We failed you. Have your say.

David and Luke are back, and let’s just say—it’s been a wild ride. From braving the unexpected forces of nature to discovering some surprising things about aquatic facilities, this episode is packed with stories, insights, and a few unexpected twists. They also dive into a new event in the industry—one that’s all about leadership, connection, and the future of aquatics.

What’s Inside?

💨 The moment Queensland threw us a curveball.
🌊 Why our summer swims didn’t go exactly as planned.
🏊‍♂️ The one thing every aquatic facility needs (but not all have).
🎉 A big event that’s changing the game for leaders in aquatics.
🍹 The sip & swim test—what is it, and why is it so much fun?

Transcript

David (00:00)
Well, it's about time. We are back. It's been longer than usual, a little bit blown off course, you might say, up here in Queensland. You might have heard of a storm, but Luke and I have made it through. And here we are, Luke Daly. How are you going?

Luke Daly (00:15)
I'm good. We survived the cyclone. Well, tropical low in the finish. But look, it's still inflicted some damage. Certainly took its toll on some of the facilities. They had to shut down for a passage of time as well. Made it very confusing. Different council shutting down at different times, different council shutting down on different frequencies to different levels. And even now we stand in. You know, fixing.

the pools. I saw a photo the other day of one of one of the pools. Yeah, that's gonna take some work.

David (00:42)
Yeah, you're not wrong. mean, even just forget aquatics for a moment. I know we're aquatics only, but is even just the councils and local areas putting their kids back to school? What's open? What's not? What can be? What can't be? Where I am on the Sunshine Coast, I'm told, believe it or not, the cyclone passed only about 25 kilometers from where I live.

We kind of had nothing. It was a fizzle for us up on the coast on the sunny coast I've got two little branches down in the backyard that were pretty dead anyway and neither of them are longer than a meter My grass needs a mow because it's just rained up here a little bit But you know most of the damage was further south of here But that was the thing nobody seemed to know where Alfred was gonna cross and how serious it was gonna be and you might have seen Luke a couple of the previews

I put up at the Sunshine Coast. mean, you saw how windy it was on one of those. We thought it was coming this way.

Luke Daly (01:37)
Then it went back the other way. And it's like I highlighted to your wife, David, the only thing that that had damage inflicted upon it up at the Sunshine Coast was a couple of bottles of red wine and some lamb chops in your house.

David (01:50)
Yes, this is very true. Every day that Alfred delayed coming was like, well, another bottle of red wine, another few chops on the barbecue and we'll just keep it rolling. Meat and wine, that's what was going on at my house.

Luke Daly (02:04)
Sounds perfect. And look, there obviously has been a lot of damage around. So we think of those who have been damaged and trust that the insurance will take care of you guys.

David (02:12)
Yeah, absolutely. Look, the parts of Brisbane, the Gold Coast, northern New South Wales, Lismore was under threat again. So to all our friends in northern New South Wales and the southeast corner who really were affected, we are absolutely still thinking of you. If you've got photos for us, whack them up and send them through to us at Aquatics Only.

Luke Daly (02:30)
And hopefully our pools are fed better than was it like Meriton in South Port? No, it Meriton at Surfers Paradise. Did you see that footage, Dave? Well, up on the 50th floor, just the windows just leaking like a sieve and coming through in that wind. So look, hopefully our pools are built better than that building.

David (02:48)
Yeah, indeed. Hey, Luke, there's something we've got to talk about with our audience. made a look. It's a it's a thanks, Luke. It's a four letter word that needs to be talked about. It's a four letter word that starts with F because we might have F'd on our promise. We made a big promise and we might have F'd on that promise. Yeah.

Luke Daly (02:54)
Was it your lisp on the last podcast?

list.

think we have to everywhere to be honest.

We are, well, fail, I assume is the F word that you're looking for.

David (03:17)
Fail is the word.

Fail is the word. One other four letter F word was there that we're with F. That's...

Luke Daly (03:23)
Well, we've always been on fire.

