Learn to ocean swim clinic

5/5

Familiarise yourself with the basics of ocean swimming with an abundance of tips & techniques

There’s really no better all-round fitness activity than swimming. But 50m back and forth, back and forth in a pool staring at a black line isn’t exactly for everyone.

In this introductory-level, 3-hour ocean swimming clinic we will familiarise you with the basics of this increasingly popular summer activity and give you an abundance of tips & techniques to start you on your ocean swimming journey.

Then, after your clinic you’ll have access to our one-of-a-kind revision course that includes a 100+ question quiz for you to consolidate your knowledge​.

This clinic is Australia’s original ocean swimming clinic, delivered and refined by the leading ocean swimming educator, Andre Slade, since 2009.

The clinic is structured so that by the end of your time with us you’ll have the confidence to go for an ocean swim out through the waves, swim parallel to the beach and then return to shore safely.

Whether you’ve just got back into swimming or you’re a competitive swimmer, this is the perfect confidence builder for your first ocean swim, triathlon or open water swim.

Like 100’s before you have told us, this 5-star-rated clinic will change your life.

How you'll benefit

What you'll learn

This clinic covers all the fundamentals of ocean swimming, with a focus on swimming in waves, rips and currents. Having pioneered ocean swimming education since 2009, we have continually refined this clinic in such a way that you will easily be able to replicate what you learn in the real world. 

Start by learning what it takes to become an ocean swimmer through ‘OceanFit’s 4 Pillars of Ocean Swimming’

Learn how to read a surf report, complete an assessment of the conditions and choose a safe swim route

Discover the ocean through the ‘goggles of an ocean swimmer’ via an in-depth and informative 3D sand sculpture ocean awareness session

Identify a rip current, time your entry for maximum benefit and swim with it until you’re ‘out the back’

Develop and practice ‘sighting’ techniques that will help you swim straight, plus, how to keep an eye out behind you while on the go

Develop the foundation techniques for diving under waves without stopping, allowing you to make more efficient progress through the surf

Spend an hour ‘out the back’ behind the waves which will instantly grow your confidence and empower you to achieve your goals

Choose where to safety return to the shore in control, how to time it to perfection and get the ocean to give you a helping hand

Learn the life-long skill of body surfing following OceanFit’s 4 principles – we get everyone body surfing before you leave!

Consolidate your knowledge following the clinic with our online revision course that includes 100+ quiz questions.

Broken up into 10 sessions in the order they were taught, each session has its own quiz and links to any related educational content we have on the website, including blog posts and video lessons.

Completing this course will give you the confidence that what you’ve learnt has stuck!

 

Included

Pre-requisites

Speed is not a factor in this clinic for beginners through to competitive swimmers. If you do not meet these pre-requisites, please do not register for this clinic.

Pre-requisites should be read as the absolute minimum ability. You will be more prepared and get more out of clinics if you are a confident, fit and strong swimmer.

Not sure if you’re at the right level? Contact us

Freestyle

You can swim continuous efficient freestyle with relaxed breathing

400m swim

You can swim a minimum of 400m freestyle non-stop in a pool

2min tread

You can tread water continuously for a minimum of 2 minutes

FAQ

During the summer we run clinics in Sydney (Bondi & Manly), Wollongong, Newcastle, Gold Coast (Palm Beach), and the Sunshine Coast (Noosa).

We look to take our clinics on tour throughout Australia in the summer, so if you’d like us to visit you, and you think there’d be plenty of interest, please contact us.

We’ll start off with an ocean awareness session will completely transform how you look at the ocean – including popular myth-busting & 3D sand formation sessions – and it will change how you approach your ocean swimming from that moment on.

We spend our water time establishing the core ocean swimming techniques for sighting and efficiently and effectively diving under waves while swimming.

You will learn how to use the ocean to your advantage and be aware of how to to make smart decisions when navigating in and out of the surf zone.

The highlight of the clinic is a tie between the rip current swimming experience – where you’ll get to swim in a rip current and learn how ocean swimmers use them to their advantage – and the body surfing session at the end.

Participants in this clinic leave looking at the ocean in a completely different way, have a heap of ocean swimming tricks up their sleeve and appreciate what it takes to be an ocean swimmer.

This clinic isn’t about going for an ocean swim, its focus is on developing your techniques. You will need to be able to swim out about 100m offshore, and then tread water/float in-between practising skills that will last for 45-60 minutes. Then you’ll need to swim back to shore.

