The Plunge Is Now El Segundo's After-Work Swim

Where does someone in El Segundo swim laps at 7 p.m. on a Tuesday in October? On the city's posted fall schedule, the answer is a 1941 swim stadium on West Mariposa Avenue, and nowhere else.

The Urho Saari Swim Stadium, which almost everyone calls The Plunge, reopened with a ribbon-cutting and a first community swim on Saturday, June 6, 2026, after seven years closed. The coverage centered on the history. The fall schedule shows the more practical change. The El Segundo Wiseburn Aquatic Center on East Grand Avenue still covers early mornings and Sundays, and The Plunge has the evenings to itself. Hilltop Pool is a summer-only pool and its last weekend hours ended September 7, so these two pools are all El Segundo has until next summer.

Two Pools, Two Different Clocks

Here is the posted fall lap-swim schedule for both pools, taken from the city's aquatics pages.

*The city's two aquatics pages disagree on Wednesday. The facilities page lists The Plunge from 9 a.m., and the aquatics program page lists it from 6 a.m.

Every posted lap hour at the Aquatic Center ends by 3 p.m. On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights, the only public lap lanes in town are at The Plunge, from 6 to 9 p.m.

Mariposa Avenue Owns the Evening

The same pattern holds for families. The Plunge runs rec swim in both its big pool and its small pool on Wednesday from 6 to 9 p.m., Friday from 5:30 to 9 p.m., and Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. The Aquatic Center's instructional pool lists rec swim only on Sunday, from noon to 3 p.m. So from Monday through Saturday, the only public rec swim in town is at The Plunge.

The fall schedule also moved some hours around after The Plunge's first summer. The city's July/August 2026 newsletter listed weekday lap swim from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., evening lap swim Monday through Thursday, and a weekday rec swim from 1 to 3:45 p.m. The fall changes:

1. Weekday lap swim now runs until 3 p.m., and until 5 p.m. on Fridays.
2. The weekday afternoon rec swim is gone. Lap lanes now fill the early part of that window, through 3 p.m. most days.
3. Wednesday evening changed from lap swim to a three-hour family rec swim.
4. Friday rec swim now starts at 5:30 p.m., half an hour earlier than the summer start.
5. Saturday stayed the same, with laps until noon and rec swim from noon to 3 p.m.

A swimmer who works regular hours now gets three weeknight lap sessions. A family gets two weeknight swims and a Saturday afternoon. In summer, The Plunge spread rec swim across weekday afternoons. This fall it fits both groups into evenings.

Sunrise and Sunday Still Belong to Grand Avenue

The Aquatic Center at 2240 E. Grand Avenue keeps the early hours. Its competition pool opens at 6 a.m. every day, and it is the only city pool open on Sunday, with lap swim from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Plunge's facilities page lists its only 6 a.m. start on Saturday, though the program page also shows a 6 a.m. Wednesday start.

The two pools also feel different in the water. The Plunge's big pool is 25 yards and held at 78 to 81 degrees. The Aquatic Center's competition pool is kept at the same temperature but runs from 6 feet 6 inches to 13 feet 6 inches deep. Its four-lane instructional pool is 2 feet to 4 feet 6 inches deep and runs warmer, at 81 to 85 degrees. Water aerobics for adults 18 and over meets in that instructional pool, weekdays from 7 to 7:50 a.m. and 9 to 9:50 a.m., and Sundays from 9 to 10:30 a.m. None of it is on The Plunge's posted fall schedule.

That gives the city a simple weekly split. Dawn workouts, Sunday swims, and water aerobics happen on Grand Avenue. Weeknight laps and evening family swims happen downtown.

What the Seven-Year Wait Bought

The Plunge opened on November 13, 1941. According to the Daily Breeze, city staff spent more than ten years patching leaks to keep it running before it closed in 2019. Construction began in 2024 and was first expected to finish in 2025. The project fixed code and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance issues. It also replaced mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and pool systems and added architectural upgrades to the building.

Those system upgrades are what make the new schedule possible. A pool held together by patches is hard to staff and keep warm on a 9 p.m. October schedule. A pool with new mechanical and pool systems can keep a stated temperature range into the evening, three nights a week.

The building's namesake also explains why its lanes have long been busy. Urho Saari started El Segundo's swim program and ran The Plunge. As the El Segundo High School swim and water polo coach, he trained more than 30 Olympic water polo players. He served on the Olympic Water Polo Committee several times and was named National Water Polo Coach of the Year in 1964. He entered the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame in 1976. The city spells his first name Urho, and some news coverage uses Uhro. Either spelling will find the pool in a search.

Paying, Reserving, and the Hours to Confirm

Prices are the same at both pools, and the El Segundo Rec ID lowers them.

• Adults: $5 with a valid Rec ID, $8 without.
• Seniors, youth, and military: $3 with a valid Rec ID, $6 without.
• Lane reservations: booked by the hour, with no more than two swimmers per reserved lane. The published base rate for a half-lane is $7, and eligible discounts apply at checkout.
• Drop-in lanes: no cap on swimmers, and the city says drop-in lanes are available during morning and afternoon lap swim.
• Booking: in person, by phone at 310-524-2738, or online through El Segundo Recreation's portal under "Court & Lane Rentals."

The city's wording on drop-in lanes matters for evening swimmers. It names morning and afternoon, so a 6 p.m. lap swimmer who wants a set lane may be better off reserving one. The city also says the schedule is subject to change. Besides the Wednesday morning discrepancy, a few items were not on the posted fall schedule: lesson times, adaptive sessions such as "Swim With Me - Adaptive," and masters swim. The city sends masters, club swim, and club water polo swimmers to those groups directly. Check the portal before you plan a season around any of those.

A Friday Evening on Main Street

Friday rec swim at The Plunge now starts at 5:30 p.m., and two Main Street openings from this summer fit around it. EZPZ Pizza & Soft-Serve soft-opened at 321 Main Street on June 18, 2026. Unico Tokyo Pasta was open or in soft opening by late July and lists its address as 411 Main Street. Families who swim from 5:30 p.m. can get dinner on Main Street after. A Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday lap swimmer who gets in at 6 p.m. still has time for a late plate of pasta. On this fall's schedule, no other city pool is open at those hours.

Whether you own a home within walking distance of The Plunge or manage a rental near downtown, it's worth knowing what tenants can do there on a weeknight in October. At Jambi Property Management, we follow changes like this one because they affect how an El Segundo home lives and how it should be presented. If you'd like to know where your property stands this fall, request a free rental analysis.