Adults master fear of water in swim classes

Sometimes swim lessons start in the parking lot.

If you're an adult. And if you've had decades to develop a fear of water.

AquaSafe Swim School in Scottsdale began offering swim classes for adults two years ago, after Marc Penterman became general manager. The classes are every Saturday.

"In Scottsdale, we had a large population of people coming from other countries where people don't generally learn to swim, and they were bringing their kids in to learn. They wanted to get in the water with their kids and have fun, too," Penterman said.

The difference between teaching adults and children, he said, is adults learn the mechanics of swimming faster, but their fear runs deeper.

"It's been compounded over years," Penterman said.

That was why he started his first swim lesson with a 72-year-old woman in the parking lot just talking. The second swim lesson was inside the building, but not in the pool.

Anna Spetsieris, 31, of Fountain Hills, can relate. Her first lesson involved talking and reassurance that nothing bad would happen. A decade earlier, she was thrown into deep water by friends who thought she could learn to swim that way. She almost drowned.

"It took me 10 years after that to say yes to swim lessons," Spetsieris said. "Every year my husband would ask 'You ready?' I just wasn't mentally ready to overcome the fear."

Growing up in Poland, no one really learned to swim. Her husband researched swim lessons, but many Northeast Valley swim schools only offered lessons where adults learn next to children and that, she said, seemed embarrassing.

Scottsdale Arts & Recreation offers several adult swim classes, but many are on weekdays when Spetsieris is working. Private lessons are offered through Scottsdale area swim schools such as Kim Courtney's Swim School.

It can take adults anywhere from three weeks to three months to learn to swim, Penterman said.

After four lessons, Spetsieris can float, blow bubbles and do a bit of freestyle swimming.

After she masters swimming, she plans to become certified to scuba dive.

"I can be in the water where it's blue and warm, instead of sitting on the edge of a boat or a pool," she said.

Nibedita Das, 41, of Scottsdale, had a less-ambitious goal.

"I want to be able to get in the pool and play with (my son)," Das said.

Her son is 7 and takes swim lessons at AquaSafe.

Das grew up in a small city in India far from any water. She came to the U.S. about nine years ago and moved to Scottsdale 2 1/2 years ago. After four lessons, she could swim. She's still perfecting her strokes.

"I like the environment. My son comes to the adult classes and plays nearby. And it's kind of 'me time,' " Das said.

For Tara Iyengar, 33, of Scottsdale, it was fear that finally coaxed her into swimming lessons.

Fear that she would find herself in a situation where she might need to help her 3-year-old daughter out of water. Her daughter is taking swim lessons, and the family has a pool.

Iyengar feared she might find herself in deep water and helpless. Recently in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, she was on a boat in choppy water.

"I hade a life jacket on, but I was thinking, 'I'm going to end up in the water and not be able to do anything.' There's always that fear when you're around the water and you can't swim," she said.

Iyengar took swim lessons as a child growing up in the United Kingdom, Africa and other spots on the globe but because of illness or "faking it," she never really learned how.