Canberrans will have to book an allotted timeslot to escape the summer heat when outdoor pools at Manuka and Dickson reopen in the coming weeks, with venues capping attendees and swimming duration as part of COVID-19 plans.
The change to summer tradition is set to have a major impact on who uses the pools and when, and comes as another blow after last season was ruined by bushfire smoke haze.
Pool operators are preparing their venues to be coronavirus safe, with plans to clean facilities between swim sessions and walk-up visitors set to be turned away on hotter days because of number limits.
Canberra will enjoy a warm stretch of days this weekend, with Saturday and Sunday both expected to reach 26 degrees.
The Dickson Aquatic Centre will reopen on October 19, with Manuka Pool to follow on October 31.
Both venues lost thousands of visitors during the smoke and fire-plagued 2019-20 summer and Dickson manager Chris Graham is preparing for another "terrible" season.
He had hoped the coronavirus pandemic would all be over by the time he was ready to reopen the doors in October. But, COVID-19 and the rules enforced to stop its spread linger on and Mr Graham is "deeply concerned" about what that will mean for the season ahead.
"Whether we can deliver the whole service throughout summer, I don't know," he said.
"We're built off large numbers over those periods. That sustains us through those quiet periods."
Online booking swill be mandatory, with timed slots available to limit numbers and allow staff to clean between each session. Weekend sessions would likely be about two hours with shorter weekday slots to cater for regular lap-swimmers.
Mr Graham's biggest concern was for the safety of staff on a hot day if people flocked to Dickson to cool off.
He said the centre would release information ahead of the opening to prepare the community, but made a plea for Canberrans to be kind to employees.
"We don't know how the public are going to react to that," he said.
"I am somewhat fearful the public won't be kind to my staff when they can't come in because they haven't booked.
"We get those 35 to 38 degree days, everyone hits the pool and we simply will not be able to let them in.
"It's going to be difficult. The ball game's changed, everything has changed. We've got to work within ACT Health requirements so I hope people can understand that."
Canberra pools were knocked down last summer by bushfire smoke which forced them to close for days on end.
Mr Graham said Dickson Pool was down more than 20,000 visits in January, and with a 100-person capacity and the uncertainty around future restrictions, the pool wouldn't come close to churning the usual 1000 people through the centre a day.
"Over a summer period we do generally [have more than] 100,000 visits in our season," he said.
"We're not going to get anywhere near that capacity at all."
Swimming lessons will go ahead in 2020, but Mr Graham is unsure how many families will return to the pool.
Class numbers will be smaller and kids will be placed depending on past performance to avoid the typical assessment day which would see hundreds of swimmers descend on the pool.
"It's hard to know what we're going to be confronted with," he said.
"It will be an education process, and this will be ongoing, on how we are going to operate throughout the summer."
In Canberra's inner-south, work to fix some $20,000 worth of damage to Manuka Pool caused by the hail storm has been completed, as it prepared for an October 31 opening.
"We were right in the middle of the hail storm and then the last couple of weeks of our season was COVID," manager Bryan Pasfield said.
"I don't think things are looking that promising for this season, but who knows?"
Mr Pasfield has found himself hoping for a mild summer, to avoid crowds at the poolside.
"I hope it's not too hot, considering the restrictions we're going to have on us," he said.
"We don't want to see 100 people lined up at the door waiting to get in.
"Hopefully that will balance out."
Mr Pasfield was optimistic about the summer ahead despite the "unknown factor" COVID-19 imposed.
"We just need to to get used to living with the new normal," he said.
"We've made some changes to our learn to swim programs. Lap swimming and recreational swimming, it's still all going to be there but maybe just in a different format."
