From time to time members have asked about swimming pools in Switzerland.

This Swiss Swimming Pool Site should help to locate the ones nearest 'home'. The pools are shown on the map with address and phone number etc.

This second Swimming Pool Site has pools which offer more on the 'Fun' side.

And for the Water Temperatures... and this second site - I hope one of them is up-to-date! Some were about a year old when I checked!

There's a really big one just down the road from here - it's uncovered, open all year round, and large enough to accommodate lots and lots of people, all at the same time.

One occasionally has to watch out for the ferries, paddle steamers and other vessels that go up and down and across it, but apart from that it's very nice - and best of all, it's free!

PM me, and I'll send you the address. I wouldn't want to give the secret away to every Urs, Dick and Harry on the forum...

The 'pool' Dougal's Breakfast mentions is a dead loss in winter. Sometimes it freezes round the edges, making tumble-turns impossible. Stick to the pools in the first post! (for any poor soul to whom this doesn't make sense, DB was recommending Lake Zürich!!!)

Having found a pool...
For those interested in competitive swimming: Swiss Swimming - - - List of Swimming Clubs
The Regions are:-
RSR - Swiss Romandie (French speaking part of Switzerland)
RZO - Central Switzerland East (includes Zürich)
RZW - Central Switzerland West (includes Basel)
ROS - Eastern Switzerland
RSI - Italien Speaking Region (Ticino)

List of Water Polo Clubs - - - - - - List of Masters Swimming Clubs - - - - - -

Sports Clubs for people with a disability and the sports the club takes part in.

For those who prefer to train less often, a Life Saving Group might be a possibility (less importance is attached to the swimming technique and the children’s groups train 1-2x a week as opposed to 3-7x for competitive swimmers).

The main body for non-competitive swimming Switzerland is Swimsports.
The site is in French, German and Italien, but with a bit of imagination and a touch of Babelfish, an English speaker can sort out quite a bit of the information.

On this site, 'Swimming Schools' are listed with links to their Homepages. Links to Waterfitness and Swimming for Seniors and Baby Swimming are also to be found there.
Here is another Site for Baby-Swimming .

If any of these links do not work, or you need other specific information which you cannot find through them, please ask!

Open-Water Swims
These events are organised every year in Switzerland.
They vary greatly in length and the temperature of the water which can be expected.
Most of them are arranged by the local Life-Savers or Swimming Club and precautions will be taken to avoid accidents. Some, at least, have age-limits (downwards)! At some of them the swimmers' time will be registered. At others, if you want to know how long it took you, you must check your own watch. Many of them are not planned as races at all - more as a fun event, although the satisfaction of crossing a lake under ones own steam is considerable.
It's a bit late for 2008, unless you fancy one of the winter swims over short distances, but this link will give an idea of what is offered ready for next summer.
For water temperatures, see first post.

Thank you for that info. But all the distances are either crazy 25km swims or to short, there is nothing between 2.5km and 25km. (I'm excluding the 3.5 km ones in the river, because that's just cheating).

So am I to understand that there are no races of a normal length? This is nuts. If you look at what people in the UK are racing (http://www.bldsa.org.uk/pages/2events.htm), you can see 5km is a normal distance. I just can't believe there isn't a single race in all of Switzerland between 2.5km and 25km.

All I can do is just throw my hands up in the air in a flamboyant gesture of despair.

So does anyone what to go swimming in a lake, for a nice long (5km) swim next summer?

Cheers

Matthew

I see your point.
I think there are so many endurance sports in Switzerland that 'just' distance swimming is not as popular as in England.
Swiss Open Water Championships.

Having just checked the links in this Thread to make sure they still work, I have also found some new Info about Longer Distance Competitions.

Meisterschaften und offizielle Wettkämpfe / Champ. et Compétitions officielles OPEN WATER

23.05.2009 SW: 5km-Schweizermeisterschaft (Pool) / Champ. suisse 5km (pool)
Bellinzona
25. - 26.07.2009 SW: Open Water Schweizermeisterschaft / Champ. suisse eau libre
tbd
Apart from the Masters events, for which a temporary license is sufficient, a 2009 license with Swiss Swimming is required to enable the holder to enter the championships.

The dates for the ‘non-competitive’ lake swims are slowly being added to the link in the 4th post.

Thank you.The information was very helpful

As questions have come up about swimming schools, I have added a link to 'Swimsports' which is 'ruling body' for Swimming schools in Switzerland. To keep it all together I have put the link with the other information in the third post of this Thread.

Thanks, Longbyt, perfect timing. Mrs. Tomcat has been mentioning that the kittens need to learn to swim ...

Thanks so much. This information is really useful

Hi LongBYT,
Do you have any info on Water safety in Switzerland. I believe SLRG is the organisation responsible, but they are quite poor about returning emails etc. I used to do an awful lot of it in the past at home and would be interested in getting into it a bit here to see how it works on the Swiss side. Do they do lifeguard courses open to everyone or is it some sort of a closed house thing?

Cheers.

Because you often give folk helpful information, I've taken the trouble to have a look through the links on this Thread myself.

These are courses in for the Basic Brevet which are open to anyone who fulfils the requirements. (age etc.)
Although if you've done it before, it will probably be far too easy for you from a practical standpoint, but I doubt if you'll be able to take the SLRG II (which is more likely the standard for a lifeguard) until you've done the first one and I don't know if there is a possibility of doing the theory in English. If you can cope with the German, this page is quite interesting too.

(Things have changed a bit recently, but the methods used for saving people, much to Mr L and my hilarity, used to be quite different from those used at the time in UK!)

If you don't find what you want there, you could get in touch with this guy. He should be able to help.
Lebensrettungsgesellschaft SLRG Region Zürich, Schreiber Daniel
General-Werdmüller-Strasse 18
8804 Au ZH
Tel 044 780 63 47*‎
I googled him so his address is no secret.

I'm not really into the background of SLRG so I cannot speak from personal experience of the way it functions.

Hope this helps though.

Thanks LongBYT,
I had actually looked through the links before and even fired off an email to the guy who apparently is supposed to run the show in Uster, but he never bothered to reply to me. I'll look into the links again and see if I can find somewhere to go along for an info evening or something.

Cheers.

Wädenswil has just finished a course. Richterswil doesn't have one until next year. Horgen isn't having one this year either. Some groups only seems to have Refresher courses planned. You could try this course in Kloten. They also have a shorter version for good swimmers it seems. SLRG Rafzerfeld has a course in Zumikon!

Me, if can't get any joy from the official bodies, I try sneaking along when a group is training and innocently asking. It's naughty but sometimes works better. From (bitter) experience I know how in some groups the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing.

Good luck.

Yes, you might have the ability to simply jump into any body of water and swim. However it is worth checking with each lake, if you are aloud too, considering the amount of hydroelectric power that goes on in Switzerland. You don't want to have your swim interrupted by getting mangled in a turbine.

Cheers

Matthew

Hi, does anyone know when the open-air pools open? I couldn't find this on any of the websites provided above...

As you said, the only details on the Home Pages are for last year, but I don't expect they change much.

Let's hope they update these soon.
Eglisee, Bachgraben, Joggeli, Breite.

Have a good time.

The Baar Lättich outdoor pool opens 8th May, would imagine the others will open more or less the same time.... "Ve vont to hear only won klick ja!!" :-)

Hello,
I would like very much to spend a weekend swimming and taking sunbaths.....
With this weather it is almost not possible, but I hope till middle of June it will get better....
So, would be pleased, if u give me some tips where one can swim and relax in Switzerland? I guess in Italian Part it is warmer.....But would appreciate your precise help....
Thank u.