BASA May 2013

34 ■ MAY 10, 2013 BERMUDA AMATEUR SWIMMING ASSOCIATION: A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION THE BERMUDA SUN

BASAA SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION OF THE BERMUDA SUN ■ MAY 10, 2013 ■ PAGE 35

Swimming association dives into new era with poolBY AMANDA [email protected]

For more than 80 years, the Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association has taught people how to swim and trained athletes to international standards.

Tomorrow, club members will hold a swimathon to raise funds for the charity, from 6am to 6pm.

The event also marks the official opening of BASA’s resurfaced pool at the Saltus Grammar School campus.

InspireThe project took two-and-

a-half months to complete and will provide young athletes and members of the public with a first-class training facility.

BASA’s mission state-ment is: “To inspire and enable the entire Bermuda community to have access to and achieve excellence in aquatics and in life.”

“We play a role in all aspects of swimming, from learning how to swim to competitive Olympic swim-ming,” said Tim Petty, BASA president.

“In Bermuda we are surrounded by water so it’s important to teach as many people to learn how to swim as possible, not just for safety but also for health reasons.

“We also aim to help facilitate them to achieve excellence in the sport.”

BASA was founded in the 1930’s as a FINA (Interna-tional Swimming Federa-tion) member, ahead of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Since then it has taught swimming at every level in Bermuda, from taking those first few strokes to

Olympic qualifying times.In 1981 BASA built its

25-metre pool at Saltus to encourage more children to take up the sport.

It has also taught thou-sands of youngsters to swim through its success-ful Summer Island and Get Wet programmes.

The Summer Island programme attracts up to 400 children each year, age

seven and up.That and the Get Wet

programme are usually oversubscribed.

Get Wet teaches primary and middle school students how to swim plus water safety over six weeks. The programmes take place twice a year, in the summer holidays and in September.

BASA also has four competitive swimming

clubs — Dolphin Swim Club, Harbour Amateur Swimming Club, Sharks Swim Club and Sandys 360.

Up to 200 youngsters regularly compete in BASA’s local competitive swimming programme, and have the opportunity to progress into elite athletes through BASA’s Train-ing Programme and the National Training Squad.

From there they can train up to international standards and compete in overseas meets. BASA regularly sends teams to the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) Games, the Caribbean Island Swimming Cham-pionships (CISC) and the Central American and Caribbean Confedera-tion (CCCAN) Swimming Championships.

It also sends senior teams to the Island, Common-wealth, Pan Am and Olym-pic Games, and the World Swimming Champion-ships.

There are currently 10 swimmers recognized by the Bermuda Olympics Association, two of whom, Kiera Aitken and Roy-Allan Burch have competed in Olympic Games.

BASA is a non-profit organization run by a Board of Directors, consist-ing of individuals from member clubs.

Aquatics manager and national coach Ben Smith manages the pool and swim programmes, assisted by national coach Richard Goodwin and administra-tor Lisa Hines.

BASA also has a general swimming club for members of the public. The Bermuda Masters Swim-ming Association promotes

■ PHOTO SUPPLIED

TALENT: Lisa Blackburn, a member of Sharks Swim Club, trains with BASA and competes for Bermuda at an international level. She is just one of many talented local swimmers.

See TRAINING, page 36

‘In Bermuda we are surrounded by water so it’s important to teach as many people to learn how to swim as possible, not just for safety but also for health reasons.’

TIM PETTYBASA president


health and fitness among adults, as well as competi-tive swimming.

There are clinics to improve strokes and train-ing, as well as general lane swimming for people of all abilities.

Mr Petty said: “The aim

of our organization is, we run it as a pyramid and get as many kids as we can at the base.

“We take them right from the start, with classes in learning how to swim and our Get Wet programmes, which we start teaching at age five.

“The club memberships tend to start from age eight and up, once you can swim

25 metres in each of the four strokes.

“As young people go through the sport, you quickly find out who is good and who wants to race competitively overseas.

“The costs of taking people away to swim are high, however. We rely on a grant from Government, and the Bermuda Olym-pic Association assists us

tremendously.”He said: “We get spon-

sorship of our local swim meets through companies, typically Mailboxes, Makin Waves and BEST Shipping. They’ve all been sponsors for a number of years now.

“BASA also runs a train-ing camp at Coral Springs, Florida, once a year, where there is also a good swim-ming meet for the various age groups.”

Mr Petty said: “As the governing body of swim-ming on the island, we get a Government grant but unfortunately this is never enough.

“We have to cover our staff, the costs of running the pool (heated in the winter), electricity and maintenance. This is in excess of $2-300,000 a year.

