Ocean pools include:
- ’Natural’ or ‘found’ pools produced by natural processes or showing little apparent human intervention that have been recognised, designated and used as bathing places and have recognised access paths labelled or mapped,
- ring-of-rocks pools, rocks arranged on sand to define a recognised bathing place, These pools are easy to create on any sandy beach with a good supply of rocks nearby, and require little maintenance, except to keep remove rocks, sand or seaweed, and rearrange the rocks after storms,
- minimalist ocean pools, irregularly shaped bathing pools involving minimal excavation and construction, and
- classic ocean pools, a range of pools associated with rocky ocean shores or surf beaches. These include formed concrete pools located in the tidal zone, excavations/indentations in rock, perhaps augmented with walls of cement or concrete to define a bathing place, and complexes of pools and associated building.
While pools of standard 50 metre competition length with marked lanes are best for competitive swimming, a rectangular competition space can be defined within a large round or irregularly shaped pool.
Ocean pools are NOT:
- pools sited out of the intertidal zone whether off the beach, on a hill above the sea or even indoors, or
- netted enclosures or other forms of bathing pools linked to a breakwater .