About Heather
As a child, I had always enjoyed swimming and loved just sitting underwater or diving for things down at the bottom of the pool. It was peaceful down there and I could occupy myself in a pool for hours while having lots of fun. When I was about 14, a friend who ran summer lessons asked me to help her with a backyard teaching program in the summer. I said yes, wondering just what it would be like, then soon found that I enjoyed my days outside at the pool, and loved the homemade lunches and cookies her mom would make us. Well, to date we are still friends, and that was the start of my lifelong passion for teaching swimming.
I grew up in Oakville, lived for a year in Ayr, Scotland, where I tried out the school swim team for a short time, and spent many summers on Manitoulin Island with my friends (the Brockwells, Ingrams and Bullas families), and loved swimming in Lake Manitou. After high school, I attended McMaster University and completed my degree there. I then went on to working at Sheridan Nurseries, Loblaws Limited, and then the Toronto Board of Education. During summers I would sneak in backyard summer teaching and had a wait-list of people wanting me to come to their pools. After being urged by several swimming customers, I opened an indoor swim school, first using Appleby College, and then moved over to Oaklands, Central West, once it became available. As the swim school was gaining ground, I had also just taken my Ontario Real Estate License and was working with a company in Oakville listing and selling homes. It was a pretty busy time for me! I continued with selling homes and also running the Cool Pool School for about 20 years together. In between that, my daughter, Bailey, was born, and she added to the most wonderful moment in my life. However, now it was very busy!
As I now had a baby, I, of course, had to get her swimming, so started the parent and tot classes with friends of mine who had little ones and incorporated these classes into the regular weekly programming. It was great fun and amazing learning, watching the little ones gain their skills and become comfortable in the water at such young ages. Bailey had a lot of time in the water and under the water in the early years as I often did not have a babysitter, so along she came to classes! Flash forward several years and Bailey is now an instructor herself, having assisted since she was about 9, and then teaching with her certifications as she became able to.
As the Cool Pool School is mostly an indoor program, I am able to transfer and complete my summer work by the ocean with my daughter in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. Here, we experience more amazing time in the water swimming, finding sea creatures, watching seals and dolphins, sailing, paddle boarding, and surfing. Coastal living is very calming, mesmerising, and revitalising, all at the same time. I am able to get all my work done for the fall indoor time and arrive in September refreshed and organised for another year to begin. During the indoor season I also keep myself in shape swimming with a lot of the amazing swimmers with the Oakville Masters. It is great to keep active as adults and I want to encourage any of you out there to get out and keep swimming! I can always help you with a few technique lessons to get back into the swim of it.
People often ask me what qualifications I have or what it takes to be a swim teacher. Well, I have many at this point; Red Cross Water Safety Instructor, Red Cross Authorized Water Safety Provider, Emergency First Aid Instructor, Lifesaving Swim Instructor, Lifesaving Advanced Bronze Instructor, National Lifeguard Certification, Lifesaving Examiner status, and recently I was appointed to a new position as an Examiner Mentor by the Lifesaving Society. These are all updated every 2 years so that I can remain current at all of them!
So as you can see, “Splashin' is my Passion”. I love watching the swimmers learn new skills and see the smiles on their faces as they master something new and boost their confidence. Hopefully I will see you at the pool!
What some happy swimmers have to say:
"I wanted to tell you all those lessons at Heather’s Cool Pool served my son very well. He and his fellow High school Relay Team members won silver in both the Senior Boys 200 metre Free Relay and the 200 metre Medley Relay at OFSAA. Pretty nice way to end their high school swimming career. Many thanks to you and your staff for your outstanding teaching over the years. "
"Thank you very much for all you ladies do for the kids. We are very appreciative and can see that our daughter is doing very well and more importantly, is that she enjoys it. We will also attempt to give her more time in the water so that she can do some additional practicing. Thank you so much for your continuous positive encouragement."
"I just wanted to say how happy we all were today with the lesson! My oldest son gained more skills and confidence in the half hour he spent with your team today than he has in 4 years of lessons! And this was the first time that my younger son did not enter and leave a swim lesson screaming and crying!! They both had a blast and have gained much confidence and are very much looking forward to coming back next Tuesday!! Special thanks to all of you!"