About Carson Valley Swim Center

Outdoor pool at Carson Valley Swim Center

Our Mission Statement

Provided by a skilled staff, the Carson Valley Swim Center will deliver:

  1. A safe, customer-service-driven environment,
  2. Innovative programming that is responsive to the needs of our diverse community, and
  3. A clean and well-managed facility.

What Makes Us Great

In short – our community is what makes us great! Carson Valley Swim Center is a place for Douglas County, NV residents to gather, exercise, and celebrate. Our community pool has opportunities for everyone regardless of age and skill level.
Community pool at Carson Valley Swim Center

What Makes Us Great

The Carson Valley Swim Center is an integral part of the community that offers recreation, training, and entertainment to thousands in the Carson Valley each year. Through various programs, the Swim Center is closely linked to the county’s school district, the senior community, and its public safety departments.

Why Us

School & Community Groups

The Swim Center hosts and co-teaches two Douglas High School aquatics classes each semester with an average class size of twenty-five students. In the spring of each year, the Swim Center hires twenty-five to thirty students as lifeguards for the upcoming summer. With the combination of lifeguards and cashiers, the Swim Center is one of the largest teen employers in Douglas County. Not only are the Center’s lifeguards certified in shallow and deep water lifeguarding, but also have certifications for CPR, first aid, AED (automated external defibrillator), and the administration of oxygen. Many pursue careers as firefighters, paramedics, and nurses, and in law enforcement and the military.

Groups of kids attending school field trips and other organized events visit the Swim Center throughout the year and come from Northern Nevada elementary and middle schools, Douglas County’s Adventure Camp, Northern Nevada based Boys & Girls Clubs, and from privately owned daycare centers. Three rural schools from California bus students to our facility for group swim lessons and for water safety instruction.

The Swim just isn’t about swimming. It is also a safe place where youth hang out after-school completing homework and socializing until they are picked up by their guardians.

Training & Exercise

The Swim Center conducts or hosts many types of training and exercise programs throughout the year:

  • The Swim Center has over twenty lifeguards who provide swim lessons to kids. The lessons include teaching the fundamentals of aquatic skills to stroke improvement and refinement to skill proficiency, and the lessons are offered year-around. During this summer alone, approximately 400 kids received swim lessons.
  • Water aerobics classes are offered seven days a week year-around and are taught by six instructors trained to meet the participants’ health and fitness objectives through safe and effective water exercise. Class sizes vary from fifteen to fifty participants and the majority are seniors.
  • The Swim Center offers Adult Learn-to-Swim classes (ALTS) taught by a certified US Swimming Masters Instructor. The class targets adults at all swim levels from those having a fear of water, to those who want instruction with stroke refinement, and to those learning to swim for fitness.
  • Every summer a two-week Junior Lifeguard Program is held for kids between the ages eleven and fifteen. The course includes basic water safety, CPR and first-aid, and lifeguard training. Douglas County Search and Rescue provides instruction on rafting and boat safety, and representatives from the Sheriff’s Office and the East Fork Fire Department are guest speakers.
  • The Center has several instructors certified to instruct and certify others to become lifeguards. Several times a year the Swim Center conducts Lifeguard/CPR training to the public and annually provides Certified Pool Operator Training (CPO) to staff and the public. Most recently, the Swim Center’s instructors certified over twenty Douglas County School District coaches in CPR.
  • Douglas County Search and Rescue (SAR) facilitates “Safety Day” during the summer lesson program that educates students on how to avoid dangerous situations when in and around water, and the facility provides space for water skills training for SAR members.
  • The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office’s (DCSO) boat patrol officers use the facility for aquatics training.
  • Military personnel serving in the Marines, Army National Guard, and the Navy use the facility for water rescue training and for fitness.

Physical Therapy

Physical and occupational therapy offices such as the Great Basin PT & Performance Center, Rehab Wave, and from the Carson Valley Medical Center and the Carson Tahoe Hospital treat over seventy-five patients a month in the Swim Center’s 93-degree therapy pool. Because motion and exercise in water cause less stress and injury to backs, joints, and muscles, it is the first step in providing treatment to many of their patients with injuries and other physical limitations before treating them in the clinic. For other patients, water exercise is the only form available to them because of water activity’s low stress. The center also provides a water-walking lane during all open hours for those seeking rehabilitation or an alternative to lap swimming.

