Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre

Positive experience: Really nice, huge recreation facility in Cochrane with multiple arenas, gyms, pool etc

Fantastic experience: Great pool, nice staff, semi hot tub Therapeutic pool with the endless current is amazing!

Fantastic experience: What an amazing space. Fully wheelchair accessible. Quite a few accessible parks. Pools and hot tubs are accessible. Fitness rooms are accessible. Curling is accessible. Staff are super friendly and helpful. To notch for accessibility.

Fantastic experience: This gym was so good. I would give an arm and a leg literally, but the equipment was so bad and rusty when I fell over, I snapped my arm on it and got it's tetanus. please 5 stars. This place is amazing.

Negative experience: One star, because SLS has effectively cancelled turf time for the little kids so all of the needy, over-entitled pickle ball players. Last week they kicked mom's and toddlers off of the turf space that was allocated for them, because we were told "the pickle ball people done have enough space" Now there now NO turf time today. Ridiculous! This is why I cancelled our membership and will not be giving any more money to this facility.

Fantastic experience: Excellent! So much happening here!

Fantastic experience: What an incredible facility for swimming, spinning and running/walking. It was the venue for the Wild Rose Indoor Triathlon. Between the facility (including JugOJuice), the generous sponsors, the fantastic volunteers and the smiling enthusiastic participants I can only say the event was a resounding success.

Fantastic experience: Impeccably clean! Great ice staff

Fantastic experience: Playing Pickleball at the centre is fantastic!

Fantastic experience: Always impressed by the facilities and staff at SLS

Negative experience: Ridiculously overpriced compared to other towns and cities comparable to Cochrane! Double in some cases! Lots of people complaining on their pricing, and they refuse to answer why! After NUMEROUS attempts to contact city of Cochrane AND spray lakes management NO ONE emails me back!! Horrible!!

Fantastic experience: The pool is so warm- super great experinace for my seven year old

Positive experience: Endroit parfait il manque un terrain de foot plus ouvert pour les enfants 9 10ans toujours pris par volley ou autre merci

Fantastic experience: ABSOLUTELY AMAZING NEW YEAR Thank you, Spray Lakes sport center and Cochrane Ab supportive people who made this 31st of December evening SPECTACULAR AND FUN for all citizens and guests We are coming to this evening event for a few years, always better and more fun! THANK YOU!!! DANCER GIRL -SAPFIRE - GORGEOUS , TALLENTED, FUN - keep it up, girl! We love your shows, energy, and enthusiasm! Cannot wait to the next New Year Celebration!!!

Positive experience: Brand new facility but the spectators veiwing area is really inadequate!! You would think they would have better and more seating for the spectators! Other then that it is a fabulous facility!

Fantastic experience: Awesome facility for families.

Fantastic experience: First class facility, great staff always courteous and helpful. Big fan.

Fantastic experience: Excellent facility, clean and wonderful staff!

Fantastic experience: Playschool is the best the staff is so wonderful with the kids

Negative experience: Lets be honest. The pricing for SLS center is way to high for what you pay for compared to the YMCA or University gym. There is no towel service for swimming and lane swimming schedule is not ideal. Also, there is no swimsuit spinner for bathing suits. They layout for the gym equipment is complete joke and afterthought for cardio machines in the hallway for random people to watch you sweat as they walk by. So, I have issue with lane swimming. There are not enough open lanes for 6am, most of the time there are only 2. That not enough open to the public who have to work at 9am. More lanes open at 7:30am. My issue is my fiancee likes to swim and I prefer to go the gym for 6am. We both can't go at same time because more lanes open at 7:30am for him. He has said just 2 lanes open get a little crowded. So we are taking 2 cars to go and it just really sucks that we can't go at same time. This is main reason why we picked the sls centre so we can go together, maybe get a coffee together or quick groceries afterwards. So its really disheartening that we can't go as a couple as often as we want. Also, the showers don't have bench for your convenience. I camp a lot....all campground showers have benches. This is also first gym ive ever been to in years that dont have an elliptical machine as part of cardio hallway set up. You could at least set up tvs across hallway. I heard the prices are going up so maybe an elliptical machine will be a purchase in near future And I wish the bathrooms had music playing. So, I will give positives. The sls centre is very clean. The staff to do say good morning to you. Don't get me wrong. I do like coming to SlS for sure, its just poorly managed and setup for the gym is disappointing to me. Going together as a couple to the exercise is a great support system for eachother. Im just going alone and its not same without fiancee. I hope in the New Year they can reconsider the open lane swimming to the public. No false claims, im just saying its not a far spreed for what you pay for. Yet, you are raising price in January. Are there any upgrades to look forward to? So, im not wrong. Im not confused, just disappointed with the lack of services provided and layout. A lot of people are moving to Cochrane from Calgary. So that is something to consider. It just seems like whoever was apart of the design plan has never walked through a university or YMCA facility. The expectations of this newer center is a complete fail to future members who have had YMCA and University gym memberships. That where happy paying the membership price of 75.00 for towel service and decent cardio rooms. Its stupid that track has to change direction ever 30 min.

