Super Summer Swimming Lessons in Southwest Washington

Everyone should take swimming lessons, especially in the summer. My family was adamant I learn how to swim, and they enrolled me just about every summer in swimming lessons at various places around Vancouver, Washington. I learned loads about swimming and quickly found out what a fantastic workout it is (and how terribly hungry I became afterwards). Here are three of my suggestions for swimming lesson locales in Vancouver, Washington, just across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon.

Lakeshore Athletic Club
2401 NW 94th Street
(360)574-1991
I took swimming lessons with a large group of kids my age at Lakeshore many years ago and really enjoyed it. The water was clean and the overall feel of this athletic club was one of professionalism and excellence. They offer both indoor and outdoor swimming pools, during the first part of the summer we usually used the indoor pool due to the "June Gloom" days Vancouver, Washington often experiences (highs in the 60s at best!). However, once the weather warmed up, the lessons in the outdoor pool were really fun too. Lakeshore is in the Hazel Dell section of Vancouver, near the hills overlooking Vancouver Lake. Be sure to bring a pair of good swimming goggles!

Thunder Reef Dive Shop
12104 NE Highway 99
(360)573-8507
Thunder Reef, located in the Salmon Creek portion of Vancouver, Washington, has several small buildings, one which has an indoor swimming pool. The main building is the the dive shop and sells all kinds of awesome SCUBA equipment, along with advertisements for dives in exotic locales all across the globe. I took swimming lessons here with a friend and enjoyed it a lot, mostly because the dive shop was so interesting to explore after my lessons were complete. The pool is heated and so is the room it is in. However, the pool is not super large (although is is fairly deep) and the pool building can feel quite humid and noxious at times. This being said, the people I took swimming lessons with at Thunder Reef were great and I got an excellent work out swimming here.

Royal Oaks Country Club
8917 N.E. Fourth Plain Blvd.
(360)256-1250
Royal Oaks is a fairly prestigious country club near the Westfield Shopping Center in southwest Washington and has a smaller outdoor pool for swimming. I did not take swimming lessons here for very long but I did have a good time learning here. Of course, an outdoor pool can make swimming lessons quite chilly, especially in Washington State, and I think (not quite sure) that we had a few lessons canceled due to rainy weather, even during the summer. Still, our instructor here was great and really helped us learn the different strokes we were working on at the time.