Waterworks Swim School San Francisco

★Phil Chen

My son has been enrolled at Waterworks for over a year with weekly lessons and still hasn’t fully learned to swim — and the main reason is constant cancellations. Since December 2025, they have canceled 10 of his classes. For young kids, inconsistent instruction isn’t just inconvenient — it causes them to lose momentum and regress, because swimming requires routine, repetition, and confidence-building week after week. Not to mention, we plan our day expecting this class to happen and week in and week out we get a cancelation notice on the same day, completely messing up our schedule. It’s completely unacceptable to run a swim school with this level of inconsistency and no real accountability or effort to make it right. Families aren’t paying for “weekly” lessons that get canceled constantly.

★★★★★Brian Nelson

I just had the best experience with an instructor from the San Francisco Waterworks. Her name is Isabel and she is the best swim teacher I have ever met. My kids loved her. You can tell how much she loves her job. I was talking to her and she said she focuses on skill, technique and mostly just making swimming fun. My kids are a handful at times but Isabel clearly has a way with kids and they were perfect angels in the pool.

★★★★★Nives Skornik

We couldn’t be happier with our child’s progress thanks to Ms. Shaniya! She is incredibly patient, encouraging, and makes every lesson fun while still focusing on strong technique and safety. Our child has gained so much confidence in the water and is swimming better than we ever imagined in such a short time. Shaniya has a wonderful way of connecting with kids—she motivates them, celebrates their progress, and gently pushes them to do their best. We feel so lucky to have found her, and we highly recommend her to any parent looking for an amazing swim teacher!

★★★C Chuck

My initial experience was good when I was able to schedule my kids’ lessons with the same instructor. After numerous cancellations by Waterworks and the hassle of trying to schedule makeup sessions, I learned that my kids’ instructor was no longer there. So I scheduled with another instructor just to have my son’s last two Friday sessions cancelled again with less than a day’s notice each time. I can’t seem to get a consistent schedule with the same instructor due to all these cancellations and limited availability during after school hours.

★★★★★Rebecca Leon

I had put my son in Park and Rec group swim classes for 2-3 years, but my son never advanced because he was too afraid to put his head/face in the water. Semi-private lessons with swim teacher Tiffany changed all of that! Tiffany helped my son to feel safe in the pool, made learning swimming fun, gave constructive feedback that was encouraging, and was extremely patient with him. Tiffany uses all of the 20 minutes in the lesson wisely; she doesn't end the lesson 5 minutes early to give a parent update, which I feel is a waste of time and money. In a span of 2 years, my son has gone from not wanting to put his face in the water to knowing how to swim the freestyle, back stroke and breast stroke. He is currently learning the butterfly stroke. Tiffany is one of the more experienced instructors with Waterworks San Francisco, and she is really great working with children. My son is so lucky to have recurring weekly lessons with Tiffany -- she is absolutely the best!