David (03:25)
Well, that's true, but we haven't failed to be on fire, but we have had a big F, a big fail, where we promised you, our audience, that we were going to get out to, look, I'm gonna distance myself from this, it was really Luke, made the big promise that we could get out to 22 of the Brisbane summer swims for $2. We didn't quite make 22. We had a good crack at it though, Lukey.

Luke Daly (03:49)
We gave it a nudge. What do we get 15 out of 22?

David (03:51)
Yeah, maybe 16. I'm going with 16. Hey, look, we failed. We failed to finish it, but we didn't fail to do it. And we certainly didn't fail to have a heck of a lot of fun along the way. There were some good highlights, really, weren't there?

Luke Daly (03:55)
Okay, round up, why not?

Yeah, a lot of fun. Look, some low lights as well, but the highlights is what we focus on, obviously. So you'll probably have seen a series of YouTube videos coming out through primarily our LinkedIn channel. And we'll do our best to share them on Instagram and Facebook. But we do communicate mainly through LinkedIn and obviously through this podcast, David. 15 pools, lots of different management companies that are responsible for those pools. What would your highlight have been, do you think, across those 15, if you can remember them?

David (04:35)
Yeah, I got a few highlights, but if there's one, it's just because it was so out of the box for me. I'd never seen anything like it before. It's got to be Spring Hill. So we're walking into a pool that was built in. can't even remember when was that built? Do you remember what year?

Luke Daly (04:49)
Now, about two years before you were born, think, wasn't it? 1836.

David (04:54)
Yeah, was a long time ago, so thanks. I'm old enough at 1977, but that doesn't... The joke doesn't carry...

Luke Daly (04:59)
No, that was it. was 1876.

David (05:01)
The joke doesn't carry because

Luke Daly (05:01)
It was like 100 years in one.

David (05:03)
it's so far different. It was such an old pool. This thing was around before my great grandparents were around. And it really is impressive to walk in there with the stalls, some of the old signage that's up. It's just this one pool. But honestly, the moment for me there wasn't just the age of the pool and the way it's being kept, that sort of heritage whole atmosphere.

Luke Daly (05:07)
that true?

David (05:30)
It was your conversation with the old lady who was there doing her laps, walking up and down the pool and you just had a great connection. It's in the video. Have we released that video yet? Have people had a chance to look that? Yeah. If you haven't had a chance to look at that, please go and have a look. Luke just strikes up. Well, she struck up a conversation with you and there was a great race between you and her and well, there was a surprise winner.

Luke Daly (05:40)
Yeah, yeah, that was the first video we put out that one.

There was. There really was.

David (05:53)
We've got

to watch the video to see. But that'd be my highlight, I think, because of just the age and how unique it was, but also that moment of you connecting with that lovely lady in the pool as well as having a great connection. What about you? What was one of your highlights, Luke?

Luke Daly (06:12)
I feel like I was going to take the easy road out and say that my highlight was how much life there is at each of these aquatic facilities. you if you think about the hibiscus one that we went to where there was like three carnivals running, we couldn't even get down to the pool. So for me, the short answer is all of them. If I pick an unexpected one, let's pick an unexpected one, because that's what you did as well.

meeting Jan at story time was just different. it awesome.

David (06:34)
Yes. You and your connection with

the grandmas, mate. They love you. You're like their grandson. They just absolutely love Luke.

Luke Daly (06:39)
Well, it's what I do. It's...

Look, Jen, you don't expect to see it right where you see beautiful pools, beautiful facilities, beautiful slides, but the jungle and the books and the focus on that side of it and there, suppose. Different way of teaching swimming as well was really cool.

David (06:59)
Yeah, it's

definitely worth a look when that video comes out for those who don't know story time. If you're not around Brisbane, I didn't know it before. It's there is a it's basically a jungle that Jan's built over this place, just plants to keep it nice and cool because there's so much exposed concrete that she's put plants around the whole place. And it does feel very homely and gardenly. That's a word, probably not. But it was a majestic and it was a wonderful

Luke Daly (07:28)
I agree. And at this point, I want to give a shout out to all of the different operators that welcomed us to their facilities. A number of venues from Just Sports. That was awesome. The Valley, if we think back to Finn, Jan, obviously at Storytime as well. Shelly's down at Yeronga that we visited. City Venue Management A lot of facilities under all of those. And also Australian Crawl back at Emily Seabom and Sandgate as well. I think that was certainly the most welcoming.

