June 2025
Water safety in summer starts in winter
Learn to Swim Victoria encourages year round swimming.
Safety is the primary reason parents enrol their kids in learn-to-swim programs but sadly the number of fatal drownings increased last year with the summer of 2024-25 one of the most deadly on record. Additionally, Royal Life Saving Australia notes that 34% of drownings occur in the autumn and winter seasons (1). Simply, many kids, teenagers, and young adults lack the water safety and swimming skills to safely enjoy water activities. Consequently, Learn to Swim Victoria and Royal Life Saving Australia encourage parents to enrol children in swimming lessons during winter to prepare for summer.
Swimming skills: going backwards or going forwards?
Swimming competence, and confidence, is learnt in years not months and taking time off over winter can set skills back significantly. Our lead instructor, Pamela, says, “Children's skills regress if they take time off. Even during the two week school holidays they'll come back and it takes them a few weeks to get their skills back to where they were towards the end of the term.” Remember:
- Repetition and regular practice are fundamental for long-term skill retention in children.
- In younger swimmers, muscle memory, a key to developing as a swimmer, has not yet ‘fixed in’.
- Kids, simply, forget stuff including the instruction given by swim teachers and crucial water safety information.
- Kids can lose confidence and motivation.
- By continuing to swim through winter, kids continue to develop and build on the skills and safety understanding they had been working on previously.
Immunity and fitness
Comprehensive research shows that children engaging in swimming year-round tend to be fitter and have stronger immune systems making them less susceptible to illness (2).
Developmental benefits
The world’s most comprehensive study into the impact of early years swimming, conducted by Griffith University and involving 10,000 children, concluded that children in swimming programs are more advanced in terms of their development, both physically and across a range of cognitive and learning skills (3).
Even though it’s winter and it doesn’t feel like a time for swimming. Our pools are heated and maintaining swimming consistency ensures your child’s wellbeing, learning continuity and ongoing safety, particularly for when summer approaches.
References:
May 2025
Feel the difference with Learn to Swim Victoria's Mineral Salt Water. Read about the benefits.
The benefits of a magnesium salt water swimming pool, commonly referred to simply as a ‘mineral pool’, relative to a traditional chlorinated swimming pool. Compare and contrast. And by so doing, put the investment and commitment of Learn to Swim Victoria and Surrey Park Swimming into their mineral based swimming pools at Blackburn and Heidelberg into context. It’s a context more interesting than one might expect, a context steeped in historical precedent.
So, a historical detour en route to a broader understanding … It’s 1618, a town called Epsom, England. A local farmer, Henry Wicker, is having trouble with his cows: it has been a particularly hot English summer, his livestock wells have become contaminated and the cows won’t drink from them any more. Mr Wicker discovers, however, that his well-water heals scratches, sores and rashes in both his livestock and family considerably more rapidly than ‘normal’ water. The contamination in the water is magnesium salt and people from nearby London begin to flock to Epsom for the remedial properties of Mr Wicker’s water. Epsom soon becomes England’s most popular spa town and the magnesium salt becomes known as Epsom Salt.
In 2016, Ismail NA (Consultant in Clinical Biochemistry and Chemical Endocrinology, UK) and Ismail AA (Consultant in Clinical Biochemistry) note in their research paper (1), “The relationship between magnesium and health has been recognised some 400 years ago and well before magnesium was even identified as an element.”
Mr Wicker’s discovery, however, was not at all news to the ancient populations of Persia, the Israelites and the Romans. These people have documented the remedial and healing properties of bathing in the Dead Sea since biblical times. Not coincidentally, the Dead Sea is the body of water with the highest magnesium salt concentration on earth.
