Review #1023 2026-093…read more Free Wi-Fi: "City W-Fi" Parking: free event parking in SMC Parking Structures (refer to Review #1022); no parking in staff marked spaces Women's Locker Room: restrooms, showers, open changing area My daughter's swim club had a swim meet at Santa Monica Swim Center: 2026 SCY TSM Season Opener. The swim center was fairly easy to find, located on 16th St. near Pico Blvd. However, I wasn't aware of the parking situation for the event, & found a limited 15-min. metered spot a block away so I could drop-off H. One of the parents said the event's parking is free in the structures, which I confirmed with the swim center's info window. He advised that event parking is free except for the staff marked spaces. Check-In for the swim meet was a bit chaotic since it was our 1st time, & I was wandering around trying to find the check-in desk. There is none... it's with our own club under the ST logoed canopies. I also didn't know that we needed to provide portable chairs if we wanted somewhere to sit. Luckily ST was located on the 2nd floor near the snack station, so there were round tables with chairs available. I was able to grab 2 chairs for us to sit in-between events. There's an app: MeetMobile that allows you to track the events, & check heat & lane assignments. It only worked on day 1 (Saturday), but not on day 2 (Sunday). One of the parents said if swim meet is short staffed, there's a printed schedule posted on the exterior fence near the Fitness Pool. Most of the individual events had several heats consisting of 12 swimmers, up to 9 heats for the more popular 50 YD races. Santa Monica Swim Center is part of the City of Santa Monica Community Aquatics that offers learn-to-swim classes, training programs, water aerobics, lap swim, & fun events for community members. Everyone pays an entrance fee to use the pool, with Santa Monica residents paying a 50% discount. Fees (as of September 2026): Adults: Single Entry: $4.50 (resident); $9.00 (non-resident) 20 Swim Pass: $68.25 (resident); $137.00 (non-resident) Children (free for under 2 YO): Single Entry: $2.00 (resident); $4.00 (non-resident) 20 Swim Pass: $25.00 (resident); $50.00 (non-resident) Family Weekend Day Pass (Fri - Sun for 2 adults & 2 children): $10.25 (resident); $20.50 (non-resident) Seniors (60+ YO) & Students: Single Entry: $2.25 (resident); $4.50 (non-resident) 20 Swim Pass: $37.50 (resident); $75.00 (non-resident) Note: Swim Passes are non-refundable. There's 2 pools: fitness & splash. Fitness Pool, for training & competitions, is 50 meters x 25 yards with depth ranges: 6.7' - 13' & 1 meter & 3 meter diving boards. Splash Pool, for shallow, warm instructions, is 25 meters x 25 yards with depth ranges: 2.5' - 4.5'. The women's locker room was surprisingly clean & well-stocked during the busy swim meet weekend. That's a major plus in my book! According to my teen, the pool was too cool (per website, average temp is 78° - 80°) for her so she was a l'il stiff between events. Considering the unfortunate hit & run en route to the swim meet on Saturday, she managed to hit 3 PBs in all strokes except for her specialty freestyle in her 1st club swim meet. Yay!

It's an excellent, clean Aquatic Facility with an Olympic size pool!…read more Reasonably priced, with friendly staff... A++++

We receive swimming lessons through the regional center, and Souri from One With Water has been…read moreamazing with my son. She's patient, professional, and great with kids with autism. It did take a few months and a lot of follow-up before we were assigned an instructor, but once Souri started coming weekly, it's been a 5-star experience. Be patient -- it's worth the wait!

oh my gosh we love them SO much. Our 6 year old has a genetic deletion as well as an autism…read morediagnosis, I can just gush about how kind and caring as sweet they are with her. she LOVES to go swimming and asks about it all the time!! I can't recommend them enough.

Valentine is the best!!! My son (15months) and I have been doing the parent/child classes since he…read morewas 5.5 months old. My son loves playing in the water and loves Valentine. Even as a little baby he enjoyed being in the class. The class is interactive songs and teaches parents to be comfortable and safe with their babies in the water. Valentine works with each child at their level and daily temperament. I always feel comfortable that my son is safe. My son can hold his breath when instructed to, glide between Valentine and me, reach for the wall and hold on, is learning to climb out of the pool, and loves to splash and play! Jules in the office is great amount communicating class info and reminding me when it's time for renewal. Thanks Valentine and Jules!

