From the parent
Beauden Rooney 9 years old.
Beauden started swimming at Aoraki Swim School when he was just under 3 months old. We looked forward to Thursday morning swims. I always prioritised swimming lessons as it is very important to me that my children learned how to survive in water since we are surrounded by it.
It wasn’t long and he was floating on his back, unassisted which then led to rolling independently and diving to pick up dive sticks off the bottom of the pool without assistance.
These skills came into good use when 14-month-old Beauden, fell into the shallow shore of Lake Ruataniwha. Although he could have stood up, he instinctively rolled onto his back and called out. I was shocked to see him save his own life at such a young age and although I was close by and watching him the whole time, it was very reassuring to see his skills in action.
Before we knew it, we had a class of preschoolers who could swim freestyle and backstroke lengths of the pool. The progress didn’t stop there, once he moved to after school lessons he learned bilateral breathing in freestyle, breaststroke kick and cemented the technique for all strokes.
Then came the next big step – Kevin’s Squad swimming at Cbay. The hard work and determination by all of the children were clear at his first school swimming sports where Beauden had the confidence to compete in every race and distance, winning them all, breaking 5 records and setting a 6th record, and becoming overall champion for his age group. It was a tough competition though as 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th overall were all students of Aoraki Swim School too.
With that success, Beauden was eligible for South Canterbury Swimming Sports where he placed 2nd in breaststroke. I 100% credit Beauden’s success to Kevin and the team at Aoraki Swim School for not only teaching him how to swim, but how to save his life and making it a fun and enjoyable challenge, to keep him engaged through all of the years.
Corban Rooney 6 years old.
Corban started swimming at Aoraki Swim School at 5 months old. As he had grown up watching his big brother Swim weekly, he was eager to get in the pool too. Corban took to it like a fish to water. Straight away he was floating independently and soon began rolling independently too.
Corban thrives under Aoraki Swim School’s “Kevvie style” swimming. He started to use his arms for freestyle not long after he turned 2 and began swimming lengths after that. Corban is the youngest child to have completed Kevin’s 20 duck challenge (20 lengths in under 20 minutes) at just 3 years old and is extremely proud to have his photo up on the wall.
Now at 6 years old, Corban is full of confidence. Corban can breathe bilaterally, complete a tumble turn, and touch the bottom of Cbays 3.4m deep pool. Corban is looking forward to breaking his big brother’s records when he is old enough to compete in school swimming sports. He is fearless in the water but still has a healthy level of awareness and respect for the water.
I can not thank Kevin and the team at Aoraki Swim School enough for the patience and dedication that they have put into teaching Corban these amazing, lifesaving skills.
From the swim instructor
Beauden was in the first baby group when the swim school commenced operations 10 years ago.
From there Beauden has progressed to the Aoraki Swim School training squad and now can swim the four strokes of swimming, freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly.
At his recent school swimming sports Beauden won numerous races to qualify for the regional championship competition where he placed highly in all his races.
Corban started at the same age as his brother and is now 6 years of age.
Corban swims freestyle and backstroke to a very high standard and is now learning breaststroke.
It has been my pleasure to be able to teach Beauden and Corban the “art” of swimming.
