2017 Adult Lap Swim Season Registration Starts Today

One of my favorite yearly occasions is the summer Adult Lap Swim program run by the NYC Parks Department. It usually goes for about 8 weeks and operates across the five boroughs. In Astoria it takes place at Astoria Pool in Astoria Park, and goes from Wednesday, July 5 to Friday, September 1, Mondays through Fridays. You can participate in either the Early Bird group: 7-8:30am (July-September) or Night Owl group: 7-8:30pm (July); ends at dusk (August-September).

Registration is imperative and starts TODAY, Monday, June 12 and takes place online—register here (this is the preferred method). However, there are those individuals that don’t have access to a computer or are stumped by navigating the website, so paper registration is available, too. This happens after the lap swim program starts; you can’t do it ahead of time. Parks warns, “There may be a waiting period for participants visiting the pool to fill out the paper registration form,” but I’ve never encountered anything like that, except for maybe the time it takes to fill out the form and successfully submit it to one of the staff.

When you arrive to start swimming, bring a printout of the registration email you receive, or show it on your phone to the staff person you encounter. Each person who participates gets a membership card with a number, or you can just memorize the number and tell the staff person each time you swim what that is (that’s what I usually do).

And don’t forget the awards program associated with Adult Lap Swim! If you swim 25 miles or more during the season, you get a tshirt and an invite to the citywide party (free food and entertainment). The top distance swimmers between July 5 and August 5 also get first, second, and third place awards; Astoria Pool always does well.

One of the things I always loved about the Adult Lap Swim is the variety of people that participate—from 18-year-olds to seniors, all shapes and sizes of bodies, abled and disabled folks, people from a wide range of backgrounds, ethnicities, and life interests. It can be as social or as focused as you want. And everyone improves their fitness by the end of the season. It’s a win for everyone!

4 Comments

Meg July 3rd, 2017

Hi, thanks so much for the information! I just had a question: do you need to go every day and for the whole hour and a half it’s open? Or can you make your own schedule? Thanks so much again!!

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Meg Cotner July 5th, 2017

You can go any time during the stated hours – no need to spend the entire time they’re open.

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Bernadette June 14th, 2017

The link this article provides does not work.

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Meg Cotner June 15th, 2017

I just checked them both and they do indeed resolve to their correct pages. Check your browser cache and security systems, which may be causing problems on your end.

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