Negative experience: I find the pricing at this facility completely unreasonable—it's price gouging. For just an hour of puck and stick or public skate at 6 AM, they charge the full drop-in price of $8 for a child and $16.50 for an adult. Are they serious? In Calgary, it's only $2.50 for a child and $6 for an adult. I'm not looking to stay the whole day—I simply don't have the time. But I do have time in the morning to shoot some pucks for one hour, but the price is totally outrageous. I wonder if the founders who contributed to building this facility had price gouging in mind. Shame on you SLS.

Positive experience: It's a sports complex, but all the foods and drinks you can buy are all junk food. Odd.

Positive experience: Good facility for hockey tournaments. 3 rinks

Negative experience: $19 for a drop in with an infant at the pool for 30 minutes what a ridiculous poorly run complex. Guess we can drive to south land for 45 min each way to pay $9. Just another Cochrane cash gouge.

Fantastic experience: A great family sports facility from PingPong to pools and rinks and everything in between. Good experience just to tour and see what's available.

Positive experience: First time here today and paid the senior rate of $11 (which I feel is steep). I was impressed with the overall layout of this aquatic centre and all it has to offer. It’s a beautiful facility except for the slimy dirty floors in the shower area. I was absolutely grossed out at the grey sludge oozing through my toes. Other than this glaringly disgusting area in the ladies change room, the pool and pool area is pristine and beautifully kept.

Positive experience: Nice facility but insane prices. Ice rinks are too busy for drop in because the limit is over 30. Can’t even skate around without almost taking a kid out. Decent Back up option incase the main spot where I go is closed but improvements can be made. Staff are very nice too so that’s a positive

Negative experience: For the price they charge its poorly kept. Change rooms are nasty. And there always seems to be something out of order.

Negative experience: Prices are way out of line. Needing to purchase a full facility pass for a swim is next to criminal. Claiming full facility use is also bogus as team events will take priority on space usage. Current adult rate shows $16.50 Facilitators of this facility should be embarrassed for these costs

Negative experience: Gaaaaaaaah dang, I had to pay a full day rate to take my kids swimming for 35 minutes. Then got kicked out of the pool for lessons. Not impressed.

Fantastic experience: I can not say enough praise for this place! My youngest went to swim lessons. I was BLOWN AWAY by how much stuff there is to do at this place plus there is two look out spots in the pool area. There is also a Hugo juice, I believe, near the front doors so if you need a quick bite or a pre workout smoothie they got you covered!

Negative experience: Poorly run, especially with such steep prices. Lessons on everyday from 5pm until almost close, so there is no time for adults to swim after their workday. The Splash park has been closed since last summer and now they are saying mid August before it opens again, just in time to close again for the season. The hot tub was also out of order for a few months too. Seems like they just can’t get it together.

Fantastic experience: Excellent place. 3 ice rinks, great swimming place and many many sports facilities.

Fantastic experience: Beautiful place, affordable super clean washrooms and change rooms. Chlorinated water pool and slide.

Positive experience: Very spacious facility with many activities. Although the pool is busy at times, I enjoyed my time there

Positive experience: I've seen much better recreation centres They have a lot to learn from the good ones. Low ceilings. Overwhelming feel inside .. It's not very good at all really

Fantastic experience: I’ve been here twice and I think that it’s been so far a nice experience with my family. It’s affordable and there were seven of us and paid for a day pass, it was only for $39, around there. The swimming pool is nice and hope to explore more of the building soon!

