Te Puna o Whakaehu – Pool rules

Our pool rules are designed for your safety and wellbeing.

General

• Please follow instructions from staff
• Entry is permissible by paying the relevant entry fee and wristband
• Please respect other patrons
• No breath holding. Refer to breath holding policy below
• Please ensure your actions (or inactions) don’t jeopardise your safety or the safety of others
• No running, diving (unless authorised), pushing, play fighting, shoulder rides or poolside flips. Although they seem like fun, they cause many accidents
• No smoking, vaping, alcohol or other drugs (pre-loading or onsite)
• Limit public displays of affection – ours is a family-friendly facility
• No glass or crockery
• No gang insignia
• Personal training and swim teaching is reserved for designated groups. Giving pointers to your family or friend is fine
• Please wait 48 hours after a vomiting and/or diarrhoea bug before visiting our pool. Those with Cryptosporidiosis may enter two weeks after symptoms have resolved.

Supervision policy

Caregivers for children under five years must be in the water, within arm’s reach and able to physically assist at all times. Children under 10 must wear a yellow wristband for identification and be actively supervised by a caregiver. Actively supervised means continually watching your child and able to provide immediate assistance.  Caregivers must be 16 years or older.

There is no compulsory caregiver to child ratio; however, you must be able to fulfil your supervision obligations to ALL children.

Respectfully, a child’s competency in the water has no impact on these expectations. Bookings and groups have additional requirements.

Hygiene

We encourage you to toilet and shower before entering the pool to prevent things like mud, lotion and body fluids from affecting the water quality. Please protect open wounds. No spitting. People with incontinence should wear protective measures – either swim nappies or tight-fitting bike shorts. Exit the pool and inform staff if there’s an incident. This helps us to quickly clean, clear and re-open the pool.

Dress code

Please wear clean swimwear that doesn’t restrict movement. Please ensure private areas are not visible (includes see through swimwear). Jeans and long loose-fitting clothing are banned.

Food, beverages and gum

Please don’t take food, beverages (except for water bottles on the side of the pool) or gum into the pool. You can eat in the seating areas.

Equipment

Please don’t take equipment into the pool that might harm people or the facility. For example, large equipment that could block lifeguard sight, dyes that blur the water, mermaid tails, hard balls or items that disintegrate or break easily e.g. balloons.

Height and age limits

To maintain the therapeutic environment of the hydrotherapy pool, it is restricted to people 14 years and older. Please talk to our staff if you’re under 14 and need to use the hydrotherapy pool for physiotherapy or rehabilitation.

The spa is restricted to people 18 years and older. We recommend that pregnant women don’t use the spa, due to risks to the baby.

Limits may apply to specialised equipment, such as inflatables. General access and usage restrictions apply to those under 10 (see supervision policy).

Photo/videography

Photos and videos are not allowed to be taken at the pool to protect people’s privacy and ensure patrons are comfortable. You can ask staff for permission, however, this is limited to poolside and content should not include other people. Permission won’t be granted for underwater or change room photo’s/videos.

Bookings

A confirmed booking is required for exclusive use of a pool. Booking requests can be made on our website, where you’ll find more information about the booking process. Additional rules apply to bookings, such as compulsory supervision ratios. Parties, clubs, schools, events and holiday programmes need to be booked.

Breaches to rules

In the first instance, staff will take an educative approach. With bookings, we will contact a representative of the group. However, where there are serious or repetitive breaches, we will ask patrons to leave or impose access restrictions.

If you have any questions about these rules, please talk to pool staff or email tepunaowhakaehu@dcc.govt.nz

Breath holding rules

Purpose

The Dunedin City Council is responsible for meeting its obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act, ensuring so far as is reasonably practicable that workers and other persons are not put at risk. As Poolsafe Accredited facilities, DCC Aquatics is also required to comply with industry best practice standards.

