Venice High’s pool has recently re-opened after a nearly 2-month long hiatus. The pool’s water heater had broken early in November, leading to drops in water temperatures that ultimately resulted in the closure of the pool to the public.

“The Venice High School swim classes and water polo players actually continued to swim as the water temperature went down,” said Mario Jovel, one of the pool’s managers.

He also noted that the pool’s heat dropped to a dismal 63 degrees- compared to the normal temperature of 82 degrees, that’s “pretty cold,” he said.

In fact, the water grew so chilly that Ms. Myra Einberg, Venice’s resident golf coach and occasional swim teacher poked fun at the whole situation by making each of her swim students a little medallion which was cut from cardboard and painted with the words “Venice High Polar Bear Club”.

“Ms. Einberg felt really guilty about making us swim even though the water was so cold, so she made these little medals for us out of cardboard,” said swim class participant Rachel Or.Once the water’s temperature dropped low enough to be considered dangerous to swim in, the pool’s lifeguards put regulations on who was allowed to enter the water. At this point, Ms. Einberg “set up golf tees on the side of the pool and made a game out of hitting the balls into the water” said Or.

In order to get the practice they needed despite not having a pool to swim in, Venice’s water polo team traveled the extra distance to another county pool, Westwood Recreation Aquatics Center, for two days out of the week says Sean Dougherty, a lifeguard at Venice whose hours were cut during the closure.

“Because the pool was closed, I didn’t get nearly as many hours as I did before- probably 8 hours per week instead of my usual 20 hours, so I had to get another job,” says Dougherty.

Another pool employee, Evelyn Cortez, commented on the same problem, saying that she had a “lack of hours” due to no work being available.

Pool employees weren’t the only people suffering from the missing heat. Patrons, mainly a strong core of Venice Pool regulars, couldn’t understand why replacing a heater could possibly take so long.

“This is a Los Angeles County pool, and to get things approved by the city, you have to set aside a large amount of time,” said manager Jovel. “A pool heater costs $30,000 to $35,000- it’s a long process to get something that expensive paid for.” He also mentioned that the pool was originally expected not to re-open until late February.

“At least, we got to repaint the signs, fix the tiles at the bottom of the pool and clean everything up while we were closed!” says Jovel.