The club is responsible for setup and cleanup of our equipment, as well as all of the details involved in running the games each week. We’re remarkably fortunate to have a pool to play at — it’s very difficult to find pools that will allow kayak polo at all, so it’s critical to keep the pool staff happy! The nights run quickly and smoothly when everyone pitches in.
General Dos and Don’ts:
- Do NOT EVER stand on random bins, chairs, or other items on the pool deck to help you reach things. The pool provides ladders for us to use to get to the goal ropes and such. ONLY use the ladder.
- Do NOT grab onto random bolts or screws in the walls to balance yourself or climb up to reach the goal ropes. The bolts/screws can accidentally pop out of the walls, and then we get in trouble.
- If ANY kind of damage to pool property or equipment does occur, let the person organizing polo for the night know IMMEDIATELY. We need to address issues rapidly, regardless of how minor they may seem.
- ONLY POOL STAFF are allowed to move lane lines, flags, and bulkheads for liability reasons, so let them do their jobs without interference, and don’t offer to help.
- If you’re thinking about ignoring any of these rules, don’t. The pool has security cameras all over, and they will see you behaving poorly. Don’t ruin it for everybody.
Setup:
- Bring in common gear (PFDs, Balls, Helmets, Spray Skirts) into the pool area from the designated storage area. Each player that uses a club boat is responsible for bringing their own boat in/out.
- Set up goals/nets and leave them in the bottom clip position.
Cleanup:
We must be completely out of the pool half an hour after games end! Post-game chatting is always better over a beer (or your beverage of choice) at the bar anyway!
- Take the goals/nets down, throw the nets on the goal frames, and raise the rigging to the upper clip position with a cone for weight. Make sure that the hauling ropes are coiled and tied up above arm’s reach from the pool deck, and put the goal frames in their designated location.
- Put club boats and other gear into the storage area. If you use a club boat, you are responsible for your boat and helping with other common gear!
- Do a sweep of the pool for trash, leaves, forgotten gear, etc. (Do a very good job of this, please!)
Making sure that the pool is looked after is imperative! Don’t be the jackass that gets kayak polo kicked out of the pool after a quarter-century of happy polo-ing!