Julie Kamara is an international swimming tutor with experience of delivering courses in the UK and around the world. She has over 30 years experience and is not only a swim tutor in her home county of Norfolk but owns a swim school there. Julie is qualified to recognise and deliver a range of skills such as Reflex Observation and Integration Therapy and Movement Therapy. Julie is also a Developmental Play Practitioner. 

Zara Peasland lives and works in Milton Keynes where she runs her own swim school alongside her Aqua Education committments. She is a highly qualified Aquatic Reflex Tutor so is ideally placed to recognise and deliver practical solutions and developmental and educational advice and techniques for other swim professionals. Alongside Julie she has worked as an international tutor with over 30 years experience and a skill set to match. 

There vision is ...

for swimming teachers to see themselves, and be recognised as 'Early Years Aquatic Educators'. With the right tools and training, professional swim teachers can bring a holistic approach to the pool when working with babies, young children and their families. By embracing Early Years Education skills which can be expertly weaved into their swimming lessons, swim teachers are able to  add capital to lessons, embrace and satisfy their customers and grow their business.

Aqua Education's range of products, courses and consultancy webinars have been developed
exclusively by us and are only available. By combining our expertise in a broad range of therapies, with our passion for teaching and real-life experiences, we have created bespoke training courses, CPD opportunities and a number of key products to expand your Teachers Toolbox and your role as an Aquatic Educator.

Sensory experiences are essential for healthy development. But it is often forgotten that we have individual sensory responses and preferences. In the water, we often find that some children are naturally more sensory sensitive and some need more input to regulate them. That is why at Aqua Sensory we take an individual approach to understand our children’s sensory world. The aim is always to create sensory harmony, contentment and calm. Respect, simplicity and nurture are at the core of Aqua Sensory.

Aqua Sensory is not a prescriptive swim program, there is no race, no expectations or tests, we learn, discover and explore at the child’s pace.

Aqua Sensory was founded in 2013, as a sensory program for the water, to support children’s sensory exploration to flourish, naturally. It was a pleasure to write a new pedagogy for the water, to capture children’s imagination, wonder and awe. Inspired by the early year’s educators, blending approaches from Montessori, Reggio and sprinkles from Steiner to name a few.

https://theswimsurgery.co.uk/

We speak to Anesti Vega, Executive Director of US Expeditions and Exploration (USX), a nonprofit scientific research agency dedicated to connecting military veterans with STEM field research opportunities. We partner with researchers that need data in remote/austere environments and recruit veterans with survival skills in those environments and help them continue a strong sense of purpose by launching expedition missions to collect that data. I started with the organization in 2018 as an expedition leader that launched the ocean research programming, was promoted to Director of Operations in 2019, and have been serving as Executive Director since 2020. Under my leadership, we have facilitated teams of veterans that have conducted kelp forest research off the coast of Big Sur California with Reef Check Foundation, cryosphere and snowpack data in the Juneau Icefields in Alaska with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, whale shark migration research in Hawaii with the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and Atlantic shark migration research and tagging with the University of Miami. www.usx.vet

• SCUBA Council Chair for Diversity In Aquatics, an international nonprofit that supports, educates, and promotes water safety and aquatics activities for marginalized communities. In that role, I focus on creating accessibility to SCUBA and ocean exploration by consulting with industry leaders such as PADI and NAUI to make the community a more welcoming place for all, through scholarships, representation in training/marketing materials and cultural competency training. We also distribute information on access points to SCUBA for our members and support the highest safety standards in the industry. www.diversityinaquatics.org
• Independent professional SCUBA Instructor with PADI and NAUI, and Adaptive SCUBA Instructor with Diveheart. I host a number of programs (mostly pre-COVID), some in partnership like with Reef Check Foundation, that create accessibility to SCUBA for marginalized communities including Indigenous communities and people with disabilities. www.naui.org and www.diveheart.org
• I also work part-time at the Underwater Technology Laboratory at the Florida Institute of Technology where I leverage my leadership and project management skills to help guide a number of remote-operated vehicles (ROVs) for ocean exploration. 
• BACKGROUND:
• Established a previous career of freelance digital media and photo-journalism... covering events, protests, and direct actions on environmental justice and ocean advocacy. Partners and clients included: 350.org, Center for Biological Diversity, International Indian Treaty Council, Ocean Protectors Coalition, and Indigenous Environmental Network. Through SCUBA, scientific diving, and citizen science work... I decided to switch careers to the ocean sciences in 2018 when offered a position with USX.
• Served in the US Army as an Infantryman with the 101st Airborne Division and Intelligence Analyst with 7th Special Forces Group. Deployments to Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Colombia.
• Grew up navigating foster homes as a young child and homelessness as a teenager before graduating high school and joining the Army.

We talk to Jo McMeechan Specialist Paediatric Physiotherapist - what started as an interview to empower parents needing to bridge the gap turned into a bigger conversation about what it's like to parent a child who doesn't fit the box whilst living in a pandemic.

We speak to Shana Lorde, founder of Let Us Swim, based in Broward County Florida. We hear her unique story of witnessing the tragic fallout from countless drownings whilst working in a paediatric emergency room, and how she was determined to make a difference and change those numbers. 

Shana is a passionate advocate for drowning prevention and inclusion within aquatics; in Spring 2021 she will be running a webinar “Going Beyond the Label” - keep an eye out for details by following @letusswim on social media.

Here’s an excerpt from the Let Us Swim website:

“Broward County, Florida holds the highest rate of accidental drownings in the entire Nation. Let Us Swim Is fully dedicated to educating people of all ages and backgrounds on the principles of water safety within and around water, as well as promoting the knowledge that ANYONE can learn to swim. 

We especially pride ourselves in changing the swim culture of underprivileged communities where unintentional drownings are at higher risk. 

#NoSwimStereotypes”

https://www.letusswimlessons.com/

Disclaimer: Our podcasts are in no way funded or affiliated financially or for any other gains with our guests. We endeavour to provide interesting and relevant information and discussion points that reflect our honest opinions, beliefs or experiences relating to those topics, events or products. 

Join us as we speak to Coach Taj, founder of Empowered Swimming. A non-profit based in the US with a mission “to provide access to professional, affordable, and dependable aquatic services to the marginalized community.”

One of the drivers behind Empowered Swimming is eradicating the narrative that black people can’t swim.  The statistics show that in the US a black person is 5.5 times more likely to drown than a white person. Coach Taj is dedicated to driving this statistic down by removing the barriers that are preventing people learning to swim, including by dispelling harmful myths that black people are unable to swim.

Empowered Swimming run a scholarship programme to provide access to aquatics for those who cannot swim and are financially unable to participate. You can find out more about the scholarship here. Currently available to residents of the United States, coach Taj hopes to be able to role out the scholarship programme globally.

If you were as captivated as us by Coach Taj and want to support the work that Empowered Swimming do through their scholarship programme, you can donate here.

Disclaimer: Our podcasts are in no way funded or affiliated financially or for any other gains with our guests. We endeavour to provide interesting and relevant information and discussion points that reflect our honest opinions, beliefs or experiences relating to those topics, events or products.