We won't mention the one that wasn't as much.

David (07:56)
Well,

it is worth a mention, we won't say who, but it is worth a mention just because of the sheer weight of welcome that we had. Because we're turning up with cameras, we're turning up with recording devices, we're turning up to engage the community. We're not turning up to take photos and images of people swimming and make them feel awkward. But we are taking footage of the general surrounds, the pool, the coffee, having chats with staff, and only with people on site.

if they want to engage with us, which is rare, but it does happen. And so for all 16 that I believe we got to, there was only one where we weren't welcome. That was made very clear and you'll see that in the videos coming up as well. But it's been an absolute pleasure for us, think. Luke, I can talk for you here to go out and actually speak with, connect with the industry professionals in aquatics, doing an amazing job over the heat of summer around Brisbane on dollar swims, craziness.

Luke Daly (08:51)
Yeah.

David (08:52)
Yep.

Luke Daly (08:53)
And every pool was different. think that's that was one of the parts that I like the most. Everything kind of everyone kind of leaned into what that community needed. So I think, you know, obviously we can make improvements and we talk about it on the podcast, but each was good.

David (09:00)
Yeah.

and not once, not a single time did I even think about having to do it. Not once did either us punch a lifeguard.

Luke Daly (09:12)
No, it's just not necessary. So I think I think we'll have to export that. Not the lifeguard part, obviously, but export what we've now coined as a sip and swim test to other facilities as we make our travels as part of our jobs that we get to go and see these places. I think the sip and swim test will become a staple. Lots of S's. Like I don't have a Lisp like you did in last podcast. But the sip and swim test. Also, just for the record, everyone, David doesn't have a Lisp. That was my fault on the edit.

side of things. So I'm sorry David about that.

David (09:43)
Oh, is that what you're getting at?

I didn't get it. Of course there was so many that sounded like I had a lisp on that recording that I forgot about that. That's hilarious. Again, if you haven't seen last podcast, I do sound like I have lisp. And that's okay for those people who do have lisp, we still love you as well. But I don't have one and I wasn't pretending to have one.

Luke Daly (09:53)
That's because it's beads that long between drinks.

David (10:06)
Look, it was awesome. We've had the privilege of seeing it around Brisbane. We want to come and do the sip and swim tests when we're around the country. Luke and I, we do get out and about a little bit. We'll do a few more of these. I suppose ad hoc, Luke. Probably something else to talk about because these are the pools we're visiting and it's...

These pools only survive as pieces of infrastructure with forward thinking and investment and there's some issues around that. Royal Life in a few weeks will be running an event down in Melbourne, Infrastructure Symposium, which I think is much needed to talk about where this is coming from. But even in spite of that, there's plenty out there. In fact, they've released an infrastructure investment report, had some interesting findings. We're gonna get RJ on, well, when we can, hopefully,

the next couple of weeks, RJ's expressed his commitment, interest in wanting to come and have a chat with us. We look forward to that. But yeah, we need investment in our infrastructure, Luke. It doesn't work without it. It's like your face and your hair. It doesn't work without some investment being put into it. Thank God.

Luke Daly (10:59)
Yeah, nope, not at all.

You got to put some effort into it. I was told the other day, actually, David, fun fact for you,

that I'm known as Mr. Hair to one of our lovely industry members, husbands, actually. Yeah, Mr. Hair, that's my identifier, apparently.

David (11:17)
Okay! Yeah, you edit this first.

Luke is becoming an icon.

Luke Daly (11:24)
Which

is a lot better than my previous nickname of, well, you can ask me privately. We don't need to put that on the podcast.

David (11:28)
I don't think you want

to know what your previous nickname was. And let's just say I had short and curly hair at school, and I had my own nickname at school too, if you can figure that out. The report from RJ is going to talk to us about, I just want to run some numbers. Can I run some numbers, Luke? I like numbers. I know you do too. Don't pretend you don't. All right.

Luke Daly (11:45)
I'm listening.

