West Reservoir Centre — Attraction in London

This was my first experience of open water swimming and I wanted to share. Firstly, I am a fitness instructor and professional athlete so I felt confident in my decision to swim here despite not having a lot of experience in the water. I came with my partner who does Ironman triathlons and is an extremely competent swimmer so that I would feel safe during my first time. I was very much enjoying my relaxed swim and, when I came to get tired around 250m, I took a moment to stop swimming and look back at where I’d come from. The lifeguard in a canoe shouted over to me but I couldn’t hear what he said. After a moment he came over to me and said that I was signalling for help which I hadn’t realised. I apologised very profusely as I didn’t realise this was code for help. My partner, who was with me, also apologised to the lifeguard as he believed to signal for help you had to put your hand up. We were told that they had to respond to what I had done so, once again, we apologised and swam on a little further. After only a couple of minutes, I was tired again so paused and (I must say very briefly) I did roll onto my back for one big breath then continued to breast stroke. The lifeguard in his boat was immediately right by my side and gave me quite a fright by coming so close after such a quick moment’s rest. He very aggressively told me he would have to come over every time if I did that again and spoke to me in an extremely condescending manner. I very sternly said I did not need his help but thank you and he was clearly angered by me. The irony is, that there was no issue, but the way he acted and spoke towards me caused me to have an anxiety attack in the water which I then had to deal with in order to safely finish my swim. I understand he was trying to do his job but, as a first timer, I felt so unwelcome, unsafe and it is enough for me to completely put me off trying to train and get better at swimming. My partner was shocked by how the man spoke to me. My advice to anyone in my situation would be to stay away from this centre and go somewhere else instead. Hopefully you will have a better experience elsewhere. Having said this, I sat on the grass, meditated and had a great service in the cafe...

To; dr: overstaffed, chaotic, overpriced and stressful

Decided to book a spot here because the ponds at the Heath were full. Never been pre-covid, so don't know what to compare the experience to, but, what a joke! It was £10 for an hour slot, which would be expensive in the best of times. When we arrived we joined a queue of about 4 customers. There were four staff members manning the entrance, and they couldn't handle the size of the queue and were panicking and freaking out unprofessionally. We were cattled over to the changing area, and were told to wear a floating device while swimming, for safety (ok, I guess??) and a used swim cap (also apparently for safety???) It felt like a bad joke.

The water was calm, beautiful and peaceful.

There was a gigantic obstacle course of humungous orange and yellow floating buouys numbered randomly. Several staff were patrolling the waters in canoes, ominously. They approached is to tell us we were swimming in the wrong fashion! "You must swim an anti clockwise direction, always keeping the buoys to your left!"

The ducks were enjoying a leisurely swim and paddle far away from the buouys and I envied them as I and my friend, weighed down by our tangle of safety devices were forced to navigate the strict route, lest we face the wroth of the canoe guards.

After one lap, we got out, and sat for about 30 seconds on our towels on the sparsely populated changing area concourse. Then, another frantic staff member announced loudly and in a great and passionate speech that nobody on the changing area was welcome to stay. If we want to relax in the sun, we can move to the overcrowded cafe seating area to buy something, or leave.so we left. Bieee!

The whole experience was an overregulated, overpriced and overstaffed mess. Anywhere else in the world and this "open air swimming pool" would just have one person on the door, taking a modest entrance fee, and would leave the paying adult humans to their own humble devices - to swim at their own leisure in a glorious oasis in the middle of a hectic city. Instead, the experience ended up being just as hectic and frustrating as the city life that it is supposed to be an...

TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE. RACIST, RUDE AND AGRESSIVE MANAGER.

My friend and I had signed up for the 4PM paddle boarding session. Travelling from south london we arrived at the centre at 4PM sharp.

As we head towards reception to ask where to go for the class we were greeted in a very unpleasant way by “a manager” who told us we were too late and that we should just “come back next year”?? We insist nicely explaining that we’ve come from far, that we were really looking forward to this but no. he was adamant that there was absolutely no way that we would be allowed as we arrived too late (by this point its 16:03). He then goes on to tell us that he has given our spaces to some other people who hadn’t signed up but had arrived earlier and that anyways he have missed the safety briefing.

Feeling very discouraged we head out outside where the paddle board instructor and the group were actually just starting the briefing. Standing behind the group we listen carefully to the briefing and once the instructor is done we explained our situation to her. She replied that of course we could join, that infact she still had two more spaces (our spaces, the manger had lied about giving them to other people) and that we should just go get some safety jackets.

We head back inside to get some jackets when we bump into the very unpleasant manger who literally exploded on a disgusting power trip saying that “it was people like us who ruined society”… that he had already made up his mind “I am the boss here and I decide”, “i’m in charge today and what I say goes” pointing at us aggressively with his finger… just awful…

I don’t think its normal at all to be felt responsible for representing “all that is wrong with society” and can’t help to feel like his attack was racially motivated as my friend and I are black. In no case being a couple minutes “late” is an excuse to be treated like this. Everyone present around us was chocked by this attack. It seemed the other staff were used to this sort of behaviour from that manager as they apologised for him as...