Cut from shelves of rock and fed by the world's most beautiful ocean, they are a gift we and our children get to enjoy - thanks to the hard work put in a century ago.
Some of us even pause for a moment after slipping into one of the pools, look around at the escarpment, taste the clean water, and admit we cannot believe our luck.
Is it luck that some visionary thought to put in the hard work so many years ago, digging them out with picks, "borrowing" equipment for the task, taking a few risks for their community, and for future generations?
Could it be luck that they are dotted up and down our coastline, allowing us to peer out at the sea or up at the bush, as we please?
And is it just luck that they were made so well, with the sea walls just the right height to let in the occasional wave and wash the pool clean? Probably not.
And in the case of Coalcliff's beloved pool, certainly not.
It may have been luck that the right crew of miners and surf club members were around in the years just after World War 1.
But it was not luck that they were game enough to decide to take on the job, and resourceful enough to locate some explosives to assist in the task, plus an old storm drain borrowed from nearby. And it can't be luck that the authorities did not stop them digging.
That's the kind of people we were in the early part of last century, making the most of life between the escarpment and the sea, enjoying a life in paradise, once the day's work in the coal mine was done.
Now, of course, we are somewhat different people. And if the pools were not already there, what would be the chances of such perfect facilities being built these days?
Jennifer Dalmer is 67 and has been going to Coalcliff since she was born - and perhaps beforehand, as her parents regularly visited their holiday shack on the hill where the surf club is now.
She said the original women's dressing shed used to be the space under a rock overhang, with a hessian curtain rigged up and "Only Ladies" splashed in white paint.
"The ritual was when we came down here on holidays, you'd go down for a swim before breakfast. And, basically, we still do the same thing.
"We get up, we live just opposite the park, all I have to do is walk out the door, across the park and we're at the pool."
And she doesn't mind it when the sea is a bit rough.
"It's rather challenging and fun - it's like doing an ocean swim but in a little bit of safety," she said.
"You just have to make sure you don't get close to the western wall or you'll get washed out. I've floated over it - it wasn't too bad."
With her husband Jim, a life member of the Coalcliff surf club, the pool is an integral part of their lives.
"It doesn't really get cold until about September or so. It stays the same temperature. Some mornings it's down around 15 or 16. The trick is to keep swimming - if you leave it, it's hard to get back in the water.
"I don't swim all year round. My husband swims all year round, but he cheats - he wears a wettie."
But being close to Sydney, it gets busy over the Christmas period.
"If we go down and look at the pool and there are, say, six or seven people in it, we say 'who has opened the gates, and let people into our Coalcliff?"'
