Drs. VonJouanne & Yokochi and their Dual Current Endless Pool

Alex and Annette swim together with the special dual-current options

Drs. VonJouanne and Yokochi start a family swimming tradition

Unlike most athletic endeavors, swimming can be a lifelong source of cardiovascular vitality, healthy muscle tone, and limber joints. For people already devoted to the sport, the Endless Pool is to swimming what aviation is to travel. Consider the example of Doctors Annette VonJouanne and Alex Yokochi, both masters swimmers and professors at Oregon State University.

Alex swam in the Olympics in 1984, 1988, and 1992. His best finish was seventh place in the 200-meter breaststroke. Annette retired from competitive swimming in 1990, coincident with receiving her bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.

Master's and doctoral degrees have followed - Annette now teaches power electronics in the electrical and computer engineering department. One constant in their lives has been swimming to stay in shape, first in the university pool, now in the Endless Pool. Thanks to the dual-current option, they can swim in tandem during their 30-minute daily workout, which Annette calculates would cover about 1,000 yards.

They maintain a water temperature of 88 degrees, comfortable for the whole family, which includes Annette's parents and Sydney, the couple's daughter.

Sydney, who has been swimming for 20 of her 21 months, was named after the location of the 2000 Summer Olympics. Naturally, Annette swam throughout her pregnancy and resumed aquatic exercises a couple of days after Sydney was born.

The best thing about their Endless Pool?

"The convenience," says Annette. "There is no way we could have kept swimming with an infant without the Endless Pool. It's a huge hit with friends, kids, relatives, but it's extremely low-maintenance. Now, there is never a day we cannot swim, and we never have down time due to maintenance. That was a problem with local pools we used to go to, especially during holidays - which is when we like to swim the most, sometimes twice a day."

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