As a little boy, Kevin Post wouldn’t even put his face in the water. After his family moved to Texas, his mom signed him up for swim team because there was a backyard pool and she worried about drowning. “That decision changed my life,” he says. The kid who once ran from ocean waves grew into a lifeguard, a pool operator—and, 18 years into his career, the CEO of a leading aquatic design firm, where he’s mentoring the next wave of water pros and championing a radical idea: a public pool that floats on a city river and helps clean the water beneath it. A Floating-Pool Vision.
Listen to Kevin Post on the Talking Pools Podcast Here 👇
Today Post leads Counsilman-Hunsaker—founded by Olympic icons Doc Counsilman and Joe Hunsaker—whose work touches facilities in all 50 states. He splits his time between big-ticket design, industry policy, and the part he loves most: teaching people to lead.
“Imagine every major city cleaning its river and teaching kids to swim—at the same time,” he says, describing +POOL, a plus-shaped public pool designed to float like a barge. Each “arm” would serve a different group—shallow play, deep water, lap lanes—while built-in filtration polishes the water that flows through so what returns to the river is cleaner than what came in. Space-starved downtowns may not have room for new community pools, Post notes, “but they do have waterways.”
Why He Stays
Post still calls himself, affectionately, a “senior cabana boy.” He grew up a swimmer and lifeguard and never lost the bug. “Ninety percent of the time I don’t feel like I’m working,” he says. “I get to talk about pools and water safety all day with people who care about the same things.”
He also likes that the work keeps changing. “Twenty years ago no one was talking about cold plunges,” he says with a laugh. “Now it’s at every conference.”
The Mentor’s Mentor
Beyond the drawing board, Post serves as board president of CMAHC, the member-driven council tied to the CDC’s Model Aquatic Health Code. With federal grant dollars tightening, his goal has been straightforward: make the organization self-sustaining so the code keeps evolving. “The CDC was never meant to fund this forever,” he says. “Our job is to keep the updates coming—transparently—so health officials, operators, and industry voices all have a say.”
He’d like to see more pool-service professionals at the table. “You don’t move a mountain overnight,” he says. “But when the room includes the people who run pools every day, the changes are smarter—and they stick.”
“Programming Precedes Design”
Ask Post for career advice and he answers like an engineer—with a life lesson attached. “Before you draw a line, decide what the pool has to do,” he says, citing a mantra from mentors Mick and Sue Nelson. “What are your goals? Then we can build the road map.”
Discipline didn’t come from a drafting table, though. It came on his high-school drum line, which won a national title. “We were scored as a unit,” he says. “Being the best alone meant nothing. Your weakest link defined the score—so you lift people up.”
Three Notes You Remember
- “You don’t have to know everything to be an expert.” When he started, he thought he’d been hired for what he knew. “Eighteen years later, I’m proud of the people I can call. Expertise is a network.”
- “If you accept the minimum, your life will be minimally acceptable.” Health inspectors check the bare essentials, he says. “Pros go beyond.”
- “Check your alkalinity.” If he could tuck one sticky note into every rookie’s toolkit, that would be it. “It’s the root of so many headaches.”
Lifeguards Are First Responders
One topic turns him serious fast: the lifeguard shortage. “When pools don’t open, kids don’t learn to swim,” he says. Calling guarding “just a summer job” misses the point. “We’re first responders. EMS gets eight minutes in the ambulance to process a call. Lifeguards get no minutes—recognition and reaction have to be instant.”
He sees technology as a partner, not a replacement. “AI isn’t saving swimmers,” he says, “but it can help us see better—assist with scanning, flag patterns our eyes miss, and shorten reaction time. Time is everything.”
Listening, Then Asking Better Questions
Post admits he’s a talker learning to listen more. “I push myself—and the people I mentor—to sit in silence a beat longer,” he says. “Instead of giving answers, ask better questions. The best ideas often come from the youngest voice in the room.” Often he’ll offer guidance and his team returns with solutions “way beyond” what he imagined. “Leaning on the next generation isn’t just good leadership,” he adds. “It keeps me learning.”
The Endgame
Yes, he’ll happily debate Marvel (he’s “Action River, with occasional rapids”) and talk pump rooms at family barbecues if you let him. But his endgame is bigger than blueprints: build leaders—inside his firm and across the industry—and teach the business skills many small operators have to learn the hard way. He’s been working with an industry Center of Excellence on practical courses for service owners. “There’s a gap,” he says. “We can fill it.”
He also believes there’s room for everyone. “Our field is bigger than people realize—chemists, engineers, manufacturers, health officials, entrepreneurs,” he says. “If you like pools, there’s a place for you. Keep looking for what’s next.”
As for that floating pool, a test barge comes first to prove the concept and align safety metrics more like a public beach than a chlorinated basin. If it works, Post sees a model other cities can adapt—turning tough urban waterways into places to learn, play, and cool off in a warming world.
His kids are hoping he brings home a mentorship “championship belt”. Post just laughs. “Do the work, lift each other up, and the wins take care of themselves.” Then he looks back to the river, already picturing families lining a floating deck where the water runs a little cleaner—and a lot more welcoming.