Scientific research has since confirmed the benefits well accepted by ancient civilisations. In a control experiment, participants soaked one arm in ‘Dead Sea’ water and the other in ‘normal’ water for 15 minutes a day, doing so for six weeks. Published in the research paper Dead Sea (2) the findings of the research were conclusive, “Bathing in a magnesium-rich Dead Sea salt solution improves skin barrier function, enhances skin hydration, and reduces inflammation in atopic dry skin… We suggest that the favourable effects of bathing in the Dead Sea salt solution are most likely related to the high magnesium content.” Further positive findings included, “Magnesium salts, the prevalent minerals in Dead Sea water, are known to exhibit favourable effects in inflammatory diseases.”
In this historical context, it is today broadly acknowledged that swimming in a magnesium salt (mineral) swimming pool helps detoxify skin, remove dead skin, repair damaged skin cells and contribute to ensuring the growth of new, healthy skin cells. Being gentler on skin, mineral swimming pools can in fact help soothe skin conditions, especially for those easily irritated by traditionally chlorinated pools. For conditions like eczema and dermatitis, mineral pools can reduce inflammation, repair skin cells and also relieve itchiness.
Mineral swimming pools also promote softer and healthier hair. Regular swimming in chlorinated pools, by contrast, can lead to brittle and dry hair. Additional to these benefits, magnesium is widely recognised in a much broader context as beneficial to people as an essential mineral for the human body. Over 300 bodily enzymes rely on manganese for their proper functioning. Because of this, there has been significant discussion as to whether magnesium can be absorbed into the body through the skin - transdermal absorption. Examples of this include swimming in a mineral swimming pool or, historically, in the Dead Sea or an Epsom Salt mineral bath. Studies are not currently conclusive but should they prove so, further benefit of mineral pools range from, “Assisting with normal muscle function including contraction and relaxation,” (3) to “(benefitting) mainly musculoskeletal or rheumatoid-type conditions, although there are quite a few studies linking it with low blood pressure as well for the mineral content,” (4).
The benefits, both accepted and potential, of mineral swimming pools compare favourably to issues that may arise for some swimmers or bathers in more traditional (and commonly used) chlorinated swimming pools. Whilst regulated concentration levels means that chlorinated pools are widely considered safe, for swimmers with particular conditions including sensitive skin, sensitive eyes, and some respiratory issues, mineral swimming pools are less likely to result in discomfort or irritation including dryness, itchiness, and redness.
And there it is: Surrey Park Swimming’s mineral pools at Learn to Swim Victoria Heidelberg and Surrey Park Swimming Blackburn, in their own way, following a historical tradition well and truly established in the Dead Sea and Epsom, England. Who would have thought it!
References
- Magnesium: A Mineral Essential for Health Yet Generally Underestimated or Even Ignored, Journal of Nutrition and Food sciences https://www.longdom.org/open-access/magnesium-a-mineral-essential-for-health-yet-generally-underestimatedor-even-ignored-2155-9600-1000523
- International Journal of Dermatology, National Library of Medicine, February 2005 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15689218/
- Dennis A. Cardone, D.O, a sports medicine specialist, https://nyulangone.org/doctors/1043224520/dennis-a-cardone
- Jon Wardle, Associate Professor of Public Health at the University of Technology Sydney, ‘Healing Power of Natural Mineral Pools,’ ABC television,19 Sept 2019, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-19/healing-power-of-natural-mineral-pools/11521160
January 2025
Summer Club Nights with Surrey Park Swimming
December 2023
SWIM Jobs Victoria Makes Waves: A Safer Summer for Victorian Kids
July 2023
Celebration NAIDOC Week in LTSV
In celebration of NAIDOC Week, we are thrilled to announce our support for Victoria's Aboriginal community in their pursuit of swim teaching. Through a specially designed program, a few of our staff members have participated, and are now fully fledged swim teachers. We are proud to witness their growth and commitment to promoting water safety within the community. Together, we are making a positive impact and empowering individuals with essential swim teaching skills. Let's continue to foster a culture of inclusivity and opportunity for all.
April 2023
First Nations Swim Teachers Make a Splash in Victoria
We're thrilled to have our staff be a part of the Jobs Victoria Initiative, in partnership with SWIM Coaches and Teachers Australia. Here's to more and more diversity in the swim industry!
