Bowman Gray Memorial Pool

Bowman Gray is an excellent pool, enormous and well-​appointed. Whatever type of water exercise you fancy, this place can accommodate you easily.
Unfortunately, it is a university facility. Beyond the obvious caveat about being available only to students and faculty, that means that it is subject to strange scheduling mishaps that even students must beware of. Make sure that you stay very, very up to date on all of the various programs and classes that rotate in and out of here, since your independent usage will take a back seat to university events (which will often fill up the whole place).

My first introduction to Bowman Gray was during an aerobics class at UNC (my no-​fail solution to fulfilling my gym credit without having to throw or catch a ball of any shape or form). I’ll never forget that class. We had aerobics in an un-​air-​conditioned room in the 90+ degree weather of August and September; and then we had water aerobics at Bowman Gray during the chilly fall-​to-​winter months of November and December. Despite these logistics, I did enjoy getting to play in the pool some — even if water aerobics seemed a little more for the 60-​and-​up crowd. The pool is big. we had one area partitioned for our class; but there are plenty of 50-​meter lanes and 25-​meter lanes, so you can do some serious laps. I attended an old boyfriend’s sister’s swim-​meet here; it was an all-​day affair with several competing teams, but the facility has plenty of space to accommodate that. If you’re a student, you can also expect to do your swim-​test requirement here (if they are indeed still enforcing that graduation stipulation). The pool is accessible to UNC students and faculty (to the latter for a fee).