Aquabear Swim Club founder retires
Renowned Port Elizabeth coach Brian Elliot has called time on his illustrious career after almost five decades teaching people how to swim.
Elliot, 73, said his career had been filled with special moments, from teaching minors the basics of water safety and the various strokes involved, to rearing swimmers who had gone on to compete on the national and international stage.
Speaking to The Herald yesterday, Elliot felt proud of what he had achieved and the many people he had helped over the course of his career, and felt the time was right to call time on his career.
“Being involved in teaching people how to swim has brought me so much satisfaction. Through the Learn to Swim programme, teaching water safety to all individuals from babies right up to adults.
“Additionally, the coaching side has brought so much pride and joy to me, because I have many athletes who are at various levels and the success they have attained is something I am very proud of as well,” Elliot said. Elliot was also a competitor in his early years, taking part in various national championships between 1963 and 1971.
Added to this, Elliot also represented SA on two occasions in 1967 and again in 1969.
“I was born in Uitenhage and stayed there until I was about eight years old before moving to PE.
“In 1961, we built a 10-lane, 25m pool in our backyard, funnily enough in Water Road, Walmer.
“So my family was always involved in swimming, as my father did swim coaching while my mother taught people how to swim using the training pools we also had,” he said.
Having gained some experience learning and working alongside his father, Elliot said it was in 1972 when he started the now famous Aquabear Swim Club.
He said an arrangement was made that all the swimmers who trained under him would also move to the newly formed club.
“I just enjoyed swimming, and it has been part of my family’s life for such a long time.
“Having both parents so actively involved in the coaching and teaching aspects of swimming, it was always likely that I would follow in their footsteps when it came to swimming,” Elliot said.
Looking ahead, Elliot, the former president of the AquaBear Swim Club, said while the Aquabear brand would still belong to him, it would be run by newly elected president Moira Norden, a world renowned artistic swimming coach.
“We have a very strong artistic swimming group who will be running the club.
“The Khowa Swimming Academy will still run its Learn to Swim and other programmes aimed at developing a swimmer’s stroke, but the Aquabear Club will now focus its attention on artistic swimming as opposed to the normal short-course swimming,” he said.
He said another team, Bay Eagles Swim Team (Best), were renting the pools at Elliot Swimming Academy to conduct their training and urged his own Aquabear members to join them and train, as they look to prepare for future competitions.
“At the moment, we have only a few registered swimmers with Aquabear due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“All [Best] competitive swimmers are swimming at our pools, so I think it might be better for our swimmers to join up with them instead of being with Aquabear.
“This will give them a chance to get involved with more swimmers and swim relays, which would not be possible if we had to keep Aquabear going,” Elliot said.