Rain Starts the New Year In Anaheim!

Our New Venue in Anaheim

Our first CPO class this year was held January 21-22, 2010 at the beautiful PoolCorp Anaheim operational support facility (previously, the headquarters for Superior Pool Products LLC).

Despite 5 days of rain (3-4 inches) and some area flooding , we still had a great turnout for class and all students arrived safely.

In addition to the local travelers, we had students from San Diego, Santa Barbara, Simi Valley, and even one from Waikoloa, Hawaii! — everyone commented on the nice building and exceptional classroom environment.

Class started out with our customary student introductions, and then we progressed through the curriculum.  When we got to the infamous Chapter 4:  Pool Water Contamination,  we discussed Recreational Water Illnesses (RWI) and what causes them.  Students were amazed to learn about all the bacteria, parasites and viruses that can and do get into our swimming pool water!  Ugh!!

Recreational Water Illnesses at a Glance

Being aware of these “bad bugs” and knowing how to prevent RWI is a fundamental skill of the Certified Pool/Spa Operator. Check out this brief outline (right) on what can make you sick in the swimming pool.

Thank you’s go to:  Don White for allowing us to have class in this beautiful facility; to Shelly Miller for being such a gracious host; and to Elizabeth Nappi for seeing us out a little late on Friday afternoon.  You guys are AWESOME!  We are really looking forward to our next class there in March!

Shelly Miller and Steve Donohoe -- It was cold and rainy -- but we did stay dry!

Last Class in 2009

Class finale of 2009

We had our last class of 2009 the weekend before Thanksgiving on Friday and Saturday, November 20-21.  We were teaching at our home base:  PoolCorp’s SCP, Orange, CA location.

All the classes have had their own personality and this one was no different.

As we were going through the presentations regarding water contamination, pool water problems, water circulation, and filtration — it all came down to this:  we need to disinfect to kill harmful pathogens.

And then we focused on:  ’How do you get the dead pathogens and other microscopic contaminates out of the water?’  Well, in many ways:

1. Oxidation — by break point chlorination, ozone, potassium, or using enzymes
2. Diluting or draining the pool water
3. Nano filtration

Nano filtration! — What’s that?  Well, as it turns out, one of the students owns a company that built a portable nano-filtration system that can filter out pool water contaminates, calcium and other dissolved solids; thus, reclaiming 75% of the water.  A very interesting coincidence, don’t you think!

We took a few pictures of our last class, but the camera did not make it home from our out-of-town trip.  We misplaced it somehow, and it is not to be found….so no pictures this time–sorry!

Thank you Stan and Matt at SCP/Orange and thank you PoolCorp for a great year.  And a huge thank you to all our students this year for spending your resources and your time to improve our pool service industry!

Check our out 2010 schedule: 2010 CPO Class Schedule

Full-House In San Diego September 11-12

We had a full classroom in San Diego this past Friday and Saturday, September 11-12, 2009 — in fact we had to turn a few away and re-schedule them for future classes!

Teach'n - Learn'n and have'n Fun!

A majority of the students were from the pool service industry, commercial and residential.

Some other students were in commercial management, overseeing their facility’s public swimming pool.  They wanted to know just what their pool service company was doing (or not doing) to ensure that their pools were healthy and safe for public use.  By the end of class,  all these managers felt very comfortable and well-informed enough to quiz and ask intelligent questions of their pool guy!  Maybe one question to ask them is: “Are you a CPO?”  And a follow-up if the answer is ‘no’: “Why not?”

The classes are always enjoyable and fun, with great feedback.

Elise worked especially hard hauling all the stuff up to the second floor and setting up the classroom and breakfast/refeshment table.

Our Breakfast and Refeshment table

Our host, SCP-San Diego was very gracious–as always.  We want to thank Branch Manager, Brett Devanna,  and Regional Manager, Lenny Maffei, for their ‘open house’ attitude to us and to our students.  A special thanks goes to Operations Manager, David Ogren, for coming back Saturday afternoon and locking up for us.

Thanks again, guys!  You’re helping us educate the pool industry one class at a time–and we couldn’t achieve this goal without you PoolCorp!

Brett and Steve - and their morning coffee