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About Us

Swimming is a delight at all ages. We're here to help you start ... or improve!

What got us started

We are here to provide you and your loved ones with the confidence, skills and support you need to get the most out of aquatics and swimming and to enjoy the water as much as we do.

As an island nation we are blessed with beautiful waterways and seas. We have access to modern heated pools at home and on holiday. Water surrounds us and we believe that everybody should be able to enjoy it, either as an individual or with the family for fun, leisure, exercise and even competition.

Swimming is a healthy, active and enjoyable activity. It is one of the only hobbies we can participate in from birth – right up until we are old and grey. It is a lifelong gift and skill that we believe we all should and can have.

So what got started us started is our passion for water enjoyment for all ages and abilities and an eagerness to share it. What makes us different is the professional, natural and caring approach of our teachers, our coaches and our support staff. Swimtastic is not a commercial franchise. It is a family managed business with our swimmer’s enjoyment at the heart of all we do.

Our people, our story

Swimtastic is a family owned Irish business. It is managed by wife and husband couple Zuzana and Mark Day – along with a loyal team of teachers and administrative staff. The business began in 2014 in Athy, and then grew out of Zuzana’s love for swimming, her enjoyment of teaching and supporting people and her belief that everybody should be able to experience the fun and joy of swimming with confidence.

We now offer courses across Kildare, Carlow, Laois, Offaly and Kilkenny. We began with a small part time team of 2 but as of 2023, we have grown to a team of 15. This was through the support of our loyal customers, our brilliant team and the support of our partner pools.

Pre-2014

Zuzana is teaching at Club and Leisure Level and Enjoying Competitive Swims.

2014

Swimtastic is founded to provide pre-school Parent and Child Swimming Courses in Athy, Co. Kildare.

2015

Swimtastic now begins offering courses in Portlaoise, Amanda joins the team.

2016

Courses begin in County Offaly, and now Pregnancy Aqua Yoga is introduced

2017

Swimtastic designs and introduces Adult Swimming Courses.

2018

We begin courses in Kilkenny, and Edel, Elaine and Sharon join the team

2019

Swimtastic designs new Junior Swimming and Advanced Adult Swimming Courses.

2020

The team focuses on delivering Pre-school, Junior Swimming, Adult Swimming, Pregnancy Aqua Yoga, and now Advanced and Competitive Swimming Coaching across 5 counties.

The Founders

Zuzana Hruz Day

Prior to founding Swimtastic, Zuzana was a competitive swimmer and coach. She was introduced to the pool by her father as a baby. She progressed to the highest levels – culminating in swimming competitively for Slovakia at European Championships and Triathlons. She completed her first Ironman in 2019.


Zuzana’s passion is teaching children and adults to love the water. She has been working with swimmers for over seventeen years.

Mark Day

Co-founder (and husband) to Zuzana, Mark backs her swimming passion with business activities. Along with the office team, he manages the back end, organisational and I.T. side of Swimtastic. He oversees the course planning, scheduling, bookings, financial, marketing, and I.T. areas.


Irish sport is his main hobby interest and a source of much joy (and frustration). He will also be found seeking out ideal fishing spots along the river barrow.

Meet the Team

Helder Andrade

Helder is orginally from Portugal and moved to Ireland to experience a new cultural enviroment. He speaks 4 languages - English, Portuguese, French and Spanish. He loves aquatics and his activities include water sports, especially swimming and diving, as well as boating. He loves spreading this passon to others. 

Elaine Byrne

From Portlaoise, Elaine joined us in 2019. She has a background in children’s education and development. She is a big sports fan and has participated in competitive swimming, basketball and football and has plenty of medals to her name.

Elaine teaches all our swimming programmes, parent and baby, adult swim lessons, pregnancy aqua yoga and our children’s’ swimming lessons.

Leah Chamberlain

Leah joined Swimtastic when her little boy was few months old and since then she is enjoying swim classes with my two children and jumped on the opportunity of our trainee position to be able to teach classes to other Mums/Dads and their little duckies. She has passion for the sport, combined with my strong interpersonal skills and dedication to child safety and development, drove her to pursue this rewarding opportunity. She got inspired by the current swim teachers that she have had the pleasure to meet during swim classes with her children, the enthusiasm and encouragement is something that she hope to contribute to the success and safety of Swimtastic swimming program. 

