Aqua Sphere comments on Sport England Active People Survey
Sport England's Active People Survey, which interviewed 363,724 people aged 16 and over, has now been published. Whilst the survey reports that a disappointingly high percentage of people are still shunning exercise, it does report that swimming is the second most popular participation sport in England, and one in four adults (10.2 million people) now belongs to a health or sports club.
The Government is keen to promote the benefits of participating in sport and the results of the survey come a month after the Sports Minister, Richard Caborn, commented on the benefits of swimming. "Swimming is a great activity for any age group" he said. “We have invested more public money into swimming than any other sport in the last ten years."
There are certainly huge improvements in the wet leisure facilities now available across the UK. Pools at health and leisure clubs are better now than ever before, encouraging more participation across all levels of ability. People are also now more aware of the health and fitness benefits available from swimming as a safe form of low impact, high-calorie burning exercise, and all of these factors combine to keep the market bouyant.
In addition, innovation in recent years has really moved swim equipment on. For example, Aqua Sphere offers curved lens technology in its Kaiman goggles which give amazing 180 degree wide angle vision, and advances in high-grade silicone give greater comfort and an impressive water-tight seal. Aqua Sphere's new Eagle goggle was voted Best Designed Sport Kit at the 2006 Sport Industry Awards, the first time a swimming product has won this accolade, and is the first curved lens goggle with easy pop-out-and-swap lenses, giving the swimmer an instant choice of clear or tinted lenses depending on conditions. Maximising on this new technology, Aqua Sphere is now launching off-the-shelf prescription lenses which can be individually bought for the Eagle, allowing people who wear specs or contact lenses to individually customise their goggles without having to visit an optician for specially-manufactured lenses. This ground-breaking level of innovation pays test mony to the increasing importance of swimming in the UK's active sport participation profile and this level of participaton looks set to increase as we head towards the 2012 London Olympics.