Wavemark Swim was founded by a former Navy swim instructor and NCAA Division I swimmer with over ten years of competitive swimming experience. Before starting Wavemark, our founder worked as an instructor for one of the largest private swim lesson chains in the country — and saw firsthand where the model breaks down for families: instructors who rotate out mid-package, pay structures that don't reward the instructors doing the best work, and guarantees that sound better in the sales pitch than they are in practice.
Wavemark exists to fix those specific problems, not to be a slightly cheaper version of the same thing.
We cluster bookings by neighborhood and assign one instructor per family for the life of the relationship — not just the current package.
We pay our 1099 instructors roughly 20% more than the industry standard, plus a completion bonus for finishing a full lesson package with a family.
On qualifying packages, if a student hasn't learned to jump in and swim to the nearest wall by the end of the package, we keep teaching at no additional cost — real peace of mind for parents, not just a sales line.
Wavemark carries liability insurance for every lesson. And if things aren't working out, there's no penalty for stopping — we refund every lesson in your package you haven't taken yet.
Wavemark Swim LLC is veteran-owned and headquartered in Bend, Oregon, with instructors and lessons running in our Florida pilot markets. The same values that shaped our founder's time in the Navy and as a Division I athlete — discipline, consistency, showing up for the people counting on you — are the standard we hold instructors to on the pool deck.
If pay, consistency, and actually being part of building something sound better than your current swim school job, see our open instructor roles.
Learning to swim shouldn't depend on being able to pay for it. As Wavemark grows past our pilot markets, we're planning a program that offers free lessons to families who can't afford them — details are still being worked out, but it's part of where this is headed.
We're also planning aquatic therapy and water aerobics classes, for individuals and in small groups — swimming ability isn't the only reason to get in the pool. Details and timing are still being worked out.