It’s fun to see who will be named Pleatco’s Perfect Pool Guy and Gal every year. The good-natured competition is fierce, and many deserving service professionals enter the fray. The winners each receive a trip for two to the PSP Expo, where they are recognized at a gala awards dinner. They also get a scholarship for the Genesis Pool Service Professional Certification Program. Now, without further ado, let’s meet the 2015 winners.
Perfect Pool Guy John Oldfield hails from Gilroy, Calif., where he runs Oldfield Inc., a pool and spa service/repair firm. A big believer in trade education and licensing, he is a graduate of the Genesis Pool and Watershape Construction School, and holds two California licenses -- a C-61/D35 License and a C-53 Swimming Pool Contractor License. Oldfield joined the Independent Pool & Spa Service Association in 2003 and was Monterey Coast Chapter president for four years; currently he’s a member of the IPSSA Board of Regional Directors.
Prior to becoming a service professional, Oldfield’s career path included a stint in logistics at Siemens, a large engineering firm headquartered in Germany. These days, he and two service techs care for 65 residential and commercial pools.
“Since hiring an office assistant, it has freed me up for more time to do service, repair and [equipment] installation,” Oldfield noted.
And that’s exactly what he loves to do. The job calls for a variety of skills involving electricity, hydraulics and work with cementitious materials.
“You can take it [the job] as far as you want to,” Oldfield said. “I like working with my hands, being outside and using my head [to solve problems].”
Originally from the East Coast, he met his now-wife of 14 years during undergraduate studies in California. She encouraged him to enter the pool/spa industry and the rest, as they say, is history.
Perfect Pool Gal Jamie Gaumond runs ValleySpas Inc. in Sevierville, Tenn. with husband Chris. Their retail/service company maintains spas and pools for residential and commercial properties in several counties. With two service tech subcontractors on board, the firm can handle service, repair and equipment installation for a number of local hotels, resorts and cabins.
ValleySpas was founded by Gaumond’s father-in-law and a partner in 2003. Jamie and her husband went to the area in 2009 on vacation and loved it so much they soon packed up and moved there to head up the small family business.
“I came in doing marketing and advertising,” Gaumond said. But in the past six years, she has become a Certified Pool-Spa Operator and Inspector, and is working toward CPO Instructor certification. As company vice president, she has many roles, from overseeing the store to doing site inspections, pool cleaning and service.
“I spend about 25 percent of my time in the field now,” Gaumond said, and she wishes it were more.
Before joining this industry, she worked in customer service and restaurants. She and Chris even ran a bartender catering company for a while. But her true calling is the spa/pool business.
“It’s not about the money; it’s never been about the money,” Gaumond said. “It’s what you know and can share. I love the people -- meeting new people every single day – and helping each other out.”