We’re firm believers that anything you can do in a small swimming pool you can do in a swim spa (aka swim spa, endless pool or plunge pool)—plus a whole lot more. If there’s a beautiful new swim spa in your yard, these great ideas for pool games, pool parties and hydrotherapy will help you max out the fun. Want to add more splash to your spa? Keep reading!
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Idea #1: Get your game face on
Games make a pool more fun for all ages. When it comes to younger children, the advantage of a swim spa is its uniformly shallow water, making it easy and safe for them to participate in games, and invent a few of their own as well.
Kids enjoy diving for small weighted pool rings or sticks (adults who want to stay dry can even throw them from the pool deck). Award points for fastest pick-up, different colours, greatest number and more. An adaptation of this game is a scavenger hunt, where an odd collection of items are “hidden” in the swim spa for the kids to find.
Small remote control boats are a blast to drive around in the water (races are a great option for competitive families!). You can also build your own boats out of three-inch sections of pool noodle, toothpicks or wooden skewers, and pieces of fabric, then race them down the length of the pool without touching them.
Tossing games are good fun for solo or team play. Use a permanent marker to write points (5, 10, 15 etc.) on the inside of five or six Frisbees. Players toss sponges into the Frisbees to see who gets the highest score.
You can make your own pool Jenga set with 10 foot-long sections of pool noodle. Stack ‘em up, remove noodle sections from the pile, and place ‘em on top. It’s just like the wooden block version of the game, but goofier!
Boogie boarding is great fun for kids and smaller adults—just turn on the swim jets and turn your swim spa into a wave pool.
Swimmers of all ages enjoy playing volleyball, basketball or badminton in the pool. Use basketball and volleyball nets with weighted bases or anchor a badminton net into the ground and stretch it across the spa to avoid compromising the shell by attaching anything directly to it.
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Idea #2: Plan a party
It’s definitely fun to introduce your swim spa to your friends, extended family, neighbours and even co-workers. Seeing their enjoyment (and even good-humoured jealousy) helps reinforce the reasons you purchased your swim spa in the first place.
Of course, planning a pool party for a small pool—which is probably in a small yard—comes with its own set of challenges. We’ve written an entire post on how to host a big party when you have a small pool. You can check it out for the details, but here are the highlights.
Overall, when planning a party for a small pool, think quality rather than quantity. Invite a smaller number of awesome guests rather than everyone you know. Keep your theme and decorations impressive in their simplicity. When it come to activities, less is more—one special, memorable game is better than a few standard, expected ones. Offer a small number of food and drink options, but make sure they stand out.
Keep the party planning simple and everyone will have a simply amazing time.
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Idea #3: Think spahhhhhh
Hydropool is famous for its hydrotherapy and the jet placement on a Hydropool swim spa is the same as a Hydropool hot tub—the differences are there’s more water and fewer seats. You'll enjoy your swim spa more if you remember to turn on those jets and use the seats like you would the seats in a hot tub. (Remember that on a cool fall day, it can take around 12 hours to increase the temperature of an average-sized electrically heated swim spa from 85°F to 100°F.)
So there you have it: three great ideas for getting the most fun out of your new swim spa! Whether it’s a game adapted from dry land activities, a party for a few of your besties or massaging away the stress with Hydropool’s world renowned hydrotherapy, these ideas will help you love your new swim spa even more than you thought possible when you took your first dip!
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