A long time in the making.

At the time of writing this it is May 2025. It has been a little over a year since we were finally able to get Aqua Veren registered as a charity and that process took about a year with lots of work behind the scene… but that isn’t really where this process started (even though that would be long enough).

So lets take you back a little further and give a bit of the story behind the swim free project, and how its directors are connected.

Back in late 2000 I (Nick) was doing what most uni students do and was looking for a part time job that fitted around uni life. Living close to the Brisbane Aquatic Centre and having swum there for a number of years, Lifeguarding seemed like a good gig. I found out what quals were required and went off to get them sorted. This was the first time that I met Marcelle, one of the trainers that was delivering the spinal management section of the course. At the time I didnt think too much about it but the quality of training set a bench mark and an expectation. At the end of the 3 day course I was fully qualified and went looking for that Lifeguard job, only to find out there were none currently available, but the swim school at the centre was looking for learn to swim teachers. The idea of working with kids didn’t thrill me but it was available, good flexible hours and I jumped in.

I often tell people that on reflection I wouldnt have hired me at that point. My first six months I don’t think that I was a very good teacher, but I was fortunate to have GREAT mentors. Learning, growing and being supported I actually got better, a lot better and was quickly extended on to new classes and levels and actually asked to supervise other teachers. By this point I was hooked in this world, I just didnt know it yet.

It is now the end of 2003 and I am graduating my bachelors degree with visions of becoming a major corporate shark. I hate it! From almost the moment I started I know it was not for me but didnt really know what to do with this degree that I had (for the most part) worked hard to get. I loved business but not the world that ‘business’ happened in. I loved teaching swimming but that want a career (my thinking at the time). So what the hell could and should I do? I had mused that I had though that swim school business was a good one and that it had massive potential beyond a single venue. I wondered if that could be something… So I wrote a business proposal to the swim school owners. I outlined the potential I thought the business had and how I could play a roll in it. They hired me full time and I was able to be a part of an exciting expansion over the next decade.

A few years and a few extra centres in I had another idea…. online lessons. I didnt think that the owner would see the potential so instead I pitched a book that would help people learn at home. The pitch was a way to expand the brand past the fixed geographical limits of the expensive facilities and test new markets. To my surprise we quickly moved to the online space and were all excited about this new opportunity. We had already been using an underwater videographer to film content to train our own teachers (this is 2005/6) and not as easy as it sounds today. We could use this as the foundation to start online. A year of 80hr weeks, filming, editing, learning about the limitations of websites, training platforms and code we launched uSwim. The first online swimming platform. It was great but not intuitive so we started to refine, by then others had also created similar platforms and although to this day I would argue what we had was far better, it didnt get as much love. It was also expensive, didnt generate any real revenue and was time consuming to maintain but it made a massive difference to so many people. Our videos and content was used in over 100 countries around the world with millions of unique views.

In 2012 I left the swim school that had started my career and the baby I had helped create. I was proud of the resource but sad we had not been able to make it work better. That always stayed with me. Fast forward to 2019 and covid hit. At this stage I had been lucky enough to be working with Marcelle and Max (one of my former teachers at one of the swim schools) for a number of years in training. Like so many we wanted to do something and started regular online conferences, professional development and content that we thought people would enjoy. The realisation of how far online platforms had come started to reignite the idea of an online program. I had learnt a few lessons and wanted to make sure that any future options would be self sustainable, have a purpose and be something that was not hamstrung by being attached to another orgaisation. The idea of social enterprise was so appealing, a business with a purpose other that financial enrichment (something I felt personally had over taken this industry I love). It needed to be sustainable but not become a tool for profit. Thats when we started investigating options and ultimately landed on going down the path of a not for profit. We wanted to have revenue streams that could help support the free content and programs but not have that become the focus.

And that brings us to now. We have started creating our programs and some revenue to help support that development. It is slow going as we all have our ‘regular’ jobs to keep food on the table but we are excited to be making steps forward and see what we can create, hopefully with your support.

If you made it this far, congratulations and THANK YOU. If you like what we are trying to do please follow on social, if you are able please donate or purchase a product.

Thanks,

Nick -