Is there a name for this kind of old-timey floating dock?

October 24, 2018 11:14 AM

I'm currently looking at a photo of the beach in English Bay in Vancouver in 1919. What would you call the square dock those people are on? Any information about these things would be appreciated.
posted by Beardman to Society & Culture (14 answers total)

A floating swim platform?
posted by exogenous at 11:19 AM on October 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

I would call it a swim raft.
posted by slipthought at 11:20 AM on October 24, 2018

I've also seen these called bathing platforms, as here.
posted by saladin at 11:22 AM on October 24, 2018

Seems to me to be just a standard floating dock, made of up individual sections, as seen at summer camps and lakefront homes all across the northeast US. photo photo Actually reminds me of the kind of setup you'd see at a summer camp. Typically floating docks are attached to the shore so you don't get wet getting to them, but they don't have to be. That's a particularly large and fancy one, though.
posted by anastasiav at 11:28 AM on October 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

Archives here using "diving platform," "floating platform," and "raft."
posted by slipthought at 11:29 AM on October 24, 2018

A "float." I've never seen one in four pieces. It looks like a good way for less strong swimmers to feel secure by enabling them to stay inside the perimeter and hold on to or reach for something.
posted by jgirl at 12:13 PM on October 24, 2018

In Australia, I believe they're often called pontoons.
posted by pipeski at 12:23 PM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

Its a swimming platform made up of floating docks. One is the material used and one is the structure itself.
posted by fshgrl at 1:05 PM on October 24, 2018

Lakes Region New Hampshire calls these diving platforms or floating docks. So yeah...nthing.
posted by nosila at 1:22 PM on October 24, 2018

We used these at SCUBA camp for search and rescue skill building that didn't involve SCUBA tanks. It made for the safest open water environment because you were spotted from four sides at all times while swimming obstacle courses, etc. We called it the "floating docks."
posted by DarlingBri at 2:22 PM on October 24, 2018

I'd call it a pontoon, though pontoons are maybe more likely to be tethered to the dock at one end.
posted by penguin pie at 2:31 PM on October 24, 2018

Everyone I knew growing up called it a “float,” short for floating dock. New England area, if it’s relevant.
posted by carlypennylane at 5:41 AM on October 25, 2018

The City of Vancouver calls the current one they install in the summer as a "swim raft with slide"
The small, square one that West Vancouver installed last summer is called a "floating swimming dock"
posted by meringue at 6:58 AM on October 25, 2018

Response by poster: Thanks everyone!
posted by Beardman at 2:25 PM on October 25, 2018