Randy Mendioroz, principal in Aquatic Design Group

In swimming pool-rich sunny San Diego at the southern end of swimming pool-rich sunny Southern California, pool designer Randy Mendioroz may be the man who eventually puts SDSU’s college swimming program on the international swimming map.

Mendioroz, a principal in Aquatic Design Group, is diving into a plan for a $9 million “fast pool” at SDSU. A “fast pool” is distinguished from a slow pool not only by its swimmers, but by certain design factors.

“You want to mitigate surface wakes in the design of the trough around the pool,” says Mendioroz. “You also need to design the pool so that it is deep to mitigate underwater wakes that slow down the swimmers; and by minimizing the velocity of waves coming back into the pool from return inlets, by adding more inlets and increasing the pipe size.”

A 25-year veteran of the swimming pool industry, Mendioroz founded Aquatic Design in 1984. He guided his firm’s recent design of the above-ground swimming pool for the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in Long Beach. Not only was it the largest temporary swimming venue ever constructed in the United States, but it was fast, with a number of world records shattered.

“I’m hoping to design an Olympic aquatic venue for whoever gets the games in 2012,” he says. And maybe those games will feature a swimmer who learned to get fast in a pool in San Diego.