Good instructors-…read more But the office....bad in returning clients inquiries...heard it from our friends that I recommended them too as well...I thought it was just us. This rating is only for the way the office handles their potential clients. But so far, happy with our instructor last year---let's see this year.

H2O Swim Team has been one of the best investments I've ever made for my child. The coaches are…read morevery professional, friendly, and they teach the kids extremely well. My daughter absolutely loves being there. She even wants to train seven days a week before her swimming lessons start! We tried many other activities before, including ballet, martial arts, and even private swim lessons at the YMCA, but after a couple of months she usually didn't want to continue. With H2O Swim Team, it's completely different. She is excited to go every time, and you can really see her confidence and skills improving. In my opinion, it's one of the best activities for children in Santa Monica. I only wish we had discovered it sooner.

H2O swim team is the first TRUE Club swim team my daughter joined. Previous to this she swam with…read moreYMCA and Parks and Rec and I am so happy we made the move. Within 6 short months, my daughter went from a B/BB swimmer to making June Age Group, Summer Age Group and even an Elite cut! Her form and technique changed so much, I couldn't recognize her swimming in the pool after a few short months. Coach Sam Beattie led by Coach Walid Sammoud taught her that discipline, consistency and hard work can pay off and her confidence in the pool has grown beyond our expectations. She always gets out of practice with a huge smile and it just makes her happy to swim for them. The strengths of H20 swim team are very clear to me now. Yes they are a smaller swim team, but because of this, they can provide more coaching in form and technique which is very critical in young swimmers. Larger Teams have a tendency to lose this personal attention due the the high number of kids on the team and swimming in one lane. This is probably the biggest difference between H2O and any other team. The community of families at H2O are also amazing. Everyone helps out to work together and the children are bonding much more and becoming like a family because there aren't dozens of kids per class. My daughter immediately met nice kids that were so friendly and open to letting her become a part of this team. Last Coach Walid and Sam are very approachable if you have any concerns about your kid. Whether its a confidence or performance issue they are very clear that if you need to address something, they are open to discuss. Thank you Walid and Sam for guiding my daughter and helping her improve so much in a short amount of time. I recommend H2O if your child is passionate about swimming and you want top quality personal training. This is just not available at larger Swim Clubs.

My daughter has had the best time learning to swim with coach Bailey. She has made incredible…read moreprogress and gained so much confidence in the water. Bailey is playful and fun, but also direct in guiding my opinionated four year old so that she can be water safe. Under her instruction she was able to learn how to swim across the pool by herself unsupported. With her new found confidence she now eagerly practices diving for gems and starfishes when we go to the pool as a family. A big change from where she began this summer - completely unwilling to go swimming without support from her puddle jumper!

Barbara and her team, in our case, Coach Anna, have been great teachers. The personal approach and…read morecare they take with the kids is wonderful. We've been with them for almost 2.5 years and our kiddo, who's now 7, went from zero swimming ability, to swimming across the pool, in both directions, in multiple styles! Our kiddo is always excited to go to his lessons, and his confidence in the pool, and our comfort as parents with him in the water, is a direct result of everything he's taken from his lessons here. Highly recommend!

Clean facilities and really friendly staff. This gym also has many different classes and…read moreexperiences to offer.

I like this Club and the Customer Service towards his members has definitely improved over the past…read moreyear. But the literal screaming at members 10 minutes before the gym actually closes at the posted time is just intolerable. I get they wanna close on time but if the post closing time is five or nine or noon, you should be able to work out till then and not have to stop 10 or 15 minutes early because someone's yelling at you.!

Swim With Heart is, in all honesty, the best swim program in Santa Monica. It is a swim program…read morededicated to teaching kids with special needs how to swim, and I have seen first hand how it has changed the lives of so many "lil' sharkies' (the team mascot is a shark). I have witness children timidly coming to the pool, and then lighting up with such huge personalities while they are in the water. Coach Mikey and her staff pay such close attention to these swimmers - they make sure that these little sharks learn how to swim with ease, confidence, and perfect form too! I personally swam on the SWH Masters team - I was one of Mikeys first Master Swimmers when she started the program in 2012. I am a seasoned swimmer (have been swimming since age 8) and swimming with SWH Masters is hands down the best and greatest swim team experience. Our swim practices are fun and we are always laughing and enjoying our swim sets (Don't get me wrong, we still worked hard in our sets, but we finished each practice with a smile). Coach Mikey is truly a beautiful person inside and out, she changes lives and empowers children to believe in themselves while also making their bodies stronger through swimming. These kids are always having fun in their lessons, and when they step onto the pool deck they literally jump for joy when they see Coach Mikey. The facility they swim out of, Santa Monica College, has a two beautiful pools - one is olympic sized, and the other is a smaller lap pool, but is heated and so awesome. You will love it!