David (11:48)
Social and economic value of our public pools and infrastructure. 421 million visits to our 2,103 aquatic facilities each year. That's a lot of people going through our facilities.

Luke Daly (12:02)
There's a lot of visits. How many did you account for David?

David (12:05)
at least 20, well 15 there, but no, I've been through my own, so probably closer to 30 or 40 to be honest, probably like you. Nearly 13 billion annual social value inclusive social health and economic benefits, because gotta remember these pools don't just.

Luke Daly (12:06)
15.

David (12:25)
create an income of people coming in, what other benefits are being had back to our economy through health social benefits like loneliness being reduced because we've got connection. We'll talk about that too, some of the things that are being done at pools to reduce loneliness and engage communities together to connection.

$30.50 generated each visit to an aquatic facility and economic benefits. So that's not just revenue through the door. That is the benefits of what is going on now for health outcomes. So there's plenty there. There's so much more to talk about that I want to steal RJ's thunder on this.

So what I do want to talk about, Luke, is an article on ABC recently, in fact, came out on 6th of March. So it is real recent. And this is Victorian-focused. I've spent a lot of time talking about Queensland. But this is Victorian-focused. And Victoria's aging pools needing cash splash to stay afloat, council's warned. Let me give you the short version here. More than half.

50 % of Victoria's swimming pools are over 50 years old. I know you think I'm old, but that's even older than me, So you think I'm in poor disrepair and I need some investment like you do in your hair, Mr. Hair. These pools are over 50 years old and they're considered well beyond their end of life date. And so councils are saying they want, well, you'll never guess what councils are asking for. Have a guess, Luke. What are councils asking for? Money, money,

Luke Daly (13:50)
Hmm... Money.

David (13:52)
That's all I know. Must be funny in a rich man's world, but councils want more state and federal support to help keep local pools open. You know what? The benefit to the communities beyond those local councils, I think it should be absolutely supported and looked at. mean, yeah, go ahead.

Luke Daly (13:53)
must be funny.

I think I'm going to have an opinion on this one real quick if it's OK for me to jump

in. So obviously, that's an article that's there. The report we've got out from Royal Life and in a couple of weeks time is the meeting that Royal Life are convening as well around this infrastructure as a particular topic. And we've discussed this a number of times on this podcast and arguably will keep discussing it on this podcast. But. There's got to be many ways to skin a cat.

David (14:35)
Yeah. Yep. Many ways to keep a pork going. Yep. Yep.

Luke Daly (14:35)
In our sense, in our context, there's got to be many different ways where we can fund these projects. Like

we can't just rely on. And they're beautiful. We see a lot of them, tens of millions of dollars spent on infrastructure in these facilities, but surely there's a better way that we can maximize the return on investment across more pools like 50 percent. Is there a better way that we can

renovate pools.

David (15:02)
Absolutely. And look, it's interesting because so many of they're coming to the end of life now or are past it. Because again, long time before I was born and before you were born Luke, there was an event that happened in Melbourne that was pretty serious. In 1956, the Melbourne Olympics happened and that spawned a lot of the growth and interest in swimming. So many of Australia's great swimming and swimming culture has been built out of that event in Melbourne. So there was a lot of investment in pools through the 50s and 60s where those

pools are now, well they're aged and they need that support. So something to keep on talking about. Luke, I want to touch on a couple of the posts that you've put up on LinkedIn. We've had a couple of polls. What have we found?

Luke Daly (15:44)
Like aquapoles, is that what we're talking about? We're talking about our new friend, Dr. Marley here.

David (15:46)
dancing around these polls.

These are polls where you're asking our audience questions. We're polling for opinions but thoughts. Let's go first of all to who wants to see Luke or me in an aqua aerobics class? Talk about connection at the pool, right? We would be lonely.

Luke Daly (16:03)
Right? Arguably,

statistically, our busiest poll there, David. 97 % of respondents have let us know that they would like to see us, you or me, do one of these Acra classes at one of the pools that we go and visit.

David (16:20)
We all know it's

We all know it's you, that they want to see. And that means that somebody, least somebody's voted no. Are we aware of who has voted no in the obvious yes camp to see Luke doing Aqua Lady?

