Lockdown has been difficult for everyone and given social distancing guidelines and the changing room fiasco, we have really struggled to offer any sort of club experience.
The changing rooms have been completed and Easyriders have taken on the lease, we have met with the team there and agreed in principle to start using the changing rooms initially on a Tuesday evening.
We plan to review the situation regarding the Sunday swim next season once we have the remainder of this season under our belt and we know how the new facilities will work.
Because there is so little of the season left and we are unable to offer drinks, taster sessions, safety cover etc there will be no membership fee to pay for 2019 club members. We will unfortunately not be taking on new members this year either.
This is how we see it working – Swimmers can gather from 6pm on a Tuesday, there will be limited changing facilities (approximately 50% of the size of the old ones !!), there will be no registration and no safety cover. 2019 members will swim at their own risk. The ED committee will provide a safety briefing and somewhere to leave bags. The new changing rooms have showers which are currently not operational due to some issues with the type the council installed, so please don’t come expecting much!
Although it will be difficult to enforce, we would ask that you buddy up with a swimmer of a similar standard and follow the guidance on swim direction and duration provided at the briefing to minimise stress to your fellow swimmers.
Hopefully this format, although not a patch on what we would like to offer, will get some of us swimming together again and start the journey to reinstating the ED of old?
We are planning on having a social on the first swim back – Tuesday 20th July so please bring food to share – Easyriders are allowing us to use their gazebos for the evening.
We plan to run a social once a month and will publish the dates on Facebook.
Look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on the 20th.
Lots of love
East Dorset Committee.