Negative experience: Consistently disappointed. I've never been anywhere with ridiculous rules like at this particular pool. Shockingly disgusting showers. Rust, mold, residue. Wanted a nice shower and now I feel like I need to go have another shower. I'll be going elsewhere. There are cheaper, cleaner, funner facilities I'll be driving to from now on.

Fantastic experience: Great facility made for competitive & recreation swimmers

Positive experience: I came with a 3 year old and paid $17. For the two of us. Knowing we would be less than an hour, I felt was to much money. I am not complaining. I promised my 3 year old to go swimming. I had no choice. I wish you had an hourly rate for small kids. They have that at the leisure pools Just a suggestion. I won't be coming back until the rate changes.

Positive experience: Beautiful sports complex. Went to watch a hockey game. Clean washrooms. Very well kept building.

Negative experience: I was there at roughly 11am on Thursday, sore back just wanted to soak in the hot tub, there were 3-4 adults(40+). When then decided to bring in 30+ kids into the tub, they were loud. We all left(the adults). I got to enjoy maybe 30mins of hot tub before I left.

Positive experience: I have enjoyed the variety of exercise options and the general atmosphere at the SLS Centre in Cochrane. I have recently been reminded, however, of the importance of making sure one completely understands the fine print when signing up for memberships. I wanted to sign up for a "Senior Monthly Pre-Auth" SLS membership for $47. Then I came across additional information online that caused me to understand that I had to commit to a minimum of a three-month membership, which seemed to be confirmed when signing up in person for membership at the SLS Centre, so I thought I could manage that. What I didn't realize at the time was that what I was signing up for was ongoing, auto-debited monthly membership that would require taking the step of submitting an official cancellation of membership to get out of continuing to be charged every month going forward. Apparently, if I had chosen the Senior 30 Day Pass for $62, that would have allowed me to try out SLS for just one month before committing to, say, an annual membership of $535. So I strongly encourage anyone checking out SLS membership to make sure you correctly understand all the fine print details before committing and before providing auto-debit authorization.

Positive experience: Fantastic facility for rehab and hydrotherapy. Staff are busy and strained from extra people due to water shortage in Calgary. Awesome lifeguard by the name of Ben addressed all concerns I had. Be aware of a lifeguard named Quinn who ignored public safety and tried to kick out a wounded older gentleman who had valid complaints about the safety issue that day in lane swim.

Fantastic experience: During a recent visit from Calgary amid water restrictions, my family and I had the pleasure of exploring the SLS Centre in Cochrane. This sports complex truly impressed us with its beautiful facilities and amenities. The highlight for our kids was undoubtedly the expansive swimming area. It provided ample space for them to enjoy themselves, and the overall setup was notably more spacious compared to our usual spots like Seton and Trico closer to home. One of the standout factors for us was the affordability. At just $30 for a family of five, the entrance fee was significantly lower than what we typically pay at the Seton YMCA, making it a more budget-friendly option without compromising on quality. The facility came with two water slides, pools, good size hot tub, two family pools and a lazy river Overall, the SLS Centre offered us a refreshing change of pace with its excellent facilities, spacious swimming area, and cost-effective pricing. It's definitely a place we look forward to visiting again, especially when seeking a family-friendly outing that doesn't break the bank.

Fantastic experience: It is amazing it's just better than school

Positive experience: Good place lots of stuff to do, just extremely busy most of the time and not open late enough

Fantastic experience: Great facility. Attended a Multi Cultural Trade Show with a vast array of merchants offering very unique products.

Fantastic experience: Great facility Warm pool kids love it here!

Positive experience: Overpriced for what you get.... Sls raised their prices recently above the average for a very nice family centre in the city yet they don't offer nearly as nice of a facility. They should have left their prices the way they were or upgraded their facility first. It seems like a price gouge considering it's the only option for many families. It's too bad, they used to charge a fair price for what they offered. I gave it a few stars only because the staff is really friendly.

Positive experience: I enjoy going to the SLS Centre when I’m in town visiting cousins, our go to is the Gym and Swim and when we are lucky the Saturday indoor market during the colder months. Facility is well kept minus occasional issues or closed down pool, hot tub and women’s swim change room.

Negative experience: They let men in the female changeroom/bathrooms and don't warn you and if you don't like it the woman is asked to go elsewhere.