Luke Daly (16:32)
Well, obviously, yes, is actually filled with 35 votes. So as a percentage, it looks less aggressive. 35 to one. Only one person has voted, obviously not. And that person is obviously highly intelligent and doesn't need to see that in their life.

David (16:47)
Wasn't me.

Luke Daly (16:48)
Did you vote at all?

You did. Did you vote obviously yes?

David (16:51)
Yeah, because I'm voting for you to do it.

Luke Daly (16:53)
Did you?

That wasn't stipulated that it was me.

David (16:56)
Well, when we do it, we'll get some video footage to put up. It'll be fantastic.

Luke Daly (17:01)
And also

just clarifying, you didn't actually vote, Stenit. I'm looking at it now. I voted obviously not because people just don't need that in their life, okay?

David (17:05)
Moving on, next poll.

No, they want it. The people have asked for it. The people will get it. Now, next poll is one that's close to my heart and thinking, because it makes me want to do a little dry vomit, and maybe not even that dry, is can you swim in a public spa or do you just know too much? Think of hotels. I think that's where we were getting at, wasn't it? The hotel one.

Luke Daly (17:37)
Look, that was what

spawned the idea for the poll. But I'm OK to extend that to our public rec facilities as well, because I've visited a few of these rec facilities at this point with saunas, steam rooms and spas. And the only thing that I look at and you go, my goodness, that's intense. what spawned this was specifically hotel spas.

At this point, there's still five days left to vote on this. But by the time you see the podcast, it'll likely be closed. But there are. 29 % of respondents have said that, yes, but they pretend that they don't know what's going on. Those who feel strongly have left us comments on their couple of vomit faces like you indicated, just going, I wish it wasn't so. And then Erin, friend.

at Zoom Expos is written never with three exclamation marks just to make sure that we do understand. And yeah, the no, I know too much section with 12 votes in it at this point really has it. And it was triggered off me because I actually got in trouble over the weekend. Not trouble, trouble, but we traveled so we didn't have to sit through the cyclone at home without power. And if you know my two sons,

David (18:52)
Yeah. All right, so you read all that.

Luke Daly (18:55)
Yeah, if any if any of you know my two sons, Alfred could have learned something from them in terms of cyclonic behavior. Sitting at home with no power with my two boys, just not happening.

David (19:05)
Well, I was with you Queensland and New South Wales who was suffering through Alfred and threat of Alfred

Luke Daly (19:10)
We abandoned, and I'd like

to talk about the International Women's Day Boss W events in a minute or two, Dave. basically, we went to a hotel where there was a portable spa. And that's where I draw the line. A hotel spa that's run off a good circuit with good filtration and good sanitation, I'm actually here for. But a portable spa? No, thank you. I don't think I can do that in a public space.

David (19:35)
No, that's understandable. I can't, I've been working in chemistry through polls since 2006. No, unless they're being looked after, and I know they're being looked after, which is rare. No thanks, and I'm certainly never, ever putting my head on that, even if I am forced to get in at this point. All right, let's go. What's next, Luke? International Women's Day.

Luke Daly (19:57)
Well,

Yeah, it was a good day. We we being ASSA in partnership with ARI in the Sydney event. we had to postpone the Queensland event, but stand by the Boss W would be back. Boss W was an initiative where we can all kind of come together as different associations and do different leadership initiatives. So over the last week, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, we ran events in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra in collaboration with Ari for the Sydney One Micro Highlight.

David (20:03)
It was so chronic up here.

Yep.

Luke Daly (20:25)
But a phenomenal time where nearly 100 women came together and they're just really good events. We heard from expert panels and different keynote speakers as well there, David, just a great time of community and leadership for that particular sector within our industry, David.

David (20:41)
It's a great way to wrap up our podcast today on connections and celebration of just cool people and great stuff going on around what we do. love our aquatics industry because it's made up of aquatics people. We have survived the cyclone. Luke, for those of us that were here, to everybody else, thank you for all of your thoughts and support for the people who have actually gone through something. I haven't up here on the coast, but a lot of people have. A lot of stuff going on.

looking forward to seeing you around the ground sometime real soon but until then AO!

Luke Daly (21:13)
Let's

go.