A “Seriously Convenient” Pool under a Grand Glass Roof
When Olympian Alistair Brownlee got his first Endless Pools model, he called his friend and fellow triathlete, Ivan Eustace. “This is seriously convenient,” Ivan recalls Alistair telling him. That conversation led to a shift in Ivan’s plans for a simple home addition to this stunningly modern, light-filled conservatory.
It’s a decision Ivan appreciates more than he could've imagined. “I fall out of bed and into the pool,” he now says of his morning triathlon training. “It’s spectacular. You can easily bang out half an hour to an hour set in there.”
When tech entrepreneur and triathlete Ivan Eustace was planning his home addition, he took the advice of his friend, triathlete Alistair Brownlee, and installed an Endless Pools Swim Spa. Brownlee had already used his own Endless Pools model to go from a torn Achilles tendon to Olympic gold in just six months! © Ronan Melia Photography
For this tech executive, the convenience is a critical factor. He resides in County Dublin, Ireland, with his wife and two kids, but work requires him to travel frequently. “If I have a 7:30 flight to London, I just get up half an hour earlier. When you’ve got an Endless Pool there, there’s no excuse. The convenience is amazing!”
Ivan also found that swimming became necessary. As chance would have it, he suffered a torn labrum during a triathlon just weeks before installation was completed. So his Endless Pools swim spa would serve double-duty as his rehab pool. “Swimming is perfect for it,” he says of his hip injury.
As a result of this happenstance, he found himself increasingly taking to swimming – and increasingly enjoying it. “I love triathlon, but swimming has given me this passion. I’ve totally fallen in love with swimming. I can do two swims a day.”
“I do a lot of technical work in the pool. All my swim times are down, and they keep coming down. It’s brought me to a new level.” In fact, on a recent business trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, he entered an open-water race, just over a mile from Fort Mason to Aquatic Park. To his surprise, he came in first – while still recovering from his hip injury!
This past weekend, he completed his “longest swim ever,” the 13-km Galway Bay Swim, in 3 hours 48 minutes. (The event raised £100,000 for Cancer Care West.) He credits the Endless Pool with advancing his goals. “It gives you confidence. A year ago, I’d never have contemplated that.”
“Before, I always swam open water with a wetsuit,” he recalls. But with the additional training in his Endless Pool, he no longer needs the suit’s added buoyancy. “I’ve got a much better plane. I just wear a Speedo® now; I’m real retro!”
Like a lot of Endless Pool owners, he bought the swimming machine for his own training, only to find that the entire family loved it. “Every day, I come home, and they’re in it.” His eight-year-old son “lives in the thing! … It’s been a spectacular addition."