Brisbane Community Pool,

2 Solano Street, Brisbane, CA 94005

"This was my first and my last time at this pool. The stuff was very unfriendly and completely inconsistent in applying their policies, which they couldn’t fully explain when questioned. I took my 2 sons (5y and 7y) swimming. We are from Central Europe, but moved to Burlingame 2 years ago. My oldest son learned swimming 3 years ago and is a very good swimmer. Just like myself (and like probably the vast majority of Europeans), he has learned, and always practiced, the breast stroke as this is the Standard in Europe . My younger son just had a couple of private lessons on our recent trip to Europe and I was practicing with him. The pool staff told me that my older son is only allowed in the shallow water because they aren’t sure he can swim, which I found ridiculous as they saw him jumping in, diving etc. He wanted to go to the deep part so I asked what he has to do to prove he can swim - they said pass a swim test ie tread water for 30 seconds… I had him do it and they said it needs to be 60 seconds - he did it for 2 minutes and the life guard didn’t seem to care. She said he needs to be able to swim one lap and I said a can easily swim several laps, but then she insisted it has to be free-style and since he can “only” do the breast stroke he is considered a non-swimmer. I told her that I can’t do free-style either so I also would not pass the swim test then… she said that it doesn’t apply to me because I’m an adult. When I asked at what age would it then not apply to him anymore she responded that it’s not a matter of age, which is completely incoherent. She added that they don’t have enough staff to do the test today (yet I saw two of them lounging around while one was on duty). So I had no chance to prove that my son is a swimmer, he was only allowed in the shallow part of the pool and yet I had to pay the full entrance fee. I was very upset as there was no reasonable explanation just some incoherent contradictions. I asked if my older son could go into the deep part of the pool when my younger son stays out and I’m right next to my older son in the water - the answer was NO. Then the life guard just left while I haven’t finished my sentence. I noticed shortly after that in the lane next to us was a father practicing free-style with his soon in the deep water… his child could barely swim a couple of feet on his own, yet nobody told them to stay only in the shallow part. I’d advise anybody against using that pool as the rules seem to depend on the life guards mood. And if you are a strong swimmer, like my older son is, but you are just trained in the European standard swimming technique (the breast stroke), you are still considered a non-swimmer and you are not allowed in the deep part of the pool whatsoever…. Unless you are an adult, then it doesn’t matter if you can swim freestyle or not… BUT they also can’t tell you an age where that “testing criteria “ doesn’t apply anymore! Overall, a very disappointing experience for us all and I won’t recommend this pool to anyone. We’ve been to several other pools around the area, and it was never a problem - my older son never had to take a test or was even questioned. Their rules made sense and staff didn’t take a dogmatic approach."

"Today I had a terrible experience with my two children. We waited 1 hour and 30 minutes because it was full. there were many outside and between Latinos and whites, everyone left except me and the whites, they were 7 people. and they let only them pass, having been the last to arrive my child was crying since we always come here but this was very sad since I felt there is preference and racism☹️"

"It almost seemed you owned the pool as there were no other swimmers here. It was 1.5 hours before close so most are done with their daily swim routine."

"I have no desire to wait for 30 minutes for a parking spot, share a lane with 5-6 other swimmers, or swim in freezing, over-chlorinated water. Pool etiquette is ignored by swimmers and neither encouraged or enforced by staff, who are basically uninterested. Your skin will crack and smell like chlorine for 2-3 days after one swim here. Cramped locker rooms require you to wait your turn to shower and access your locker. Black mold on walls and floor is concerning. Oh, and they’re not cheap either. Drive 10 minutes farther to San Francisco for your choice of cleaner, less-crowded pools."

"It's a great pool for the price if you're a resident or not in the area of Brisbane. It's usually clean and the fellow swimmers are very friendly. If you have a love for cats the neighborhood cats seem to hang around the place alot. It does close sometimes if there's a storm but otherwise hours are accurate and its a great place to swim."