Fantastic experience: Great facility to go by yourself or with friends and family. Staff are amazing ! Cochrane Is very fortunate to have this available. Great local sponsors as well. Healthy and tasty food services available.

Negative experience: Only came here for a kids soccer game. Lockers were not accessible. The bleachers were only on one side. The glass looks like it's never been cleaned. The field had debris and peeling tape. Big facility I'm sure other aspects are great. But soccer feels like an after thought and they haven't looked at it since.

Fantastic experience: This facility is amazing. Great programs for the whole family and many of them. The best value for fitness and fun.

Fantastic experience: This is a family friendly recreation place in cochrane everything you need from fitness swimming and any other sports activities is available at rhis place.

Positive experience: Great place for Family Fitness, really friendly staff and Patsys is a good place for a snack. September 3, 2022 - Still a great place for families. The new registration systems is a bit quirky, but the staff are great, patient and friendly when helping clients outs.

Positive experience: Whenever I went to the pool they normally had to close it due to people pooing in it. The pools are nice and big though. The staff are decent. I've never really been a huge fan of SLS but it got the job done when it needed too.

Fantastic experience: Probably the best set up for disabled people like me that I've encountered since my amputation. A ramp for me to walk down into the therapy pool was key for me. Loved the class and the instructor gave me lots of help as did other regulars in the class. I'll be making this my regular schedule.

Fantastic experience: Отличный бассейн для всей семьи

Fantastic experience: Great facility! We came for a swim meet, but walked around and checked everything out. So cool to have so many sports under one roof!

Fantastic experience: Good pools nice water

Fantastic experience: Hi everyone, I wanted to share that my experience with this facility still remains positive. However, I wanted to share a concern of mine that some of you may share. This issue is beyond spray lakes but perhaps if enough of us voice our concerns, maybe some changes can be made above us and we can positively impact our community. THIS IS NOT A DIG OR HATE SPEECH I AM EXPRESSING TO THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY. I believe and appreciate that ALL are welcome to this facility. Long story short, last week when I was at this facility’s women’s swimming change room with my daughter , I witness a transgender person (male identifying as a female) using the lady’s change room. Again, I am not communicating in anyway this person should not be in this facility, BUT there is a universal / family change area this /these person /persons can use that have private change rooms in them. There was a nursing mother and several young children in the change room. Our children do NOT need to be expose to opposite gender parts in these areas, and this nursing mother should have her privacy respected. I have spoken to a supervisor in this facility about it and she was supportive , but has communicated there isn’t much they can do as this is part of the human right’s act in our province and likely in our country. I will be reaching out to our MLA and potentially our premier regarding this concern. I would encourage anyone else who feels that anyone who believes that transgender’s identifying as the opposite sex that day, should be using the the universal/ family change room to use their voice to reach out to this facility or better yet write a letter of concern to our MLA or premier! I apologize if my wording isn’t politically correct. I don’t mean to offend , just a mom who wants to keep our children safe . This is my previous review which I still stand by: We’ve been coming for over a year. This place overall has tried their best to be accommodating to our young family.. especially at the classes.. all the instructors we’ve had have been welcoming and helpful . Since the childcare isn’t available this summer, they have found a way to accommodate my kids . What a great facility to have in town. I’m so glad we moved to cochrane and became members here. It’s a great place for everyone of any age! So much to do

Fantastic experience: Good addition to the community

Fantastic experience: Spray Lakes is an amazing sports and rec centre! It has everything from a pool, to a running track, to arenas, to a gym! Workouts are great and the membership is pretty cheap to access all of these fun activities! Would recommend 5/5!

Fantastic experience: Large and diverse facility. Very nice but the hockey arena was not heated.

Fantastic experience: 진짜 진짜 너무너무 감동인곳 수업은 재밌고, 강사분들과 데스크 언니들은 너무 친절하고 친절함!!! 또, 센터안에 있는 스낵바의 핫초코와 감자튀김은 환상적인 맛!! 모든것이 퍼펙트한곳

Fantastic experience: Wow cet endroit est super !! Parfait pour tout les âges

Fantastic experience: Maravilloso centro deportivo y piscinas increibles

Positive experience: Great family place. Pools showing a little wear and tear.

Fantastic experience: Awesome facility, wishing the gym was open till 10pm.

