Frequently Asked Questions

This is not currently in the stars for us, though we do hope to expand enough to warrant this. Meanwhile, during the summer we offer lessons in the calmer waters of Mission Bay.

Any other time, if you have a friend or family member with a pool, we suggest reaching out to them to coordinate pool use.

If all else fails, for an additional fee, we can utilize Swimply which pays private pool owners to use their pool.

Public pool facilities generally will not allow our service to take place in their pool both for liability and us directly competing with their offerings. for this option, we request you clarify with your preferred facility to see if they would allow private swim lessons from a 3rd party.

We're so excited you've chosen Pirate's Cove to adventure with in your swim journey.

Please sail over to our Lessons Request Form to give us some basic information necessary to keeping in contact with you and finding out where the pool is located as well as any additional notes you'd like to include.

Our office staff will reach out to our highly qualified and experienced crew who service your area.

Once we have confirmed a Pirate, we will forward your information to them so they can reach out directly to coordinate scheduling.

The last steps to book a lessons include filling out the Pirate's Cove Student Contract and submitting payment through any of our accepted payment methods.

Due to the high demand of our services throughout the year, payment is made prior to lessons in order to lock in your lesson package with the instructor.

While we don't typically recommend it, you can book lessons for every day of the week if you'd like.

The only reason for not recommending this frequency is simply the practice time between lessons. If you're able to be in the pool for 3-5 hours before or after your lesson on the days you have them for every day that week, by all means. If your lessons are 1-2 times a week which is more common, getting that 3-5 hours between lessons becomes much easier to manage.

This is always dependent on the swimmer's ability to understand the concepts being taught.

One of the greatest benefits of the 1:1 format with our experienced instructors is that we have years of experience to draw from and can translate the concepts in easy to understand, digestible phrases and practical exercises.

We've seen some success in teaching scared swimmers in as little as one lesson!! But more often than not, the best results are found between 6-10 lessons. this allows the time to practice and reinforce the movements necessary for efficient and fluid swimming.

We generally see an increase in lesson requests starting in February and March long before the warm season in order to get ahead of the surge in demand at the end of school year. This is usually the best time to start arranging summer lessons.

For other seasons, pursuant to weather changes, requests can be made at any time.

*As a locally owned business, we update our prices throughout the year to manage demand on our instructors and operations. The pricing plan for your initial set of lessons is the one that will be applied towards future sets of lessons. Booking lessons earlier in the year (between February and May) will guarantee the best prices.

As much as you can manage!!

Seriously, for each hour of lessons, we recommend 1-2 hours outside of that between lessons to practice what you've learned during the lessons. This helps you build on th previous lessons and prepares you for what comes next!! It also helps build your stamina since swimming is a full body workout and requires lots of energy.

We highly recommend not eating right before a lesson. If you and/or your child needs to eat, then please do it at least 45 minutes before the swim lesson. This prevents the swimmer from getting cramps or a seasickness during the lesson. It is very important to have food after swimming as it is a full body workout that takes a lot of energy from the body and needs nutrients to replenish the ones used. If your child is insistent, a banana or kiwi are good fruits to eat beforehand to help prevent cramps due to the potassium levels in them.

We recommend eating a banana, kiwi, or other fruit high in potassium. This will help prevent lactic acid build up from your muscles. Also, make sure to stretch before swimming as this will help your flexibility and prevent injury, release endorphins and relieve stress.

With our Baby Pirates program your child is ready to start at 6-months. We have over 20 yrs of experience between Pirate’s Cove and Privateers in training babies and have proven results. The sooner the better with all of our children!!

• We DO NOT currently hold any certifications for infant rescue swimming (IRS) and will not work with infants one on one. Please check back soon as we do plan on having this by the end of 2025.

After the age of 2.5 years we recommend that the student start their own lessons, depending on the child and the possible separation anxiety between child and parent.

Before this age many children are too young to follow instructions while separated from a parent. We do highly recommend our Baby Pirates Program to familiarize your child with the water in these cases as well.

Parents are free to do what they like while the student is in the lesson. We do ask the parent to stay within the pool area during the lesson and to not disturb the instructor or student while in the water unless requested by the instructor. For ex: a potty break!!!

We usually split lesson time between 2 students however If the students are close in skill level, we can accommodate them in the same lesson.

If the student's skill levels are too far apart, we will have to continue splitting lesson time to ensure one on one quality lessons in order to provide faster results.

If a student is not able to make it to class for any reason, please give us a 24 hours notice and we can arrange a make-up lesson within the week. If you miss a class with less than a 24 hour notice, your account will be charged half the price for the lesson. If you miss a class with no notice, your account will be charged full price for the lesson. This is done in order to pay for our instructors time lost. Due to previous abuse of this policy it is non-negotiable, and appears in the current Pirate's Cove Student Contract

you can certainly make a request!! Lessons with specific instructors are based on their availability and can be requested at anytime.

Consistency is the key to success and we will always do our best to make sure that that we pair you with an instructor who's schedule and personality works for you. Simply include your preferred instructor in the notes section of the Lesson Request Form

On top of their verified minimum 2+ years of experience, we offer and require our instructors certifications from American Red Cross in Water Safety Training and Lifeguarding which covers CPR, AED, Emergency Oxygen, First Aid, and Water Emergency along with general lifeguard skill.

This is aside from our in house training covering other relevant private instructor items as well as ongoing communications and required yearly training to modernize our crew's teaching methods and update them on any swimming news.

We are committed to helping swimmers excel in their journey. We know that it will take between 6-10 lessons for the average person to learn. Therefore, we offer package deals between 6-8-10-16 lessons and the information can be found on our "pricing" page.

"Payments are made within 24 hours of lesson booking, not start date. This allows us to secure and schedule your trainer for your scheduled time slot.

in order to ensure our highly experienced instructors get paid accordingly, we accept payment through a few payment platforms such as Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, and Apple Cash.

We're so happy you're enjoying your lessons with your instructor.

First things first, confirm with your instructor on their availability for however many lessons you'd like moving forward.

Following this, the instructors will advise our office staff so we can forward a new invoice and payment can be made through the same payment portal you used before :)

If you're not sure how many lessons you'd like to add, it may be helpful to seek advice from your instructor on current progress and how many lessons it might take to reach your goals. Sometimes it take a little longer to absorb the lessons and movements and that's OK!! Everybody learns at their own pace, we are here to help facilitate your learning in a structured, but fun environment so speed up this learning curve.