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Father’s legacy in
award winning pool ABOVE: Freedom Pools NSW worked around the house construction to complete the pool
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he joy of winning the 2018 National Pool of the Year award was tinged with sadness for Freedom Pools’ Adam Bugden, as it was the last pool his father Alan worked on prior to his untimely passing. “Dad was very excited about the pool. He quoted it, won the job and worked with the owner to make the vision come to life. But he died before we finished it,” says Bugden. “This was the first major project we finished without him – and it was one he had been very excited about – so it was quite bitter-sweet really to win the award,” he says. The winning pool looks magic at night
Alan Bugden, who worked with the owners to bring their vision to life, but sadly passed away before the pool was completed
Adam Bugden celebrating his win for the National Pool of the Year at the SPASA Australia National Awards Gala 64 SPLASH! August/September 2018
“Even though we’ve won plenty of awards, awards weren’t really his thing. But since this was the National Pool of the Year, he would have been chuffed.” Alan Bugden started Freedom Pools on the Central Coast 37 years ago, initially building concrete pools around the Central Coast and Newcastle, and later also building in Sydney. “Like a lot of builders’ kids I helped out while I was still at school,” says Bugden. “Then when school finished, when I was 18 years old or so, I went into the business. I started doing plumbing through an apprenticeship, and then when I was about 20 I started doing the formwork.”