Here’s Why You Should Never Ever Take a Dip in a Playa Lake

There are no public pools in Lubbock to cool off in anymore. Everyone in town is annoyed. I've seen countless Facebook posts from residents complaining about being unable to take their kids for a swim this summer, and I've also heard from friends that their private apartment pools are filled with random strangers.

It's a cruddy situation, but, don't be enticed into hopping in one of the many playa lakes in the area. They are the LAST place you want to swim.

I never understood why it was such a bad idea when I was a kid. We lived directly across the street from Higginbotham Park and we hung out there almost every day. My brother and I used to wade in the lake and look around for random treasures (garbage, haha) in shallow areas. Then, we'd walk home smelling like a dumpster and quickly try to hide any stinky evidence we'd been in the lake so we wouldn't get in trouble.

We thought our parents kept us out of the lake at Higginbotham Park because they were worried about our swimming skills, but that wasn't the case. They kept us out of them because they are straight-up funky and big-time dangerous.

In 2018, Everything Lubbock warned the public not to swim in local playa lakes and gave a detailed list of reasons why it's a no-go. Check out the YouTube video below:

Did you catch the part at the end where she suggests swimming in public pools instead? Ha. Didn't age well, huh?

Playa lakes are made for run-off, not swimming, and it's also against Lubbock city ordinances for you to swim in them. Yes, there are fish in most of them, BUT, the water contains chemicals, fertilizer, fishing hooks, trash, oil, and other potentially harmful icky stuff, too. You never know what you'll find in there. It's why they smell so rank on hot summer days when the water levels get low and the muddy shoreline is exposed to the elements. That mud is GROSS. I can smell that familiar stank right now just thinking about it. It's like standing in a porta-potty that hasn't been cleaned in years or finding a Tupperware container of forgotten mystery fish in the back of your fridge.

So, just a reminder, guys, no matter how badly you want to go for a swim, don't do it in a playa lake. It's not worth it. Consider filling up a kiddie pool in your backyard, or making friends with your rich neighbors and using their pool instead. I'd hop a fence and sneak into an apartment complex pool long before I chanced a swim in a playa lake. Don't do it!

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