When it comes to swimming action in the central Willamette Valley this summer, there are two major choices: old-style fun at bare-bones, established outdoor and covered pools, and indoor fun at the New Wave of recent decades — aquatic centers.

If you eliminate the temptation to head up to Little North Fork and hop into its still-cold-from-snowmelt waters as generations of Salemites have done for decades, there are several choices for water fun this summer — and beyond.

First, the older style.

It’s a typical summer weekday afternoon and throngs of neighborhood kids are squealing up on bikes or running wrapped in towels, snorkels in place, toward the “beach” in downtown Independence.

Or at least the closest thing to it: The YMCA Independence Pool, situated directly across from Henry Hill Elementary School. The outdoor facility is a true oasis for lovers of the classic combination of water, sun and fun, but without many fancy contemporary amenities such as waterslides, rope swings — or sometimes even diving boards.

That doesn’t seem to deter the legions of kids who come to play in the sun-sparkled blue waters of the pool during the many open and family swims held there from June through August.

The YMCA branch manages the facility, which has been owned by the City of Independence for about 26 years.

“We’ve taught over 500 swim lessons so far this summer,” said Tim Barry, the YMCA’s branch director.

“The pool has been very, very successful,” he said. “Everyone likes the fact that an outdoor pool is not as stuffy or as close-feeling as an indoor pool, and is more like a beach experience.”

But there’s a downside, and it affects all the outdoor pools in the area.

Barry said that as an older facility, the Independence outdoor pool takes considerable maintenance. Jeff Rhoades, a lifeguard at the pool, added that quite a few members of the YMCA staff “take part in keeping the pool up and running” during its brief season.

With only one outdoor pool left in Salem — at Walker Middle School — and one in Silverton, outdoor swimming facilities in the region now seem only to be simple relics of a summer-fun past that includes drive-ins and soda fountains, though Rhoades maintains that “outdoor pools have an atmosphere and a personality you can’t get anywhere else.”

That personality wasn’t enough to save the Leslie Pool, an outdoor facility that succumbed in the 1980s to leaky pipes and a repair bill estimated at over a half-million dollars. Walker Pool is open from June through September and Olinger Pool, the oldest in the region and covered in the 1970s, is open year-round.

The Silverton Community Swimming Pool, an outdoor facility, was upgraded in 2001 to add a metal-framed, plastic pool cover, allowing it to be open through the winter. A true hybrid between the old and the new, the facility includes a slide, diving board and separate child pool.

But what about the newer style?

Now there are aquatic centers, of which there are several in the Willamette Valley:

The Cool! Swanson Park Action Center in Albany, built in 2005 (what is it with all the exclamation points?); and three 1990s-era facilities, the Dallas Aquatic Center in Dallas and the Osborn Aquatic Center in Corvallis.

The Dallas Aquatic Center has a warmer pool for seniors and their exercise needs. All include slides, swim lessons, lap swim times and other exercise features.

In addition, Salem will see the grand opening of the Ray and Joan Kroc Salvation Army Corps Community Center on Sept. 26. The 92,000-square-foot facility will open on 10.65 acres of land in Northeast Salem and serve the entire mid-Willamette Valley.