About Me

My Story

Learning to swim...

When I was young my brothers and I spent our summers at day camp, and every day after camp we would go to the public pool. We loved playing in the shallow water, but we were most excited about going off the low and high diving boards, and that required passing a deep water test. I remember trying to dog paddle from one side of the deep end to the other and not making it across without help. I kept working hard in swim class at camp until I passed the deep water test. My excitement at learning to swim didn't stop with the diving boards; I joined the pool's swim team and competed in free style, back stroke and breast stroke. As I got older my training continued and I competed in the butterfly stroke on my high school swim team.

Working with kids...

After graduating from high school I discovered that I loved working with children. As an undergraduate studying Psychology at Rutgers University I worked in a program for autistic children. Summers during college I worked as a camp counselor in the Poconos in Pennsylvania. After college I moved to San Diego where I got certified as a Red Cross Lifeguard and Water Safety Instructor, taught at a private school, and worked as a youth group advisor, summer camp counselor and camp administrator. After moving up to Los Angeles I continued my work in youth groups and summer camps and started an entertainment company planning kids’ parties and Bar/Bat Mitzvahs.

Starting a family...

I met my wife Jennifer when I was the MC at her cousin’s Bar Mitzvah where she was a guest. Jen and I would go on to get married and start a family including our two wonderful daughters and our two Shih Tzu puppies. After all those years spent working with other people’s children I was ecstatic to become a father!

Becoming a swim instructor...

When our daughters needed swim lessons we found Swim To Ethan and his 9-day intensive. On the last day of class when Ethan invited me into the water to practice some of the techniques he was using so I could continue my girls' instruction beyond the session, he saw something in the way I was interacting with them and suggested I come train with him to learn the “No Nonsense Method” he’d been using for years. After training with Ethan I also got re-certified as an American Red Cross Water Safety Instructor, just as I had done in San Diego years earlier. The teaching method I use today is a combination of the best elements of these two time-tested methods.

When I’m not teaching swimming I love family time and being the best daddy I can be to our little girls.

ENROLL IN SWIM LESSONS