Anyone who wants/needs TLC to learn how to swim needs to take advantage of this wonderful…read moreorganization.

Instructor Akira taught my 5 year old son individually over several weeks. My son is challenging…read moreto work with and Akira did an excellent job of finding fun ways to follow his energy and work the skill building into pool activities that the child preferred. The instructor's adaptability throughout the session was the main factor in my son being able to now swim across the pool by himself.

worse scheduling and terrible communication. would not recommend for swim lessons. Took 4 months to…read morefulfill 10 swim lessons. My child still doesn't know how to swim. waste of money for $70 per class for group sessions.

My four and a half year old daughter went from being scared to dunk her head to swimming on her own…read morefor the width of the pool in the matter of a few weeks. We did a couple days of the immersive class with her and after the second day she was laughing and loving every second with teacher Jackie. She loved it so much that after the end of the four day immersive classes (45minute 1:1s) she wanted to keep doing classes. So we signed her up for a few more 1:1s once a week. After a couple more of them, she was jumping off the deep end, floating, swimming back to the ledge and pulling herself out all by herself. The patience and joy teacher Jackie brought was worth every penny!

We love CC Swim Academy! Our older son did months of lessons at another facility and would never…read moreput his head underwater. It was torture going there week after week seeing other kids advance and our guy stay at level 1. We took a big break from lessons until we found CC Swim Academy and Ali in particular, who is a fantastic instructor. Now, with two little ones, 5 and 3, we dove headfirst into lessons and they both progressed so quickly. Ali has taught them the building blocks of swimming and it was amazing to watch. They've now learned so much and Ali has made them really comfortable in the water. They jump in the pool, do flips, go on water slides, etc. All things that take confidence they learned from Ali.

My daughter has taken a few kids classes and loved them…read more I did the intro to sewing and was so impressed with what I made, having never used a machine previously. We were taught how to make the I item look pretty professional.

I took a 3 hour workshop in 2023 for a beginner sewing project and enjoyed myself. My husband…read morebought me a machine to encourage md and support my new hobby. But I felt so intimated by my new machine. I ticked it away for years but I saw an email for a Moving Thread beginner 4-week workshop. 3 hours each session. Last night was class 1 of 4. My class was six ladies aged from mid 20s to late 60s. One never sewed. Two hand sewed. And two of us used machines 20 and 30 years ago and one lady had a machine and used it but felt intimidated. So we were all pretty nervous about our fledgling sewing skills. But the class was paced perfectly and by the end of our first class we successfully completed beautiful reversible totes! The workshop is $550 and it's a great value: project 1 tote, project 2 zipper pouch, project 3 pants (two classes). Our instructor was warm, friendly, funny, knowledgeable, helpful. My only drawback are the chairs. They're not comfortable for me and my leg felt like it wanted to go numb. No one else seemed uncomfortable so maybe it's just me. I'll try a seat cushion to see if it'll help. I brought my machine with me so I could learn how to use it but my husband actually bought the same Heavy Duty Singer sewing machine provided in the class for student use. All the equipment, accessories, fabric needed is provided by the class. You only need to show up. No good or drink allowed in classroom but water is okay. Be sure to enter the rear entrance let the instructions in your student information email. Because to show up on time. Basically no make classes. So if you sign up be sure you're schedule is free for the specified time period. If you're thinking of taking a quick afternoon class or a full workshop I highly recommend you give Moving Thread a try. The instructor we had last night has her own fashion label and is highly knowledgeable but gave us very easy instructions that us newbies could follow. The was patient with our foibles and created an atmosphere of grace and fun. I look forward to my to rest of classes Eventually I look forward to trying the advanced class offerings too. I've hit my eye on the alterations class.