Southland Leisure Centre — Attraction in Calgary

My 8 yr son came as a group as part of his child care for the entire day. My son is an excellent swimmer by the way, however he also has high anxiety when he is put on the spot! So imagine his surprise when his group is put too a swim test upon arrival before they are " allowed" to enter the pool for the swimming for the day! My son doesn't care to "jump" into any water because he hates the water rushing up his nose and his hair is long and gets into his face.... So he prefers just NOT too jump in and have it in his face... He also hates ponytails as it pulls on his scalp because his hair is super thick and water adds so much weight to it... So he politely said no. He passed all the other commands of the test and refused the JUMP into the pool and the Southland staff REFUSED to let my son participate in the swim for the day and benched him for the ENTIRE day!!!!!! From 9am till 4pm!!! Absolutely ridiculous!!!! A waste of money and absurd to think that they couldn't have some understanding to the above mentioned. He can float on his back and stomach, swim frontwards and backwards, and on each side but because he refused to freaken jump into the deep end of the pool they benched him as a fail for safety reasons?? I will NEVER EVER recommend this place ever and will continue to go to the Saw lake mills in Cochrane and any other place that has some level of common sense. My son will not drown if he can actually swim which he can as I have mentioned before. He also doesn't like being put on the spot with a ton of people watching him. It make him super uncomfortable which makes his anxiety go through the roof. But honestly, if he can do the rest what is the big deal about not jumping into the pool?! It makes no sense to me. All this place did was take an 8 year old and made him sit on a bench for the entire day while he watched his group play and have fun because he was too full of anxiety to jump in worried about the burn of water up his nose and everything thing else I had already mentioned. Just kids themselves going around doing these "Tests". Had I been there I would have def said something. Because this day should not have happened the way it did. I wish the child care place would have called me too to advise me of the scenario as well. However, I can leave this review to show just how Very...

The weight room is the best - lots of treadmills etc (which is why I've given three stars) although some of the members of staff in there seem to have rather odd personalities (you certainly don't feel very welcome in there!), but the pool is way, way too crowded. I can't believe it's legal to have that many in the pool at one time and with hard plastic rafts with metal bolts - at a wave pool. Been injured both times I've been - bruises from getting hit in the arms and face. Also, the steam room needs to be adults only. Please. It's insane - the kids go in and out holding the door open; and yesterday were bringing water from the fountain in the mouths, and spitting it onto the metal machine in the corner. Would be nice too if reception staff were consistent - really friendly one week and then barking at fee paying customers the next, just because they were having some computer problems. You expend less energy being consistently friendly. 9.45pm-9.55pm - that was worth the 12.50. You actually had some space in the pool. It was a little comfortable with the lifeguards glaring at you because they wanted us to leave but that was the absolute best. The rest of the time in the pool, you barely have even three inches space around you and you're in constant danger of being kicked in the face by teenagers who are on the pool toys so their feet are level with your head. If you really can't have any adults only time in the pool, is there no way of having some time without all the rafts etc? Most pools have designated times when there are pool toys. Supposedly you do too according to the schedule, but they're in there all day. I can't be the only one who has repeatedly been hit the face by people using that hard...

i like the SLC, me and my daughter always enjoy going swimming there. however, yesterday August 25th left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth as there were multiple individuals swimming in their street clothing. i do not care what religion someone has but it should at least be enforced that they wear proper swim wear. you are supposed to even shower and get yourself wet before entering the pool to somewhat clean yourself. these individuals were sitting with their leggings in the kiddie pool and then eventually moved into the regular pool with their dry clothes. at that point i had to ask myself if it was wash day for them. as i said, everyone can have their own beliefs and religion but that seems unacceptable and unsanitary to me, regardless of how much chlorine is in the pool

UPDATE 08/11/2025

My daughter and i went swimming on Sunday 08/10/2025 and it was not great. i do not understand why it can't be enforced to have people take a shower before entering the pools with their street clothing on! i literally fished out a clove out of the water that someone had stuck to their clothing and got washed out, this is disgusting! Give them a warning, and if they can't comply to the rules throw them out!

the life guards are great but seemed to be overwhelmed with the amount of people unable to respect what they had to say. 4 times the wave pool had to be stopped because people entered, and couldn't swim or didn't wear proper PFD.

please turn this back into a family swimming pool and not a...