Draining Pool for Warm Climates?

[mida68]

I'm lazy but would like to save some money on pool maintenance (we have a pool "guy" come once a week) as we are pretty much not going to swim from October to May even though we live in a warm climate (So. Cal.)

Since the combined cost of the electricity to run pool equipment and pay the pool guy is over $200 per month, I'd like to save that by just closing the darn thing down for winter.

Why not just drain all the water out and shut off the equipment? I could ask the pool guy to do it properly (although I'm sure he would not be happy losing the account for a few months!) I mean it was all shut off while the pool was being constructed and we have a kid-catcher net to prevent anyone from falling in.

We don't freeze here so can't see any need to put any anti-freeze etc in the equipment.

Thanks!