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!

I have been swimming at the SMC pool facility since 2019 and feel that there is quite a bit of…read moreconfusion about the reservation policy after 3:00PM Mon-Friday in the 25 yard lap pool. Also the staff is rude and poorly trained to interact professionally with the paying customers. I ran into this problem on Aug 24 2026 at 7:00PM with one of the staff, Misael Bowman who interrupted my swimming in the lap pool demanding that I make a reservation and insisting that I pay twice to continue swimming. However, when I pointed out to him that reservations are encouraged but not mandatory, he still insisted that a reservation was required for the lap pool. Consequently, I went to the splash pool shortly thereafter and asked the life guard on duty if a reservation was required for the splash pool. He replied, "no", but Mr. Bowman then interrupted again and insisted that a reservation was required for the splash pool when there is no mention of this requirement anywhere in the pool policies. I feel this policy is not well understood at all amongst the staff. Also Mr. Bowman was rude and misinformed in trying to enforce them. The purpose of these policies remains unclear as well. I know that they were first implemented in the 2020 Covid era, but some how where never rescinded once the pandemic ended. Also the shut down of the 50meter lanes since that time remains a mystery as well. What is the SMC organization trying to achieve by continuing to enforce these archaic policies that should have been abandoned with the end of the pandemic in 2022?

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.

Oh my goodness, I cannot believe no one has written a review for this marvelous swim school yet! I…read morecurrently have my toddler taking lessons here (with Sarah) and I could not be happier! I looked long and hard for a school that fit my daughter's and my needs. I wanted somewhere with caring instructors and a place where my child felt at peace and happy during the learning process. If you are looking for the same, this is the swim school for you! I could go on and on about how pleased I have been with the lessons but I also would like to make special note of the customer service here as well. I have emailed and chatted with almost every swim school in LA, in fact I even had my daughter at another 5 star rated swim school on Yelp. Honestly, the previous school doesn't hold a candle to HAW! Head Above Water REALLY takes a personal approach to their business. The people I've spoken with have been amazingly professional, including the school's owner. The instructor gives me tips after each lesson with things I can do at home to build on the skills she has taught in class. Several other moms I know are attending this school as well and have found that the teacher not only works wonderfully with each child but is great about talking to parents and giving them pointers and encouragement. I cannot say how pleased I am with this experience and tell everyone I know about it.

We had a very enjoyable experience working with Kate, the owner. She is very patient and positive…read moreand makes learning how to swim fun. I like the one on one class as opposed to group classes. Her pool is always clean and I always felt very comfortable that Kate was in control and my child was safe with her. Her policy is very straightforward and uncomplicated when it comes to cancelling for sickness etc which makes it another big plus for a busy mom.

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.

What a great experience! When searching for swim lessons I was hesitant because my little one is so…read moreyoung (9 months). But I was reassured once speaking and meeting with our amazing instructor Matthew. He called before the sessions to go over details, answering any and all questions. He had great positive energy and worked great with the infants. We loved our instructor so much we signed up for another round of sessions!!! Thank you kid swim for getting us your number one man Matthew.

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.

Anna at Hall Swim Academy is an excellent teacher…read more Two years ago, my son (who was 7 at the time) was going to another swim school and was doing ok but advancing slowly. As part of that school's safety training, they threw him in the water wearing street clothes. He was doing ok for about 30 seconds but then panicked and started to sink so one of the teachers had to jump in and pull him out. (It was partially my fault since I mistakenly had him wear long pants that absorbed water). Anyhow, he freaked out and got very scared. We continued to go to that school for several more weeks but he stagnated with his training and the teacher became frustrated and tried to push him too hard so he had a melt down. Fast forward two years, I started taking him to the Hall Swim Academy west LA location about 2 months ago and he started trying again to learn how to swim with Anna. Anna is extremely kind and patient with kids. She demonstrates what she wants him to do and corrects mistakes in his floating and swim strokes and has him repeat as necessary. She is able to recognize how much to push and when to give him more space and repeats instructions as necessary. He loves going to swim class with Anna and is motivated to learn so he can swim with his friends at summer camp. Yesterday, he had two major breakthroughs. He spent most of the class in the pool without wearing goggles which he previously refused to do. Then, on his own, he decided he wanted to try the swim test. So, he put on street clothes over his swim suit, jumped in the water, floated on his back for 20 seconds and then easily swam to the side of the pool and climbed out on his own. He was so proud of himself for overcoming his fear and is now looking forward to his next class with Anna. I am very grateful to Anna for her kindness, professionalism, excellent teaching skills and being such a good motivator. Thank you!!

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.!

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

My daughter has been going to Mikey for 2 years. Mikey is a great teacher and has made my daughter…read morea confident swimmer. Mikey teaches my Daughter different strokes, how to dive as well as how to be water safe. My daughter enjoys every lesson with Mikey and looks forward to seeing her every week. We were so lucky to find her!

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.