Enhanced swimming workouts on a remote island

Bonnie Pronk uses her Endless Pool for a type of "therapy" to which most of us can only aspire: Overall physical conditioning, intensified with "specificity" training for focus on particular aspects of swimming technique. It must work.

Bonnie, a resident of Quadra Island, off the coast of southern British Columbia, had compiled some astounding statistics as a Masters competitor in the 60-to-64 age group, setting 22 Masters world records and 31 Canadian records including 7 world records with four first-place finishes and 1 second-place finish at the World Swimming Championships.

Not surprisingly, her Endless Pool, which she's trained in for seven years, had enhancements befitting the intensity of her regimen: stairs, allowing her husband-coach to observe her swimming form, and a ceiling mirror to observe backstroke technique, with a superimposed grid to avoid "lane drift."

At the height of her training, Bonnie trains "just about every evening, after supper," devoting as much as 30 minutes to a given aspect of her strokes. During less concentrated training periods, she maintains her stamina with 3 or 4 workouts per week in water from 80º to 83º.

For all her Masters achievements, though, Bonnie's fondness for her Endless Pool has much in common with other owners, especially the convenience factor. A competitive swimmer in her youth, accessibility to the pool is integral to Bonnie's rekindled enthusiasm for the sport.

"We're really out in the boonies," she says, "and it takes me about an hour and a ferry ride to get to the nearest full-size pool. And even that is sometimes problematic because of the weather. So the Endless Pool makes a big difference."