Fantastic experience: First of what Im sure will be many visits, its priced very well compared to other similar facilities .

Positive experience: Came for a graduation ceremony, the large gym worked pretty well.

Fantastic experience: We spent the day exploring the activities at the center. Enjoyed the facility immensely.

Fantastic experience: Great pool for young kids! Staff were very professional.

Positive experience: Went here with the wifey for swimming and was decent, but was extremely busy and didn’t get room in the hot tub.

Fantastic experience: Absolutely beautiful & affordable facility! Clean, warm & FUN:)

Fantastic experience: Great staff and a world class facility! It has absolutely everything and more for a family!

Fantastic experience: Love this facility. The family NYE party warrants 5 star reviews. Thank you the the staff and management!!

Fantastic experience: Great facility,kept clean and up to date , good to see alot of people using the facilities.

Fantastic experience: The best lesuire centre separate changing for men,women and families awsome. Full size pools and hot tub is hot. Lots to do and see and Juice bar and cafe.

Negative experience: Lack of life guards, due to which have to wait long hours for the turn. Should hire more life guards. At least they should post notice on their website to save the visit.

Positive experience: We were disappointed because I didn't see on the website that there would be no waves or access to the waterslides because of a swim meet. The water was sure warm, which was lovely!

Negative experience: Price is reasonable but it’s often Overcrowded at the gym at times where’s no room to work out which is ridiculous when you’ve have a paid membership.

Positive experience: Great facility, the play area on the turf is wonderful with the cushion blocks for the kids to play. One problem…these blocks are quite dirty and need to be cleaned. Most of the items need a good cleaning.

Negative experience: Reasonable membership price for family but limited hours and programs for kids unless you pay more and more and even still their play care program for example runs Mon to Sat from 8:30 to 1pm so if you work and want to come to the gym for example after work when that's no school or daycare for you kids they offer you a "too bad your children is your problem..." program. Just ridiculous

Positive experience: We came here for kids' swim lessons. Their swim lessons program are amazing. A kids' friendly place and the atmosphere are relaxed and family oriented. A must visit.

Positive experience: Has several activities to keep kids engaged and somewhat controlled while waiting to get into the pool or waiting for various other activities (eg. Soft play matted area, foosball, overpriced food, and more). Aquatics is packed on Saturday afternoon with lessons running 9-12pm we showed up around 1:20pm and they were over capacity and we left just after 2pm after realizing it was going to be an even longer wait (the aquatics side does offer a “live” count on their webpage). I can’t write anything further about the facility as I did not see or spend time anywhere else.

Fantastic experience: I always love this pool. Very kid friendly and fun. Sometimes the lane swim pool is closed but other than that, it's great. Good hot tub too

Positive experience: It would be 5 stars if they had better hours. Lots of equipment in the weight room but missing a few things. No shortage of cable pulley accessories though.

Fantastic experience: Went for a swim with my family. Happened to be teen night. It was busy but we found it to be great. Pool was warm and the kids liked the climbing wall too.

Fantastic experience: Has something for everyone regardless of age or physical capabilities! Staff has always been friendly. The gym can get busy, so I find myself waiting for weight machines, but thats mostly any gym. I'd like to see additional machines for the more frequently used equipment, like the pec deck, leg extention etc.

Fantastic experience: My first visit and I am impressed. Lots of amenities for the whole family, from tots to grandparents. Watched a water ninja swim meet and young girls playing ringette. Looked like the whole town was in visiting the Christmas market! The joint was jumping!

Positive experience: We had a great time with our daughter in the pool, it’s a great temperature and very kid friendly, the rest of the facility looks impressive as well. Unfortunately we were quite disappointed with how dirty the pool was, the steps and walk ways were in my opinion…disgusting. Definitely bring sandals to wear to and from the pool

Negative experience: I used to love the availability of lanes to swim for members. Now it seems all weekday after work hours are not available for members to lane swim. Or if a lane is open it is too crowded! There are minimal good times to swim for people who work 9-5. Pool is mostly rented out to clubs or swim lessons during peak times 4-8pm. Bring back two lanes at all times for members!!!! Note I like the rinks just fine, facility staff are nice. Patsy’s has good food. Just super frustrated about swim hours. I don’t want to swim at 6 am or at 8:30pm, open back up for members 4-8 pm to swim!

