Summer Swim Lessons at Golden West College - Huntington Beach, California

Katherine Cates

My 9-year-old was in the stingray class. My son was standing in front of his teacher, DANNIE, waiting for her permission. She kept teaching the other kids.

I had to tell him to get in.

He waited for his turn. When he started swimming with her, she told him to swim to her and then back. He put his head down, swam toward her, moved his arms twice, and then I told him to go back. He swam back, moving his arms twice. It took 5 seconds. He didn't even swim their side halfway. Where's the direction?

The office girl tried, saying he's a better swimmer than the other kids and he has long arms. So shouldn't he have swam ALL THE WAY if he was a better swimmer or has longer arms. Btw when he swam towards her, he moved his arms 2x and stood because he can't swim, turn around STANDING IN THE WATER and swam back.

Where's the directions? She was just holding up all the other kids in the water while she was teaching them. I watched the whole thing. 4 kids went ahead of him so I know the difference. I watched next to the girl in the office. We saw the same thing. She tried to gaslight what I saw.

Considering how expensive it is in these economy, this is laughable. I need a different swimming lesson. Unfortunately it’s too late for community.

Sheila Emadian

We had a wonderful swim instructor named Lauren that went at my son’s pace, and was very loving & sweet. She gained his trust, and by the 8th class, he was fearless and confident, jumping in the pool, going under water, and swimming his very first strokes! Being in a small group class was great because he sees what other kids are doing and it motivated him to try. These classes were affordable, offered at convenient times, and gave consistency.

Claudia S

We've been coming to the summer swim lessons for over 6 years (minus the covid time when they were closed). I have mixed experiences as one of my kids did really well the whole time we've been going and the other had a horrible first-time experience. My son who has enjoyed it, started off really well in the group classes, whereas my daughter was almost drowned by an instructor who kept dunking her as a toddler (she was crying and the instructor kept putting her underwater anyway); she swallowed so much water that she was gagging after class. I mentioned it to the office and they apologized but offered no solution. I just didn't take her back and ate the cost. She had private lessons after that incident only. This 2023 summer season, I opted for private lessons for both kiddos since my daughter always remained reluctant to swimming because of her first traumatic experience at this location. All the swimming instructors are AMAZING (minus that one instructor my daughter had as a toddler), this is the only reason I even gave any stars to begin with. It's the office and scheduling that aren't friendly and overlap booking. Private lessons are $165 for 4 days for only 20 minutes each day; essentially $41.25 for 20 minutes ( or $123 an hour). Anyway, time is money and because the instructors are double booked, we were shorted time twice (50% of the time). The instructor always apologized, because it really isn't their fault, but they can't tack on the missing time since they are booked with someone immediately after your child; literally, their group class ends at 10:00 and our private lesson started at 10:00. I brought it up on the last day to the office and they also said they couldn't tack on time, but offered to pull another instructor to provide the missing minutes of instruction. This was met with attitude by the office staff; I offered a solution that would help my daughter keep her same instructor if they ate into my sons time (who was scheduled immediately after her at 10:20) and just had our private instructor stay the additional minutes after with my son and I was met with a stern NO. I work with managing a master schedule and never would I book anything with no buffer. It is unprofessional to create an environment, especially one that is paid, where there is no breathing room for your employees. Parents asking the instructor questions was the reason she was late to my time slot; something that is out of the instructors hands. What happens if the instructors need to use the restroom? Group classes are $100 for 8 classes; this is the only thing I would recommend here.

Summer Boren

This place is fantastic. The coaches are really nice and they are very organized.

Mai Cao

I swim a everyday at this place

Waldorf Astoria

Sandra Recinos