This is absolutely breathtaking! I have never been to Austin, but might have to schedule a trip just to admire the pool!
Fabulous job! Your family will make many memories there!
Am I the only one concerned about the fall from the back side of the pool?
Man, I had so many concerns about this as designs poured in. I consulted with a handful of people in my hood with similar pools, and the inverted knife edge works out real well. Also, I'm missing one piece of gate and my two fountain bowls that will effectively seal off the areas. I also placed the pool in such a configuration that there is really no humanly possible way to even think you can make the jump from my top deck into my pool. So many designs I got just had no consideration for that. Effectively, the only risk is the exposed edge, something every negative edge/infinity has to some degree. That said, I've been on numerous floats and they can't clear the knife edge, they beach very quickly, even with big swells. Now that's not to say if someone properly beaches themselves and then someone does a perfectly aimed canonball with appropriate mass, that there couldn't be a situation, but it's not comfortable to be floating on a beached edge and canonball access to that edge is pretty far. If someone was passed out and someone was intent on making it happen, perhaps they could, but that again becomes a somewhat criminal or delinquency issue. There are numerous ways to kill yourself on my property much more easily. For overall safety, part of it comes down to a few things:
1) If someone wants to jump off the side of a pool and kill themselves, nothing is going to stop that. I have that concern with my upper deck and honestly any balcony in the world has this. I had to come to that reality, but I took great care and lengths to limit any chance of accidental issues, including the placement of the fountains and gating.
2) From a kids standpoint, the pool is deep on the entire backside, so you'd need someone old enough to swim.
3) To pull yourself out of the pool back there manually is actually quite hard because there's no where to get footing/knees down. It is extremely hard and takes great strength and intent to actually remove yourself from the pool via the back. It simply can't happen accidentally, and even to push someone over would require super strength and would again be a criminal issue not different from pushing someone off a balcony.
There is a back bench in the far corner, that's the highest risk area. One can stand there and if they lost their balance and fell backwards, that would be a dire circumstance. Granted, it's the far side and deep side so it's a bit of a swim over there. We've also instructed our kid that he can NEVER stand on that step. This will be something we will enforce like the gestapo in our pool. Given kids are shorter and have lower center of gravity, I'm not actually concerned as I am about drunk teens/adults. I've stood on it very carefully just to test it, and you'd have to really horribly lose your balance and fall backwards. It's somewhat awkward to try and stand up there, and it's too shallow for it to make any sense. In the case someone stands on it, it would be with the intent to jump into the pool and your weight would be forward so a fall would be into the pool. Simply put, falling backwards would have be intentional or someone completely nuts, that said, best to just not stand there even though the risk is low.
Finally, as stated, any sort of floating device hasn't been an issue.
These are all issues that exist with any type of negative edge pool that has a reasonable drop. The knife edge was actually the best finish out I could provide, it's just impossible to walk on in any capacity. We had examined other designs with just a thin coping and the temptation would be too high for someone to tight rope it. I had initially considered putting a wooden planter behind the pool at an elevated position so if someone were to fall, they'd fall into a bush, but I see no need/purpose for that now outside of aesthetics. My current plan is to plant some bushes on the backside so that if one were to fall, it'd be painful but it wouldn't be hitting earth/stones. As stated, my corner bench is the only risk area, and only if someone stands and then immediately loses their balance forward. There's no ingress/egress from that bench so there is absolutely no reason to stand there unless you're an idiot. Two grown adults who get into a fight on my top deck and go over the railing is honestly a more likely concern than anything in the water.