Winter Swim 2025/26 Start of Season Information!

Greetings Winter Swim Families!

A few reminders and things to communicate before the start of Winter Season begins Monday, November 17th!  The season will end on Feb 13th.  The Feb 9 - Feb 13 schedule will be finalized in the next couple of weeks, however, the bulk of the season's schedule is provided on the gowaves.com website under Practices>Winter Swim 25/26, and below in this email, with an adjustment for the first week due to Redwood boys' Water Polo.

Program Dates:  November 17 - February 13th

Facilities:

• Tidalwaves Winter Swim program is run at Redwood High School.  
• Parents are NOT ALLOWED on the deck of the Redwood High School pool during practice.  The deck space is too cramped for parents and swimmers, so we only allow the swimmers.  This is for safety reasons as well as to ensure the swimmers can focus on their coaches and teammates while practicing.  Thank you for understanding this is a Tidalwaves Board policy. 
• While viewing from outside the fence is not great, it is fine and with winter weather, most parents prefer to hang out in their cars or briskly walk during the practice time to stay warm!
• To find the pool, park in the FREE solar lot on Doherty.  Walk between the main gym and the small gym and take a left after the small gym.  You can't miss it!
• A note on the parking lot:  While we love that it is free, it is a high school student lot with plenty of new drivers.  Our practices generally start at least 20 minutes after school gets out to allow time for the students to get out of the lot before we enter, however, for those bringing young swimmers to the earliest practices...be mindful of where you are.
• While there are bathrooms on the deck of the pool, these are small high school bathrooms.  Swimmers are best off coming to practice in their suit and leaving in their suit.  There are two showers on the deck, but these should be used only for quick rinses, if needed.

What to Bring:

• We hope everyone has had a chance to buy their fins.  Here is the link for the type that are required.  I know most people buy from Amazon...for some reason Amazon lists the smaller sizes as a separate product...they do carry all sizes, they are just separated for reasons I don't understand.  For returning families that have old fins that don't fit anymore, we'd love the donations.  We do have some fins available for swimmers to borrow if they don't have theirs yet.  Coaches will pull them out so they are accessible to swimmers, but swimmers should ask the coaches about them if they don't have any.
• Caps if swimmers want to wear one.  For kids with long hair not wearing caps, please have it tied back.  We want them to breathe air, not hair.
• Suit.  Anything that stays on is fine...but racing suit 'speedo' styles are prefered.
• Goggles.  Whatever fits your swimmer's face, however, we recommend staying away from the large masks...they don't lend themselves to racing.
• For people interested in buying a Tidalwaves team parka, please check with T&B Sports (4th Street, San Rafael).  They often have a few in stock this time of year, although generally they only stock up for our Spring Season.  

What Happens When Swimmers Arrive:

• Swimmers can bring their towel, parka or sweats, fins, and any other stuff into the pool area.  Cubbies are there and although often shielded by pool covers, there should be space for them to put their things while they are swimming.  If not there, on the bleachers is also o.k..
• Coaches ask that swimmers come into the pool area with their caps on (if wearing one) and take their fins and goggles with them to sit on the bleachers while they wait for their practice to get started.
• Coaches do take attendance at practice and it can take a few practices before coaches know all swimmers.  We do believe coach Marie has the best memory for names and faces (even wet ones) in the history of the world and know that everyone who is new will be as amazed as the rest of us at how quickly she knows her swimmers!  All other coaches get the names down in regular human time frames.

Scheduling Information:

• We do swim in the rain!  However, with storms gaining in severity with climate change, we may need to cancel in the event of atmospheric rivers and/or bomb cyclones (the key safety concern under consideration is if coaches can see the bottom of the pool).  We generally wait to see the storm before canceling as storms don't always follow the weatherpeople's predictions.  Please stay tuned for email updates.
• NOW FOR THE SCHEDULE!  The Redwood High School Boys' Water Polo Team is on a Winning Streak!  After their 1st place finish in MCALs, they went on to sweep the NCS Division 1 tournament which earned them a spot in the CIF NorCal Tournament.  We wish them the best of luck, and yes, Tidalwaves has trained many, many of Redwood High School's water polo players!  Therefore, the schedule for the 1st Week of Practice, will start Monday. If it turns out Redwood is hosting on Tuesday, we will cancel practice for Tuesday, but that has not yet been communicated as the tournament brackets are still being created.
• I have included a tentative Wednesday schedule for if the boys win on Tuesday, but in the event they don't win, we will go to our regular schedule which is provided further down.  As the week unfolds, I will provide schedule updates.  Please follow your emails!
• Winter Swim runs over the holidays.  Below are the holiday, NO SWIM days due to the facility being closed:

No Swim Days:

There will be no practices on the following dates:

• November 26 - 29 (Thanksgiving break)
• December 22 - January 4 (Winter holidays)
• January 19 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day)
• January 29 (Redwood Open House)

MONDAY, November 17th Schedule

TUESDAY, November 18th PRACTICE Depends if Redwood Water Polo Hosts the tournament game.  Stay Tuned.  Will let you know as soon as Redwood lets me know.  Possibility we will need to cancel.

WEDNESDAY, November 19th Schedule (Only if Boys WIN on Tuesday...I will email on Wednesday)

Thursday, November 20th...If away game we will use our regular Thursday practice Schedule outlined below.

If home game, we will need to cancel practice.  Thursday's schedule will be announced after we know results of Tuesday.

Regular Winter Swim Schedule

Swimmers may come to as many or as few practices within their group as they would like.  The different rows under each group are there because our pool time is dependent on the high school dismissal time each day of the week.