The stack of kickboards

Kickboards divide into two broad types at any municipal pool: the dense contoured foam version with a scalloped grip at the front, and the flat rectangular slab with rounded corners, which floats higher but offers nothing for the hands to hold onto. A third, rarer type appears occasionally, molded in two densities so the edges compress slightly under a grip while the core stays rigid, though most facilities replace these with the cheaper flat kind once they crack. The stack itself, whatever the mix, is sorted by nobody in particular: a swimmer pulls one from the middle, uses it for four lengths, and returns it to the top, so the pile is really a record of the last hour's traffic rather than any deliberate arrangement by size or color. Color coding, where it exists, is supposed to indicate skill level, red for beginners and blue for lane swimmers, but the dye fades at different rates depending on how much pool time each board logs, and a heavily used blue board bleaches paler than a red one still in its first season. The foam absorbs water slowly over months rather than days, adding perhaps half a pound to a board's dry weight by the end of a busy summer, noticeable only to a coach who has held an old board and a new one in the same afternoon. Cracks start at the corners, always the corners, from being dropped on pool deck concrete rather than from anything that happens in the water. A cracked board still floats. It just floats crookedly, and most swimmers use it anyway rather than walk back for a replacement.

Doreen Fitch