Swim Teams and Swim Meets

    The Swim Center hosts four swim teams:

  • The Douglas High School Swim and Dive Team has over seventy athletes that train at the Swim Center and that compete against multiple Northern Nevada teams over a three-month season. The girls have over eighty consecutive wins with five regional titles, and the boys have over seventy consecutive wins with four regional titles. In alternating years, the Swim Center has been chosen to host the State Dive Competition in Northern Nevada while a facility in Las Vegas hosts the competition in Southern Nevada in the off years.
  • The Douglas Dolfins Swim Team is a non-profit founded in 1964. The team has an average of eighty athletes that train year-around at the Swim Center. The Dolfins host three invitational meets a year bringing in over 250 swimmers with their families with each meet into our community from California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado that support our local businesses.
  • For two years, the Killer Whales Special Olympics Team has had over twenty athletes on the team practicing weekly and competing every spring against other Northern Nevada athletes.
  • US Masters Swimming members use the facility several times a week throughout the year with some training to compete and others for fitness.

Recognition:

  • Nevada Recreation and Parks Association’s Elmer H. Anderson Parks Excellence Award.
  • National Recreation and Parks Association’s Excellence in Aquatics Award.
  • The Swim Center was voted, by our community, the “Best Place to Take Your Kids” for 9 years in a row.
  • Recipient of the Loss Control Excellence Award presented by Pool Pact.

Did You Know

The Swim Center has approximately 147,000 user visits per year.
Approx. Usage StatisticsApprox. Visitor Demographics
74,000 Drop-In
36,000 Membership
29,000 Swim Team/Aquatics Class
7,700 Swim Lessons
35% Youth
28% Senior
24% Adult
13% Other

According to the American Red Cross, “52% of adults are considered unsafe around water.” Per the US
Master Swimming Adult Learn-to-Swim Program, “Ten people drown in the U.S. each day, most of them adults.” Annually, according to the Center for Disease Control,” 3,536 people in the United States died from drowning which equates to 10 deaths each day and drowning is the number one cause of unintentional death for children between the ages of 1 and 4.” Also, “75% of drowning deaths of children younger than 15 occurred at a swimming pool located at a private residence.”

CVSC News

CVSC Adds Copper To Fight Germs!

The Carson Valley has partnered with Brad Hollander and the germ-fighting power of copper! Hollander has installed copper film on the door handles of the Carson Valley Swim Center to combat germs. He is also offering his services to others in the community. Check out the links below for the full story!

Voted #1 

The Carson Valley Swim Center has been voted the best place to take your kids. This is exciting news because The Swim Center was voted the “Best Place to Take Your Kids” for the years 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 in the Record-Courier’s annual Best of Carson Valley survey. That is 7 years in a row!

Thank you for helping us make this the best place to take your kids! We couldn’t have done it without you.

Swim Center Hosts
Junior Lifeguard Classes

The Carson Valley Swim Center Junior Lifeguard program will be launching its eight-day session starting Monday. As a participant, you will receive an introduction to the lifeguarding profession and the skills needed to eventually become a lifeguard and save lives. These skills include responding to emergencies, treating minor and major first aid; and certification in Adult, Child, and Infant CPR. From back boarding a spinal victim to rescuing a swimmer in distress, by the end of the course your water rescues will be at top standards. To cap off the training we will have water rescue relays and even an inner tube relay.

Parade Winners

The Carson Valley Swim Center won the award for best non-commercial entry at the Carson Valley Day Parade 2023!

Congratulations and thank you to everyone who made this possible!

Why Shower Before Swimming?

1. Showering removes organics. (Organics are: sweat, makeup, fecal matter, urine, deodorant, perfume, soap, shampoo, etc.)

2. It reduces chloramine smell. (The smell is created when chlorine is used up when getting rid of the organics)

3) Safer swimming environment. (It reduces the risk of waterborne diseases)

4) Less chemical use. (Less chlorine and muriatic acid used in our pools leading to a reduction in cost for chemicals)

NAC 444.280 Bathers: Requirements; prohibitions.

1) All bathers at a public bathing or swimming facility shall take a cleansing shower using warm water and soap and shall thoroughly rinse off all soup suds before entering or reentering the pool enclosure.

Impact Report

Download our impact report here!

Learn more about events you can get involved with.

For more information visit our pool info and resources page or call the office at 775-782-8840!