Exercise“The Government grant

can only be used for the development of kids, such as taking them away to overseas swim meets. So we raise revenue for the pool through our swim-ming programmes and club membership fees.

“The club members are aged up to about 16, as once they go off to university we tend to lose them. We do have a 41-year-old club swimmer, Lisa Blackburn, but she is an anomaly.

“Then there are our Masters club swimmers — people who typically swim for exercise. They swim in the early morning and at lunchtimes, using the pool like a gym.

“Our national coach and aquatics manager Ben Smith also runs indi-vidual and group classes to improve people’s tech-nique.”

BASA leases the land for the pool from Saltus Gram-

mar School, with whom it also has an agreement for usage.

“There’s an inter-school swim meet in the Fall and so for a few weeks before-hand the students use the pool,” said Mr Petty.

“We have a peppercorn lease with the school for the land and so they use the pool for about one-and-a-half hours a day, for a month.”

Tomorrow’s Swimathon will be the fourth such fundraiser of its kind orga-nized by BASA.

The swimathons of the previous two years raised $75,000 towards the costs of resurfacing the pool.

This year the funds will go towards various BASA programmes.

“We do a number of fund-

raising events throughout the year but the Swimathon is our number one fund-raiser,” said Mr Petty.

“It’s one of the ways by which we reach out to the community at large rather than just the swimming community. The kids each have pledge sheets they take home to their friends and families.”

The event also marks the official reopening of the pool and will feature the Saltus Jazz Band and a cocktail reception.

“The pool looks great,” said Mr Petty. “We had a ‘soft’ opening in March but are making this Swima-thon our gallery reopening. It’s good to have it back.

“As an old concrete

TRAININGContinued from page 35

■ PHOTO SUPPLIED

OLYMPIAN: Bermuda’s top swimmer Roy Allan-Burch, right, competing in the 2012 London Olympics.

See TRAINING, page 37

THE BERMUDA SUN BERMUDA AMATEUR SWIMMING ASSOCIATION: A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION MAY 10, 2013 ■ 37

While you’re in the water... we’ll be taking care of your plumbing.

9 Mill Creek RoadPembroke HM 05Tel: 441-292-0881Fax: 441-292-6887www.bac.bm

Congratulations on completing the Saltus pool renovations, and good luck with the Swimathon tomorrow!

Best wishes from all of us at the BAC Group.

Glad to be of service, BASA.

pool it was in dire need of repair. It was resurfaced with a product called Diamond Brite, installed by M & M Construction.

“We also put a fresh coat of paint in the changing rooms, resurfaced the start-ing blocks and bought new lanes. We replaced some of the lights with LED light-ing, to make them brighter and more energy-efficient.

“While the pool was out of service, our swimmers went to Warwick Acade-my or Sandys 360 to train.”

Mr Petty said up to 250 swimmers use the 25 x 10 metre pool each week.

For local swim meets, up to 30 people are needed poolside to ensure competi-tors swim the correct stroke and complete their turns. Referees are also needed, while individual swimmers’ times are recorded by computer.

“We run clinics to train up our officials,” said Mr Petty. “It’s not like a foot-ball game where you just

have a referee and a couple of linesmen.”

He said BASA actually oversees five disciplines: Swimming; synchronized swimming; diving; water polo; and open water swim-ming.

“BASA is extremely important. The national governing body of any sport has an important role to play in overseeing

that sport, and we oversee swimming and aquatics in general.”

The organiza-tion is crucial to the development of Bermuda’s future athletes.

“Swimming is an intense sport and when you get to an international level there’s a lot of early mornings and mileage to be swum,” said Mr Petty.

“The peak of the pyramid gets sharp quite quickly.

“Right now we have Roy-Allan Burch as our top swimmer. He competed in the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympic Games. Kiera Aitken also competed at the 2008 Olympic Games but has recently retired.

“Then in diving we’ve had Katura Horton-Perin-

chief, who competed in the 2004 Athens Olympics.”

Ms Horton-Perinchief was the first black woman to compete in diving at an Olympic Games.

The BASA pool is open to public membership and has on-site changing and shower facilities. It is located just a few minutes walk north of Hamilton, off Canal Road on the Saltus Grammar School campus.

Memberships can be purchased on an annual or monthly rate, or by the session.

There are discount rates for seniors and students, and coaching rates of $50 for a one-hour session.

The pool is cooled in the summer and warmed in winter to maintain a constant temperature of 78-82 degrees.

