Little Waves Swim Academy

05/11/2026

7 years in South Portland and hundreds of swimmers later my mission stays the same: providing children in Maine with the gift of Survival Swimming. Spots are still available in two locations (South Portland and S**o) for June 15th or July 6th Summer Session. Please click on the link below to see what is available and sign up!

https://portal.iclasspro.com/littlewavesswim/booking

05/10/2026

Happy Mother’s Day to all the amazing Moms out there!

05/01/2026

Open enrollment is happening now for Summer! Two locations and more available time slots! Click on the link to register today! Please email us at [email protected] with any questions.

07/04/2024

I hope everyone has a Safe and Happy 4th of July! I am excited to welcome swimmers back July 8th!

03/24/2024

Classes are canceled for tomorrow (Monday 3/25) Please check your email for more information!

10/26/2023

All classes are cancelled for today 10/26. Hug your little ones tight 💓

07/26/2023

A pediatrician in a recent article recommended that younger children stick with mommy and me lessons until age 4, instead of doing survival swim lessons and stated there is no evidence that survival swim lessons actually reduce drownings.

First, I want to say that mommy and me lessons are actually the dangerous ones, because they teach our most vulnerable kids (drowning is the number 1 cause of death for kids 1-4 years old) to be secure and happy in the water, without teaching them ANY skills to survive in it. Statistically, most drownings in childhood (almost 70%) happen during non-swim times, when kids are not meant to be in the water. Teaching them confidence in a place that they are already so heavily attracted to without teaching survival skills there at the same time is a recipe for a drowning to happen.

I know. I did mommy and me classes with my child. They taught him overconfidence in the water. He slipped away from me for 2 minutes and died of drowning. Since then my organization has carefully examined all schools of thought that we could find, with regard to swimming lessons and have found true survival swim to be far and away the most effective in keeping younger kids safer around water.

Survival swim is safe, loving, careful, attentive and effective. They teach competence (survival skills) at the same time as teaching confidence, so that children will automatically get into a back float if they were ever to fall into the water alone. I personally have seen at least 50 cases of kids saving themselves, using these skills, from the various instructors we work with.

Please know that survival swim, when taught correctly, is safe and effective.

Let’s talk about her notion that there is no “evidence” that survival swim is effective in reducing drowning rates. Not true. There is a plethora of anecdotal evidence. Search kids self-rescuing on youtube. You will see it. When the doctor in this article says there is no evidence,, they are referring to formal studies. However, no formal studies have been done on ANY swim school of thought around their effectiveness in preventing drownings. The dcotor left that part out.

My thought is, our rates of drowning in this age group are not getting better with traditional mommy and me lessons. In fact, they are getting WORSE! Prior to 2018, drowning was the number one cause of accidental death in this age group. Now, it is the number one cause of death period in this age group. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is just NOT working. Why continue to push ineffective strategies???

It’s time for something different. It’s time to teach our kids to survive in the water.

06/20/2023

1) They CAN’T take flotation devices with them wherever they go.

2) They CAN sneak back to water without their flotation device, thinking they can swim because the device always keeps them up in the water and they don’t understand when they are very young that it’s the device doing that and not their own ability (this is what happened to my son).

3) They can take the device off and try to get back into the water without it on, again thinking they can swim when they can’t (As we have seen in recent surveillance footage of a fire fighter’s son doing exactly this).

3) Using flotation devices constantly in pools encourages dependence on the device instead of their own ability.

4) Using flotation devices continuously in pools teaches bad body positioning in the water and will make it: A-MUCH easier and faster for the child to drown if they do make it to water without the device and B-MUCH harder for kids to learn proper swimming technique (It takes kids who have been in these devices TWICE as long to learn how to swim, on average).

5) 69% of drownings happen when kids are not supposed to be in water and won’t have the device on. If that happens to your child, wouldn’t you rather them know how to make their body float without a device?

Survival Swim lessons for kids under 6. Traditional lessons for kids 7 and older.

The easy way isn’t the best way for our kids.

Do the hard. Get them skilled.

Take it from a mom who lost a child this way and can never have another chance to do the right thing for him again. Don’t be me. Know better, do better.

06/02/2023

This summer myth is bound to re-circulate, so I'm here to offer some reassurance: “Dry drowning” is not a real thing. 🚫

"Dry, wet, near, passive, delayed, and secondary” drownings are not true medical diagnoses. In fact, we should avoid this terminology altogether. These terms have been conjured up over time, often described in the media as fatal vocal cord spasm, delayed lung swelling, etc. 🎥

Let me be clear. Drowning is a real threat and a major cause of death among pediatric patients, especially those under the age of 4 years. 👶 However, media reports of children dying unexpectedly several DAYS after they had been swimming – with apparently no reported symptoms leading up to their death at all – are not valid. A child will not look perfectly fine for days on end followed by rapid deterioration and death.

With that being said, there HAVE been children that showed "minimal symptoms" shortly after swimming (such as persistent cough or mild breathing troubles) who ended up getting very sick roughly 4-6 hours later. The proper term for this is "nonfatal drowning." 😢 Therefore, we recommend that any child who is persistently coughing, sputtering, or having any difficulties breathing following a water-related event (e.g. submersion of head or face under water) should seek out medical care right away.

Good rule of thumb: If your child’s symptoms seem WORSE than when a drink goes "down the wrong pipe" (we have all experienced this), then it is worth a trip to an emergent pediatric care center where they can be closely watched. Usually these kids can be observed for 4-8 hours and be released home that same day if they are acting perfectly normal. ⏳ If symptoms persist greater than 8 hours or so, they will likely require admission for nonfatal drowning.

To summarize: Parents should bring their child in whenever they are pulled from a water-related event followed by excessive coughing or any level of confusion, abnormal breathing, or acting strangely after coming out of the water. If they are acting 100% normal upon exiting the water, there is no need for concern.

Lastly, let's avoid the goofy terminology. "A drowning or submersion event is described either as fatal or nonfatal with or without morbidity. Older terms such as near, dry, wet, active, passive, secondary, or delayed drowning are no longer used when describing submersions."

Feel free to pass this info along. Stay safe out there!

Primary source:

McCallin TE, Morgan M, Hart MLI, Yusuf S. Epidemiology, prevention, and sequelae of drowning. Pediatr Rev. 2021;42(3):123-132. doi:10.1542/pir.2019-0150

05/25/2023

✨Swimming is always more fun with a friend✨ We are finishing up week 5 of this session and having a blast!

05/22/2023