Oaklantis

My middle schooler has been swimming with Oaklantis for six years now - went through the swim school and is now on the competitive team - and we are huge fans of the program and the community. Oaklantis has two different team levels; Mavericks is the competitive side where swimmers are practice 3-6 days a week (depending on level) and compete in meets year round and Marauders is the rec side where swimmers practice fewer days and for less time and only do meets in the summer. In general, our experience with Oaklantis has been that it is an intense as the swimmer wants to make it. Kids at all levels definitely take breaks for vacations - and also sometimes for other sports seasons or just life.

We absolutely love the Oaklantis community. We are a deliberately and intentionally inclusive and supportive group. At meets, swimmers and parents make a point to try and cheer for every Oaklantis swimmer in every race, not just our own kids or friends. Our coaches genuinely care about the kids as people as much as they care about their fastest times. As an organization we do everything we can to reduce financial barriers to being on the team by providing a lot of financial aid. But we are also very scrappy and things can feel disorganized and we are still recovering and rebuilding from being completely shut down for a long time during COVID. Communication is not always great (including our website is very out of date) and there has been a lot of change in the last 6 months (practice locations, coaches, swimmers, etc.). There is a relatively newly formed group of parent volunteers working really hard to help our head coach and team leadership get better systems and supports in place so we are a better run organization. And through it all our swimmers keep doing well in the pool.

Being the parent of a competitive swimmer is a big time commitment - and requires a ton of flexibility. Pool time is very hard to come by, especially in the inner East Bay, and most teams are scrambling for pool space - and taking the time slots they can get. (I've heard that Armada has better access to pool space - but it's a relatively small pool so they compensate by limiting the # of kids on the team.) Practice times and locations tend to change every few months - and with very little notice - because our coaches are getting new schedules from the pools we use (often with little notice). Some months that means racing to get from school to a 4:00 practice - and some months it means eating a very late dinner after a practice that ends at 7:30. And that doesn't even include the weekend meets with 6:30am start dates that are two hours away! I work from home for an organization that gives me a lot of flexibility so I am able to accommodate the random and ever changing practice times, but I do that by working on my laptop from my car or the pool deck several days a week while my kid is in the water.  There's some carpooling to practices; we are definitely a community that is supportive in that way, but our swimmers come from all over Oakland and beyond to practice so honestly it is going to be hit or miss.

If you can figure out the logistics for your family, Oaklantis is a fabulous team and community - and we always welcome new swimmers.

Oaklantis just emailed with new spots! We are so impressed with the teaching there. 

I would highly recommend Oaklantis Swimming http://oaklantis.squarespace.com/