It is open from 11am-2pm Monday to Friday, and 6am-9am Monday, Wednes-day and Friday (but closed on public holidays). ■

FOR MORE INFORMATION on BASA contact 292-1713 or e-mail [email protected] or [email protected]. See http://basa.bm.

TRAININGContinued from page 36

BASA welcomes Aquatics Centre as boon for sportBY AMANDA [email protected]

The Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association (BASA) is to work with the new Aquatics Centre in developing more youth swimming programmes.

Tim Petty, BASA presi-dent, said: “We are working

in conjunction with the National Stadium trust-ees to try to build swim-ming into an even bigger sport, where we can reach more people and get more schools involved.

“At the moment it’s diffi-cult for us (BASA) to get the schools to come out to the pool at Saltus because they

have to drive there. So, having more venues avail-able will make this easier.”

The Aquatics Centre has been purpose-built for international competition at the 2013 Island Games in July, but Mr Petty said it would have a long-lasting legacy for local sport.

It will provide the first

50m length Olympic-sized pool on the island and will also have diving platforms and facilities for water polo and synchronized swim-ming.

The BASA pool at Saltus Grammar School, the Warwick Academy and Sandys 360 pool are all 25m in length.

The Aquatics Centre is due to open on May 27 and will be open to the public.

“This will enable more people to swim,” said Mr Petty.

“It will be run by the National Stadium Trustees and they are hoping to get learn to swim programmes up and running as well.

“They are actively marketing the pool now to the general public and to the clubs, as well as to us for competitive swimming.

“Even though we (BASA) are in competition of sorts, this adds another venue for people, and so having

PETTY

See AQUATICS, page 38


Training: How BASA is helping

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had multiple winners at the CISC championships last year, so we are doing very well in our region.

“We also have many swimmers now overseas at prep schools and at the university level. It’s a trib-ute to our programme that we’ve taken these athletes from seven and eight-year-olds to students now in their twenties who are still swimming at a competitive level.”

Mr Smith is a former competitive swimmer who swam for the Sharks Swim Club, the national Bermu-da team and then for his college, Springfield College in Massachusetts, US.

“When I returned home

from college I started helping out with the Sharks Swim Club and got involved with coaching,” he said.

“I then applied for the aquatics manager’s job at BASA and have been work-ing here for eight years now.

Dedication“From a national coach

standpoint, I’m really pleased with the dedication of the national team.

“With the swimmers we are producing, there is the talent to progress further on the international stage.

“They are focused and determined and it’s great to see the work they are

doing. They will be great role models for the next generation to come.”

He said: “It’s important to get a new crop of swimmers each year.

“We have 28 swimmers currently participating in the BASA Training Programme (from age 10 to late teens). This takes place on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings, and from this we select our overseas competitors for Bermuda.

“Most of these swimmers swim five to eight practices a week, plus workouts out of the water.

“The training, under national coach guid-ance, helps to get them to

more pools on the island also helps us to build up our base.”

He said the 50m pool would help to train future champions “up to Olympic standard”.

And the facility will also nurture the growth of other aquatic sports, such as water polo and synchro-nized swimming.

“We haven’t had water polo on the island for 20-30 years and there’s never been a formal synchro-

nized swimming team, so with this new pool we are looking forward,” said Mr Petty.

“Before, we’ve had divers but not the facilities. Our pool (at Saltus) was too shallow for diving, water polo and synchronized swimming. So now we have somewhere for people to train and the regulation length 30m for water polo.”

Mr Petty added: “If anyone wants to start a synchronized swimming programme we would be more than happy to assist.” ■

AQUATICSContinued from page 37

BY AMANDA [email protected]

Bermuda has the poten-tial to produce world-class swimmers of the future, thanks to BASA’s training programmes, according to national coach Ben Smith.

Mr Smith said: “We have several swimmers now at the CARIFTA level and we

BY AMANDA [email protected]

BASA is vital to nurtur-ing the talent of young swimmers, but the sport’s survival rests in the hands of parents and volunteers, according to one club presi-dent.

Nicky DeSilva is the pres-ident of Sharks Swim Club and is also secretary of the BASA board of directors.

“The Sharks is a competi-tive club and we strive to take kids from pups to as high as they want to go,” said Mrs DeSilva.

“BASA is very supportive of local swimming. It orga-nizes meets and supplies funding for children to go

on overseas trips. It does a good job.

“The Sharks train at Warwick Academy but we attend all the local meets and will be attending the Swimathon.

“The new pool is a beauti-ful facility. It looks fantas-tic.”

FundraisingMrs DeSilva said: “BASA

does a great job but it’s really up to the parents to move swimming forward as a sport.

