Santa Barbara's Community Pool: Los Baños "is a treasure."

Today’s post is about Los Baños del Mar, Santa Barbara’s Olympic-sized community pool by the beach!

Built with a Depression-era Public Works Administration grant and opened in 1939, Los Baños is a historic landmark as well as a working public pool—the only true community pool in Santa Barbara, and one of the few Olympic-sized pools in the region.

Los Baños is visited 100,000 times per year, mainly by local residents, including participants in the Santa Barbara City College aquatics program and members of the Santa Barbara Swim Club. Both SBCC and SB Swim Club use the pool as their home base.

Regular lap swimmer Frank Wascoe with Parks
with Recreation Pool Manager Amber Workman-Hatsedakis.

One of Los Baños’ most popular uses is lap swimming; Adult Lap Swim patrons visit the pool in the mornings or at lunchtime (or, during spring and summer months, in the evenings) to get their daily exercise. A Los Baños regular, Frank Wascoe, told us in one simple phrase why he keeps coming back to the pool day after day: “It’s a treasure.”

Originally from Walnut Creek, Wascoe has lived in Santa Barbara since 1970, when he started college at UCSB. Wascoe has been one of the pool’s morning lap swimmers since 2005, counting himself among the 60–70 “regulars who just can’t do without it.”

Swimming each morning in the shorter lanes of the pool, Wascoe told us he sees his morning swim as “rhythmic meditation. I think it is [that] for a lot of people.” His wife, Jeri, also swims at Los Baños three days a week.

Praising the conscientiousness and expertise of the Los Baños staff, headed by Pool Manager Amber Workman-Hatsedakis, Wascoe told us “the water quality is great,” and said the pool’s temperature is appreciated by patrons on cold mornings.

“The standard temperature for a competitive pool is 77 to 78 degrees,” Workman-Hatsedakis added, “and for a therapy pool it’s around 82 degrees. Our pool is at 80 degrees, in between the two.”

Frank visits the pool's weight room after a swim.

“This is a treasure. Los Baños is one of Santa Barbara’s little secrets,” Wascoe continued. With a gesture encompassing the beach, palm trees, mountains, and harbor scenery, he asked, “where else do you get this?” adding that many newcomers to Santa Barbara don’t make their way to the harbor, not realizing how fun it can be. “When you start coming to the pool,” he said, “it introduces you to the waterfront," adding that when he was new to Santa Barbara, "I didn’t know it was so nice down here!”

Adult Lap Swim at Los Baños

Pool Location 401 Shoreline Drive, Santa Barbara

November through March Weekdays (M–F): 7:30–9am and Noon–2pm
Weekends and most holidays: Noon–2pm 

April through October Weekdays (M–F) 7:30–9am; Noon–2pm; 7:15–8:15pm
Weekends and most holidays: Noon–2pm 

For more information, including monthly pass rates, please visit our main swimming page. To see our aquatics programs for Spring/Summer 2014, check out our current activity guide at santabarbaraca.gov/activities