FREE SESSION - Open Water Safety
Essentials - Lake86
(Exclusive session only for yearly or PAYG members of Lake86 - Cotswold Water Park Hire)
Our Open Water Safety Essentials is designed for swimmers looking to gain safety knowledge for their open water swimming.
Please note this is a safety and acclimatisation session and NOT our full introduction to open water swimming, or introduction to wild swimming session types. These are available through the booking system under our clinics or introduction to open water booking tabs. This Safety essentials session will compliment the introduction session nicely.
This in water based session will take you through:
1) Putting on a wetsuit and ensuring a good fit (a wetsuit is mandatory for this session)
2) Pre entry safety
3) Getting in and acclimatisation
4) Breathing
5) Emergency Rescue situations
6) Self Rescue
7) Lake specific safety and layout and dryside tour
We anticipate this session will be around 30-45 minutes in length (depending on water temperature). The date is a provisional date for the session, we will notify you if we need to change date or time ASAP, or if the weather / water temperatrue is not appropriate.
Whilst this session is aimed at new open water swimmers we have found that these skills are sometimes lacking for open water swimmers who have been in the water for some time. Learning the fundamental skills that we list above is not only important for your safety, but is also an integral part of your swimming session. Learn these skills and you WILL have a better swim.
Join us for one of these sessions at the start of the season, r whenever you are ready to start your open water journey. It will be invaluable, I promise!
You must be aged Age 18 or over to take this session (under 18's must have a 1-to-1 session, under 16's a junior 1-to-1 session - Criteria applies)
Who Are South West Swim
South West Swim was founded by head coach Jason Tait in 2014. Jason is a respected open water coach in the UK, with a vast amount of experience in inland open water swimming and front crawl stroke fault identification and correction. Through his time as a coach Jason has coached athletes from total beginners to world champions, those swimming their first length of a pool (or the first few open water strokes) to ultra marathon swimmers and channel swimmers. Jason is highly qualified as a coach and was part of the working group who wrote and developed the STA Open Water Coaching Qualification, and is also a qualified tutor of the same course. South West Swim also has three more amazing coaches, Stuart Foster (BTF Coaching), Mark Hopkins and Ashley Cain (Swim England Level 2 Coaching (pool). These coaches may assist in our open water sessions as safety eyes or helpers. Together we have a fantastic team to deliver you class leading sessions in Swindon & The Cotswolds with the best coaching methods, technology and after session feedback and content to further assist your journeys.
Qualifications and Experience:
- Swim Smooth Certified Coach for Swindon & The Cotswolds areas (South West England)
- STA Level 2 Open Water Coach
- STA Open water Qualified Tutor
- STA CPD in Cold Water Swimming Coaching
- Swim England Level 2 Open Water Coaching
- Swim England Level 2 Coaching
- Swim England Level 2 Teaching
- Level 2 Fitness Instructor
- Competitive Open water coaching experience as previous Open Water Coach for Wiltshire ASA Governing body and also Swindon Dolphin ASC
- Triathlon Show London Official Swim Coach 2017 & 2018 (Swim Smooth Team)
- Swim Coach and Swim advisor to the SwimTayka Charity
- Event support for numerous local and national event companies
- Published in various media channels
- Consultant work for lake venues, swim & triathlon clubs and media outlets
- RLSS Open Water Lifeguard
- RLSS NRASTC Safety
- FSRT (faoundation Safety & Rescue Training)
- Powerboat Licence