Tom Collier

Tom has a wealth of experience when it comes to exercise and is passionate about teaching swimming. Toms early teaching career began by volunteering with Irish Water Safety teaching young children the basics of swimming and his love for teaching grew from there.

Tom Connors

Tom is the newest addition to our Swimtastic family and you will be meeting him in our Killerig location. Tom loves enjoying his summers at beach or rivers as lifeguard to ensure everyone can enjoy fun in water while keeping safe. Tom has many years of experience teaching swimming which he is going to bring to our location and look after younger and even the older swimmers. 

Zuzana Day

Prior to founding Swimtastic, Zuzana was a competitive swimmer and coach. She was introduced to the pool by her father as a baby. She progressed to the highest levels – culminating in swimming competitively for Slovakia at European Championships and Triathlons. She completed her first Ironman in 2019.


Zuzana’s passion is teaching children and adults to love the water. She has been working with swimmers for over seventeen years.

Amber Kelly

Amber has deep passion for swimming and water safety, and has been actively involved in swimming for several years. Amber believes that swimming is not only a valuable skill but also a fun and enjoyable activity. She would love to help as many others as she can to develop their swimming skills while promoting water safety practices. 

Sinead King

Sinead is also a lifelong swim teacher. She has been teaching swimming for over 25 years and specialises in Water Safety. She teachers our Junior Swimmers in Newbridge, and she also provides Water Safety, Lifeguard Training, Swim Teacher training in her spare time.

 

Sinead volunteers alongside Carmel with Water Safety Kildare and is an avid advocate of professional and safe swim training. 

Olga Nochowicz

Olga is very passionate about swimming and nothing makes her more happy than help someone to reach / achieve their goal, no matter if it is adult or child. She also run's her own swim school - Olga's swim academy. Olga loves travelling and visiting different countries and learning more about their culture. 

Michael Noras

Michael has deep passion for swimming and water safety, and is actively involved in swimming. Michael believes in helping others to develop their swimming skills while promoting water safety practices. 

Lynda O'Hara

As a mother of 4, Lynda loved attending swim classes when her own children were babies and even more recently when she attended lane coaching to partake in triathlons. She love the opportunity to be able to teach a life skill that is so important along with being great for mental and physical health. 

Sinead Robinson

Sinead is our office co-ordinator, which means she makes sure things happen at the right time and the right way. With a lot of courses to organise across 5 counties, this keeps Sinead busy.

 

From Dublin, she lives in Athy and is the proud Mum of 2 football and swim loving children. Sinead also volunteers with the local Triathlon and GAA Club.

Odeta Scerbakova

Odeta came from childcare backround where she use to on daily basis spend all her time surounded by children. She is loves to learn new things, and is looking forward to teach all our swimmers the most important life skill. 

Amanda Staunton

Amanda joined Swimtastic team to be able to help more swimmers (no matter of their age / ability ) to achieve their little or big goal and become confident swimmer/ swimmers. Amanda has years of experinece with working in swimming pool and teaching kids, adults that she can't wait to share it all with you.

Aqua Team

Our Aqua Aerobic & Aqua Fit team is excited to meet every single one of you and enjoy some great moves, exercise and music. Our team will rotate to ensure you all get chance to meet each and every one of them at some point. Aqua Team - Amanda, Devin, Emer, Helder, Sarah and Sinead.

Come and join fun while working hard.  

Genevieve Whelan

Genny is a Portlaoise native and has been a teacher with Swimtastic since 2021. She's passionate about swimming and works on all our programmes, including Pregnancy Aqua Yoga, Parent & Baby, Juniors and Adults.

Genny is a supportive and patient instructor. She loves to see her swimmers develop their skills and become more confident in the water term on term.

Accreditation

All our courses have been professionally and especially designed by the Swimtastic team. Our courses have the approval of our affiliates; Swim Ireland, STA (UK) and Birthlight.

A family swim club

At Swimtastic we pride ourselves on providing swimming programmes for all ages and abilities.