Long Island swimming schools offer different approaches to staying safe in the water

Within 24 hours over the Fourth of July holiday, three people on Long Island drowned. They ranged in age from 7 to 79. The deaths all took place in residential pools.

They were part of an upward swing of drownings on Long Island and across the state and nation. An estimated 4,500 people are expected to drown this year in the United States, with the numbers in New York nearing or breaking records, according to officials.

Part of the problem is people not knowing how to swim. Newsday profiled three organizations seeking to provide solutions.

Black People Will Swim

After Uniondale native Paulana Lamonier sent a tweet a few years ago saying she wanted to teach 30 Black people to swim, she got an overwhelming reaction: Hundreds responded, far more than she could handle.

It led her to start a business serving a demographic that had higher drowning rates than most other groups of the U.S. population. Called Black People Will Swim, its mission statement declares that “we are smashing the stereotype that Black people don’t swim.”

The Long Island-based group has since taught at least 2,000 Black people to swim, and could serve as a model for other regions, she said.

“We are saving lives and we are doing it in a unique way where we are serving a demographic that has been historically overlooked for far too long,” Lamonier, 32, said in an interview.

She is in a good position to help: A Haitian American who graduated from Uniondale High School, she was the captain of the swim team for two years at York College in Queens. Her group has received about $300,000 in grants from organizations supporting her mission.

She contends it is a critical one, as many Black people, along with Hispanic people, remain unable to survive in water. More than one of every three Black adults — 36.8% — report they do not know how to swim, according to a May 2024 report by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is compared to 15% of all adults.

On top of that, two out of every three Black people — or 63% — report they have never taken a swimming lesson. The rate is even higher for Hispanics — 72% — or nearly three of every four.

Black Americans are 1½ times as likely to die from drowning as white Americans, according to a 2021 study by the CDC. African American children age 5 to 14 drown at triple the rate of white children, the CDC states.

Lamonier said some of the reasons may be a lack of money for swimming lessons, growing up in segregated areas with no pools, fear of drowning, or a mistaken belief and stereotype that their body shapes are not built for swimming.

The idea to help change all that came to her a few years ago when she was giving private lessons to several clients and realized she had a talent for teaching swimming.

Lamonier posted the tweet, and the floodgates opened.

“It was an overwhelming number of people who wanted to learn how to swim,” she said. “I think Black people did not realize that so many of them wanted to learn how to swim from people who look like them.”

Lamonier started the project in backyard pools first in Uniondale and then in Baldwin. The first summer, in 2021, there were 60 students. The next year there were 100 — with waiting lists.

Monica Session, a hospital administrative assistant from Elmont, said it took her until the age of 54 to learn how to swim. Growing up, “It wasn’t important at the time,” she said.

Several years ago, Session started taking lessons, but did not really master swimming until the signed up for Black People Will Swim at the pool in Baldwin. Now, she said, at 56 she feels confident.

“It’s just a joy to at least know the life skills and the survival skills of being in the water,” she said.

Lamonier, in spring 2023, moved the program indoors to the pool at her alma mater, York College. This summer, they will operate out of the pool at Westbury High School. Classes started Monday.

The classes cost $190 for toddlers and children, $210 for adults, though 30% discounts are available for those in need. Students get six classes and learn freestyle, backstroke and treading water.

Anyone can sign up, though the group’s central mission is empowering Black people to swim.

“We think that six weeks is good. It depends on the student,” Lamonier said. “I think on average, six to 10 lessons would bring somebody up to speed.”

Saf-T-Swim

Throughout Long Island, Saf-T-Swim brings a focus to swimming lessons that goes beyond the four common strokes.

The curriculum of the school centers on self-rescue, an important shift in the swimming industry, said Sheona Golden, the school’s district manager. 

“When I first started in the swimming industry, it was more about just learning to swim,” Golden, who has worked in the aquatics industry for more than 20 years, told Newsday. “But now it’s about staying safe, learning how to self-rescue, having fun and definitely having respect for the water.”

This is why, Golden said, Saf-T-Swim is not satisfied with only teaching their students the techniques needed to execute basic swimming strokes for a limited period of time in a controlled environment.

“I think it’s important to explain to parents and families that sometimes it isn’t enough to just learn how to swim,” Golden said. “Endurance is important in case something happens where a kiddo needs to know how to tread water or is in the water for a while before help comes. There’s so many layers.”

Instead, Saf-T-Swim tries to teach their students to overcome the obstacles the water might throw at them through what Golden calls “active learning.”

“We always do some type of jumping in the water so that it can mimic what it is to have water coming in over you and being able to self-rescue,” Golden said.

To anyone looking to protect themselves from drowning accidents, Golden stresses the importance of a yearlong commitment to water safety, which she says is at the heart of Saf-T-Swim’s curriculum.

Saf-T-Swim, which reports over 10,000 clients and has 13 locations from Little Neck to East Quogue, even goes as far as to have a day where their students jump into the water with their regular clothing — shoes and all.

“That's usually when something happens,” Golden explained.

And while some parents initially approach swimming as just another sport they would like their child to learn, Golden said Saf-T-Swim is able to foster a greater buy-in from parents after their children enroll and better understand the school’s methods.

“When we really start breaking down the curriculum and showing them the importance of certain things, that's when the light bulb kind of goes off, and that's when we really get commitment out of it,” Golden said.

“The best way to prevent drowning is to spend as much time as possible in the water learning how to breathe, learning how to take breaks, learning how to swim, and learning how to pull yourself out,” Golden said.

My Own Lane Aquatics

After nearly drowning at a public pool in Hempstead when she was in middle school, Wanda Sands swore off swimming.

Still, she made sure her daughter, Taenika Sands-Hendricks, learned to swim from a young age to protect her from experiencing anything similar to what she went through.

While she was initially afraid, Sands-Hendricks soon discovered a passion for swimming, and has taught it for over 20 years.

Today, Sands-Hendricks returns the favor to her mother as the owner of My Own Lane Aquatics, a primarily Nassau-based swim school that had Wanda as its first client when it started in 2019.

“It’s not only about the sport, but it’s about life saving and being able to support yourself in water without being afraid,” said Sands-Hendricks, who also works as a teacher at The Academy Charter School in Hempstead. “People are afraid because they have either had a traumatic experience or have a parent who has and then they carry those fears over.”

Sabine Jean-Guisse, who had a near-drowning experience of her own as a child, came to My Own Lane to prevent her past trauma from carrying over to her three children, the oldest of whom is 7 and has been working with Sands-Hendricks since he was 3.

“I always said that when I had kids, I wanted to make sure they knew how to swim from a very young age,” said Jean-Guisse, who lives in Hempstead. “I met Ms. T, who is My Own Lane Aquatics, and it has been a match ever since.

“My oldest is now able to get from one side of the pool all the way to the other, and before he wasn’t even able to get his head in the water,” Jean-Guisse added.

Sands-Hendricks said she is well aware of how socioeconomic status factors into accessibility to swimming lessons and is committed to doing her part. According to a May 14 report from the CDC, 2 in 3 Black adults and 3 in 4 Hispanic adults report never taking a swimming lesson.

“It is important to me because I am an African American woman and I have seen it in my community since I was young,” she said. “You see a lack of access to pools. How are we supposed to get people swimming?”

Sands-Hendricks charges $45 for a lesson, which she said, compared to other swim instructors on Long Island who charge upward of $75 per lesson, is a relatively low fee.

“I want people to learn how to swim, so I keep my prices low. It’s not about making money," she said. "It’s about actually getting people to swim.”