the arduous work in the middle of a heat wave, I was in the ocean luxuriating in the cool water and loving every minute of it.
I consider it one of the many advantages of living on the West Coast, and I cringe when I see news footage from large cities suffering through heat waves where people have nowhere to go swimming to cool down, with many forced to buy bottled water and pour it over their heads to get some relief.
My buddies and I were in the same boat when we moved to Toronto in the 1980s.
Many days in that city saw the temperatures reach the high 30s in midsummer, and Toronto offered little to deal with it at the time. There were no oceans anywhere nearby and, while people flocked to the beaches along Lake Ontario on hot days, signs everywhere recommended against getting in the water because it was so polluted.
There were some public outdoor pools in Toronto, but these were usually packed full with neighbourhood kids during heat waves, and park officials couldn’t use enough chlorine to deal with their leakage.
So, one day when we just couldn’t take the heat anymore, my roommates and I decided to hop in the car and head to a lake that someone had told us about.
We drove for well over an hour, sweltering in the car that had no air conditioning, before we finally arrived at the “lake”, which turned out to be little more than a small lilly-covered frog pond, and it was also crowded with so many people that it was hard to find a place to get into the lukewarm bog water.
Discouraged, we drove home without even getting our feet wet.
That night, with the temperatures still in the mid 30s, we couldn’t take the heat anymore and made our way to the nearest outdoor public pool, which closed for the day several hours earlier.
The pool was surrounded with a high chain link fence and signs saying there was no trespassing after hours, but we were in our early 20s and in our youthful arrogance, I guess we didn’t believe the rules really applied to us.
So we clambered up over the fence as quietly as we could so we wouldn’t attract attention and slipped into the water, and we were happy to find that the pool was thoroughly cleaned by maintenance staff before they left for the day.
We were delighted to be in the cool water and were enjoying ourselves before two spotlight beams on the top of a police car caught us like deer in headlights.
We scrambled out the water as fast as we could, grabbed our clothes and sprang up and over the fence.
At least my friends did, because just as I was going over the top, my shorts snagged in the fence and I was caught on the fence with one leg on either side of it and unable to go anywhere without doing some serious damage to myself.
So I just sat there by myself as all of my friends were long gone, and the two police officers in the car sauntered over and stared up at me.
I just smiled at them and asked how their night was going.
The began lecturing me on trespassing on park grounds and I replied that we were forced to come to the pool after hours because the heat was killing us.
As they were reading me the riot act, they were also studying my situation and began to realize that the only way to get me off the fence was for both of them to push me straight up at the same time.
I encouraged them to be as gentle as they could, and they managed to get me off the fence with no damage to my sensitive areas.
I guess they thought I was humiliated enough because they just let me go with a warning not to come back unless the pool was open.
My friends, of course, watched the whole incident from a distance and they thought it was the most hilarious scene they had witnessed for some time.
But, needless to say, we didn’t try to get back in the pool after hours again because we figured the police likely wouldn’t be as forgiving the second time around.
Anyway, back to my original point, we are blessed to live in an area that has no shortage of places with clean water to swim, so get out there and have some fun before the cold wet weather returns, and remember to be careful.