“The renovations are great and we needed them badly but swimming is a volunteer sport, so if you sit on the sidelines it won’t go anywhere.

“Tab Froud, a former president of BASA, has two daughters who swim with us.

“He helped to manage BASA’s pool renovations. He organized the resurfac-ing of the starting blocks, the painting of the chang-ing rooms and helped with the relighting.”

Mr Froud, a volunteer project manager, assisted project manager Phil Mason.

Mrs DeSilva said: “It’s only the volunteers who can move BASA and swim-ming forward, because without them, there are no meets or fundraising, so you have to give them kudos.” ■

How parents help to drive the sport

THE BERMUDA SUN BERMUDA AMATEUR SWIMMING ASSOCIATION: A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION MAY 10, 2013 ■ 39

to produce the Olympian athletes of the future

the level of competition they need to be, and the results of the last several years suggests that the programme is leading to some really good results in our region.

“Hopefully this will also lead to more swimmers reaching the Olympics.

“But we can only do that by having more swimmers at each year age group and pushing them to reach this high level.”

Mr Smith also praised BASA’s wider role.

“BASA is in charge of not just swimming but all aquatics. There hasn’t been much in the other disci-plines but with the new pool (the Aquatics Centre) coming on line, you will be seeing more involvement with other sports.

“But with swimming itself, with the number of young swimmers and the good results we’ve been getting over the last several

years, I think BASA has been very successful in moving swimming forward.”

The renovations to the pool at Saltus will only assist in this goal, he said.

“With a 30-year-old pool made of concrete, it had reached the point where it needed a facelift, and we also needed to make sure the structure was sound.

Safety“So it was an opportunity

for us to really get inside the tank and make sure it was sound, which it was.

“The resurfacing of the pool also makes it more pleasant to look at. Things had started to erode and the bottom didn’t look as good as we would have liked.

“The water was very clean but now the pool is beautiful to look at, and this makes it better for cleaning as well.

“With a brand new

surface you can also make sure the clarity of the water is at a high level.

“We repainted the chang-ing rooms and Tab Froud organized getting the start-ing blocks resurfaced. After a while they start to wear away and so become more slippery. The new surface makes a huge difference in grip for swimmers making starts.”

He said: “We also installed new lane lines and lighting.

“This was important for safety because when you have the national team and the Masters swim-mers both training at 6am in the morning, for most of the year it’s quite dark,

with not enough light. It’s important to make sure people can see where they are going, particularly when diving in, to be safe.

“Technology has changed over the years and so now with the LED lights, it looks like it’s light outside when we have them on.

“All in all, these changes have made a huge differ-ence to the facility.”

Mr Smith stressed that everyone should learn how to swim.

“It’s a priority for us at BASA to try to get as many people as possible to learn how to swim.

“The idea is to start as young as possible and to get children to learn how to be

safe around the water.“A lot of times, people

jump off the dock. But you should know the depth of the water before you do that, and even then, it should be a feet-first venture rather than diving in.

“Knowing how to be able to tread water is also important.

“Children in Bermuda are around water so much of the time, whether it’s at a swimming pool or the beach, or boating.

“Just having the basic ability to keep your head above water to be able to breathe, this is so impor-tant to teach.” ■

Thank you

BASA would like to thank the following for their assis-tance with funding and the renovations of the new pool:

■ ACE Bermuda Ltd■ RenaissanceRe■ MS Frontier Reinsurance Ltd■ Keen Ltd■ M&M Construction Ltd■ Mason and Associates Ltd■ Saltus Grammar School■ Tim’s Pools ■ Kitson Group of Companies■ Zobec Group of Companies■ Bermuda Air Conditioning (BAC) Ltd■ Bacardi Ltd■ Makin Waves■ Mailboxes Unlimited Ltd■ BEST Shipping ■ Harbour Amateur Swimming Club■ Dolphins Swim Club■ Sharks Swim Club ■ Bermuda Masters Swimming Association■ Sandys 360■ Department of Youth, Sport & Recreation, Government of Bermuda■ Bermuda Olympic Association■ Ian Pilgrim of Mayflower Management Services Ltd■ Jim Ferguson of TOPS Ltd■ Ian Gordon, architect ■

■ PHOTO SUPPLIED

POTENTIAL: CARIFTA gold medallist Jesse Washington is tipped to be a future star.

‘ ...with the number of young swimmers and the good results we’ve been able to get over the last several years, I think BASA has been very successful in moving swimming forward.’

BEN SMITHNational coach

BASA May 2013

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