So, there aren’t any long swims, you won’t be swimming in and out of the surf (that’s the Negotiating The Surf clinic), and there’ll be plenty of rests as you watch demonstrations from your instructor.

The short answer to that is no. You just won’t get enough out of the water-based technique session, as all the techniques taught are built off a freestyle base. We have had people participate and only do breaststroke, and some of them have really enjoyed it.

We would suggest you focus on developing your freestyle stroke with a coach in a pool environment, and if you’d like to learn beach safety and basic confidence, sign up for our Ocean confidence clinic.

No. We require you to learn the techniques we teach with us, so that we know you’re ready and prepared for the Negotiating The Surf clinic. Other than a quick skills refresh, we won’t be teaching the foundation techniques in the NTS clinic.

When it comes to ocean awareness, it is often a case of ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’. We guarantee you will learn things you didn’t know previously, and we will bring everything you do know into a clearer picture of how to get the most out of your knowledge from an ocean swimmers point of view.

When it comes to the ocean swimming skills, your actual swimming skills will definitely help, but the focus is on learning techniques, and not doing lots of ocean swimming. So if you’re a great swimmer, we’d expect you to be able to pick up the techniques faster, and perform them better than others, but you still need to master the core techniques.

We are also very good at spotting great swimmers, and we will help you get even more out of your technique session by having you move onto advanced skills, or we’ll tweak them down to the last 1% of efficiency.

The last clinic of the season is usually towards the end of February, although we do run clinics in March if the weather is nice and there is demand that meets the minimum numbers required.

We suggest if you’re looking to get your training in this season that you do the earliest clinic possible so you don’t miss out.

This is the perfect confidence builder for your first ocean swim, triathlon or open water swim.

It’s also the best place to start if you:

  • don’t want to feel anxious and/or scared of the ocean anymore
  • want to feel in control when you’re swimming at the beach
  • don’t want to feel like you’re battling the waves every time you swim
  • don’t really know how the ocean works, or you need your knowledge reaffirmed.
The chances are you’ve done nothing like this in the past, and you have absolutely no idea what you’re about to get yourself into (we hear this all the time at the start of every clinic).The great news is that by the time you finish this clinic, you’ll have learnt more than you ever thought possible, you’ll have skills you didn’t know existed, let alone think you’d be able to achieve, and you’ll have a new found confidence in the ocean that will transform your lifestyle and make every visit to the beach thereafter safer, more relaxed and a whole lot more enjoyable (we hear this at the end of the clinic and years after!).

The minimum age is 13-years-old.

Children 10-12 years may attend with a participating parent if they are competent swimmers and are currently in a coached swim squad (i.e. they swim laps).

Only one child per parent.

We believe we have a firm but fair cancellation policy for our clinics that reflects the nature of running a business that has a very limited season in which to operate and that is delivered in a highly volatile ocean environment.

This policy has been in place for more than 10-years, and in part, is the reason why OceanFit is still able to offer our popular clinics.

You should read our Terms & Conditions before you book your clinic, in particular, the sections under ‘Booking conditions’.

Please note:

  1. There are no cancellations (refunds) or transfers offered within 7-days of a clinic for any reason.
  2. Should a clinic be cancelled due to unsafe or unteachable conditions (out of our control), no refunds are given and clinics are postponed to another date or booking given in credit.

We no longer have a specific COVID cancellation policy.

You should read our Terms & Conditions before you book your clinic, in particular, section 15 under ‘Booking conditions’.

Please note, there are no cancellations or transfers offered within 7-days of a clinic for any reason, including COVID.

$239

per person^

Final clinics of the season:

Bondi, 24 Feb & Noosa, 9 March

Please read the Swim School Terms & Conditions before booking, particularly the Booking Conditions that includes cancellations made by you or due to bad weather.

Bondi Beach


Manly


Gold Coast (Palm Beach)


Noosa

^You will be charged a 2.5% booking surcharge and a credit card payment processing fee of 1.6% = total of $248.89.

Our ocean swim school season has finished

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Next steps

This clinic is the pre-requisite for Negotiating the surf. We strongly suggest participating in both these clinics to complete your ocean swimming education.

Need help reaching the pre-requisite level?

Follow our FREE online Have A Go training program over 4 or 8-weeks.

The program includes two guided pool swim training sessions a week and 100+ video lessons.