Merited Attention

It started as a trickle and then became a flood unlike anything I’ve witnessed in more than 30 years of focusing on watershapes.

Almost every spring since 1986, I’ve encountered photo features in magazines (and now on web sites) purporting to cover either the cultural history of swimming pools or to share what the editors see as being the best of the aquatic best. In most years, I’ve seen just a few of these features. But this year, there were many more than usual, and what struck me was the higher-than-usual caliber of the media outlets getting in on the act.

I’m accustomed, for example, to picking up travel magazines to review their (seemingly) annual round-ups of the top ten or twenty best hotel pools on the planet; I also see shelter magazines that, each spring, offer outdoor-related features tied into what editors proclaim as homeowners’ seasonal passion for poolside living.

But this year? In addition to the usual suspects, heavier hitters including National Geographic, CNN.com and Esquire got involved. (Before any sort of pattern emerged, I’d already called attention to some of these items in the “WaterShapes Web Café” section of our newsletter.)

I have no idea what has prompted this unusually bountiful media cascade, but I’m happy to accept it as endorsement of the increasing literary merit of swimming pools. There was a time when such features were few and far between: Heck, I recall working on promotional committees for the National Spa & Pool Institute back in the late 1980s that did their work by paying magazines like Better Homes & Gardens to get pools and spas a good slug of print exposure.

In the here and now, I see three factors at work: First, media outlets are as hungry as they’ve ever been for good, attractive content; second, swimming pools have made tremendous, editor-friendly strides in the past few years by including multiple elements of broad visual appeal (acrylic panels, shallow lounging areas, perimeter-overflow edges and fire bowls among them) – the sort of stuff that gets media types all fired up.

But third, I believe that the individuals behind these outstanding, coverage-worthy pools have gained a legitimate level of recognition within the greater design community. As a result, there’s more buzz and therefore more interest among sophisticated readers (and editors) in seeing and appreciating poolscape-oriented coverage. Time will tell on this last point: If expansive coverage comes back again next year and holds to a similar pace in years to follow, I’ll get more assertive in declaring that watershaping’s long struggle for respectability is rolling toward a positive outcome.

But even without that sort of specific media endorsement, I am quite comfortable observing that, where pools once were seen as an outpost of design mediocrity, they’re now on the cutting edge in making overall design compositions work. It’s been a beautiful thing to watch through the WaterShapes lens – and I don’t see any letup as the artful craft of watershaping keeps moving forward.

***

I am so very happy to be back at my desk again, almost fully recovered from pain that afflicted the lowest 20 percent of my spine through June and into July.

My wife pointed something out to me: In the past, when I’ve felt the onset of back issues, I’ve always taken to my spa, often for hours on end, to stretch things out and relax offended muscles. This time, however, there was a blockage in our spa’s suction line brought on by an unusually heavy intrusion of malaleuca leaves and seed pods, and I hadn’t yet taken the time to clear it away to make the spa function properly.

What a vicious circuit! Once weakened, I couldn’t remove the blockage, use the spa and thereby avoid further injury – and then couldn’t resort to hydrotherapy to speed recovery. Now that I’m feeling better, I’ve cleared the line and the spa is, at last, helping me recuperate from what has been the most serious bad-back episode I’ve ever experienced.

I’ve learned my lesson: Busy or not, I’ll never let that sort of maintenance issue slide again!