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Ironman vs. The Olympics

Athlete holding a sea urchin during ironman swim lessons and training.

Salty Swim School had its first Ironman in 2022. Kona hasn’t seen an Ironman in a couple of years due to the lockdown, but athletes across the globe DID NOT SHUT DOWN. They trained and qualified like never before. Ironman had over 5000 World Championship athletes qualify this year, so they expanded the race to three days welcoming athletes, families, friends, sponsors, and fans from around the world. The 2024 summer Olympics in Paris is expecting just over 10,000 athletes next year. The new Ironman is half an Olympics!

Salty Swim School closed down all swim lessons for two weeks when the Ironman swimming community took over the location. My team volunteered on both race days catching athletes, and I must have looked a hundred athletes in the eyes as they crossed the finish line. Some wanted high five, some threw up, some wanted their mommy and some needed food. That one guy was really grateful for the foot massage I offered. He cried. He wasn’t the only one. They all wanted their metal, and I got to place a few. I am forever changed from my grateful place of service to the event, and I highly recommend volunteering.

Ironman competition swimmer standing in front of a sponsor board.

 

Salty Swim School LLC trained with two athletes this year. One was a 76-year-old bucket lister who needed a qualifying swim time. We worked with him daily and narrow the time. The second athlete was a top finisher who had an amazing fast swim. She needed a heads-up on the course a week before race day. We only swam with her once. Salty Swim School also had a swimming coach in the race and couldn’t be prouder of Coach Glee Jewell who raced well and finished top in her class.

Salty Swim School started as a service project to our kama’aina keiki during the pandemic, and we carry on a mission to always serve this great community in Salty Service.

Swim.Pray.Love.

LoveCoachVictoria

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How early do you recommend Swim Lessons?

Baby sitting on the beach at kids swim lesson. How early should Hawaii swimming lessons start, is answered by Salty Swim School.

 Coach Victoria has an official answer.

We get this question a lot!

“I personally recommend Kids Swim Lessons

before 9 months old.”

Baby at a swim school in Hawaii. Early swimmer lessons.

Humans, please remember

you are made of water.
You do not have a pocket of water

or an organ that holds it.
Every single cell in your entire body contains equally

such as everything else in life is in balance.
Don’t find yourself “In” the water.
Find yourself “of” it.

Child swim instructor holding one of her students.

From conception, we grew encased in the liquids of life
as the ocean holds the last mysteries on earth.
You are water.
Your mother was your first swim teacher
as you are for yours next.
Be Water.

Embrace your birthright and

Swim

Love Coach Victoria 

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Valerie Learns to Swim with Dolphins

Woman taking swimming lessons to learn to swim with dolphins, Hawaii.

We started swim lessons with her 2-year-old son who was already somehow traumatized by swimming. After a few keiki swimming lessons, he proved currently unwilling to address his fears, so I looked at mom. With all due respect and Love and Healing for all, Mom is a beautiful, educated, smart, black, Woman who quickly admitted she never learned to swim. She was even more afraid of the water than her wonderfully comical 2-year-old who absolutely refused.

Mother with her child at Hawaii swim lessons for kids.

“I’m a privileged white girl”, I was happy to confess. I always had a pool. Valerie’s mom was on deck that day lovingly watching under an umbrella as her adult daughter and first Grandson broke new ground with me in the ocean. Generational healing is real, and we connected on that very deep level.

By the third lesson with Mom, there just happen to be a pod of dolphins sleeping outside the swim lane 200 yards out in the bay. I decided to pull Valerie on my trusty kickboard leaving her no time to think or decide. She was right there in the middle of writing her own new swim story for her and her son, and her mom. This was a Hawaii swim lesson after all, so I asked her to move her arms one at a time in big sweeping circles scooping water and making rainbows. As she swam for the first time in her whole life, the dolphins followed her in, and here I thought I was the swim teacher. I’ve been a student of this magic all alone. Valerie learns to swim with dolphins.

Love.CoachVictoria

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