Breath holding is recognised across the New Zealand aquatics sector as a high-risk activity due to its established link with sudden loss of consciousness and a number of preventable fatalities. Breath holding incidents can occur regardless of swimmer age, fitness, experience or water depth. The risk is often underestimated in pool environments due to the absence of environmental factors, the presence of lifeguards and because swimmers may appear competent until the moment of unconsciousness.

This rule set informs customers about potential risks, ensures practical measures are in place to reduce harm, and supports our health and safety obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act and Poolsafe accreditation.

Definitions

Breath control

Normal and reasonably expected breathing during standard swimming activities with no intention to hold or extend one’s breath. Examples that may fall into breath control include lap swimming or surfacing after a dive from a diving board. These examples are indicative only. Staff will determine what is considered breath control.

Breath holding

The deliberate action or intention to hold or extend one’s breath under water. Breath holding may be static, meaning little or no movement, or dynamic, involving visible movement. Classification is at the discretion of DCC staff.

Hyperventilation

The act of taking repeated breaths followed by forced exhalations to artificially reduce carbon dioxide levels. This may delay the urge to breathe but significantly increases the risk of hypoxia and shallow water blackout.

Hypoxia

A lack of oxygen reaching body tissues. This may cause confusion, panic, loss of coordination, unconsciousness and in an aquatic environment drowning.

Shallow Water Blackout

Despite its name, it can occur at any depth. It is a sudden loss of consciousness caused by oxygen depletion (hypoxia), often happening at the end of a breath hold. It may occur without warning and can result in inhalation of water, an immediate drowning risk.

Spotter

A dedicated person/s responsible solely for supervising the participant/s undertaking breath holding. The spotter may be in or out of the water but must maintain continuous active observation, to provide immediate assistance if required.

Limitations for Lifeguard Supervision

Breath-holding creates supervision challenges that differ from standard pool activities. Prolonged underwater activity reduces visibility, making it difficult for lifeguards to assess a swimmer’s wellbeing and level of consciousness. These risks are heightened during static breath-holding, where visual cues of consciousness are impractical, even when the swimmer is visible.

Lifeguards are responsible for supervising entre zones with many customers. They cannot provide continuous one-to-one monitoring for anyone taking part in the high-risk activity of breath holding.

For these reasons breath holding requires additional controls and must be treated as a specialist activity with its own specific controls and requirements.

Breath Holding Activity Rules

DCC staff have full authority to identify breath holding behaviour, distinguish it from breath control and intervene whenever they believe an activity presents a risk. Staff may require an activity to cease at any time or be managed with further controls. Any decisions made are final at the time and are entirely at the discretion of staff. If someone has concerns about a decision, they may raise them with the Aquatics Manger, in writing, after the fact.

Breath holding is only permitted when all of the following conditions are met.

1. The activity is notified to the facility in advance, with written agreeance to the policy and may be withdrawn if conditions are assessed as unsuitable. Bookings must be made at least seven days prior through the Bookings Coordinator. No fee or exclusive space is associated with the booking.
2. A dedicated spotter is required to provide active supervision for up to two participants engaged in breath holding. The spotter may be in or out of the water but must maintain continuous observation and be able to give immediate assistance if needed. The exception to this is organised groups where there are alternative controls (see clause f).
3. Breath holding is strictly reserved and permissible in the 25-metre main pool/s (at Moana Pool and Te Puna o Whakaehu).
4. No hyperventilation is used before or during the activity.
5. Staff have authority to stop breath holding activity at any stage if their risk assessment deems it unsafe for any reason. This may be influenced by contextual information, time of. Pool staff will communicate with pool users if an activity is presenting concerns related to the breath holding rule set and clarify expectations.
6. Organised groups are not excluded from this rule set. However, it is acknowledged that their risk profiles differ from those of individual members of the public. Organised groups must provide DCC Aquatics with an overview of identified risks, associated controls consistent with these rules, and emergency procedures. This information will be reviewed on an annual basis in line with booking confirmations. Staff retain the authority to stop any breath holding activity at any time if their risk assessment determines it to be unsafe for any reason. This decision may be influenced by contextual factors, including time, environment, or participant behaviour.

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