Negative experience: Limited/no activities for random drop in with the family because everything is booked with birthday parties or day camps. Pool seems to be full every time you show up though its half empty. "Can't let people in due to constant staff shortages" Weight gym is too small and cramped, so much so they put equipment around the running track and in the hallways due to lack of space. (Two large rooms next to physio upstairs why not move the gym there to make it twice as big?) Website difficult to navigate to see schedules. I remember reading this place was looking for funding due to lack of memberships. Why would you buy a membership or family membership so you can show up and wonder the halls.

Positive experience: If I could rate this 4.5 stars I would. I'm someone who basically lives at this place, after being part of the swim team for a couple years and picking up the gym fairly recently, I think I'm qualified to give a thorough review of the SLS Center. Pool: SLS offers a therapy pool, a lazy rizer, a hot tub, waterslides, a wave pool, and of course, the 25m lap pool with 8 lanes. TL;DR: - well maintained - busy at times - good value for money Since I spend most of my time in the lap pool that's what I'll talk about. Starting off, the temperature of the pool in consistently very good, and the staff taking care of the pool do a great job. Rarely do I see anything on deck that isn't supposed to be there, like band aids and such. From what I see, if you work a normal 9-5 it may be hard to find a time when the lap pool is available that isn't at a ridiculous time, because of the swim lessons and swim clubs that occupy most if not all of the lanes. The pool can also get really busy mid days on weekends so make note of that if you're planning to go. It will never be to the point that it's unusable but could be a little uncomfortable. At the end of the day, it's a pool, and a rather good one at that. Fun slides, and good variety between pools. Fitness Centre: I think it's good to note that I have only been using the gym for the past 3 weeks, so maybe 17 sessions total at the time of writing this. TL;DR: - can get busy, you may have to wait for some things - good sanitation -amazing variety of weights - inclusive community From my experience so far, there is a very good variety of machines, and dumbells are whatever else you might need for your workout that day. This being said, like any other gym, it will get quite busy, and at the moment there aren't really duplicates of many machines (other than cardio ones) so you will probably have to wait a few minutes for a machine here and there. As for other things to note, there's a nice 200ish meter track that is available to use, and a very inclusive and supporting gym community. If you're nervous about heading to the gym for the first time you shouldbt be worried to go here. I hope my review was helpful

Fantastic experience: The SLS center is a family trademark in Cochrane. The main pool is warm, with waves, a lazy river, and a shallow play area. It also includes a colder lane pool, a raised hot tub, a therapy pool and 2 waterslides. The gym has a good selection and mix of equipment, track and space for working out. The staff are welcoming and efficient. There is a wide variety of things to do either by yourself or with friends and family!

Fantastic experience: The only challenge we had was we left scratchy, which is unusual for us from pools. The great parts were the staff were great. We had a great time with the warm kids pool, nice hot tub, awesome water slides (42” height requirement for both), and surprisingly fun lazy river! Our toddler (and us) loved it.

Negative experience: The pool is not baby friendly at all. The leisure and lap pool are too cold for babies and the hot tub of course is too hot. They do not tell you before going in that you are not allowed to use the therapy pool which is the only one babies really should be in temperature wise. I used it while pregnant with no doctors note and I had thought it would be ok to use during my recovery with my baby who is even too little to splash. Let alone bother anyone. Yes I have seen other babies in that pool before. I was told my baby needed a doctor's note to be in the pool...so I need to go pay for a note to use the only pool my baby can go into... I thought that was a bit ridiculous. The manager was unsympathetic bordering on rude and very dismissive. My husband and I made an attempt to use the leisure pool after being turned away from the therapy pool by the manager but it was too cold for my baby. I asked politely if we could just warm him up really quickly in the therapy pool before we left and a kind lifeguard allowed us to so (the manager had left the pool deck so i could not ask her) but we were kicked out immediately by another lifeguard who was radioed by the manager to do so...apparently she was watching us...nothing better to do I guess. My baby wasn't screaming, wasn't crying, wasn't bothering anyone. I would have never asked otherwise. We were given a pass of lesser value as compensation...needless to say I won't be back to the pool. Also, for context I used to be a lifeguard so I'm not just being an overprotective mom when it comes to pool temp.