Our Mission

Our mission is to make safe and comfortable swimmers by creating a fun and playful environment immersed in physical and emotional stimulation to allow children to have comfort and trust in and around the water.

Safety in and around the water is everyone’s goal. We work towards safety by ensuring children have a calm, gentle and fun swim experience.

Our Instructors

Our instructors are lifeguard certified and certified pool & spa operators. This equips our instructors with the skills to not only respond to an emergency but also the knowledge on preventing them. Our instructors teach the progressions of swim using the 5 foundations of swimming which allow our students to thrive while giving them a fun and safe experience. It is all about the journey at Viva Swim Academy!

The Owners and their journey

We begin our story with our Co-founder Sabrina Pena. Viva Swim Academy’s passion started with Co-founder Sabrina in high school when she began working as a lifeguard at a large waterpark. Sabrina became a lifeguard instructor and a supervisor for over 300 lifeguards. After many rescues, she understood that for swimming to be fun in the sun, safe swimming is extremely important and preventing emergencies can be fun and responding to one is not. After years of seasonal lifeguarding, Sabrina knew that aquatics would always be her passion. Mrs. Sabrina found year round swim lessons and knew this was it, creating a safe water environment was and is her dream Career. After understanding the fundamentals of water safety she began her journey as a swim instructor further increasing water safety, teaching babies and children of all ages, not only how to swim but the importance of maintaining safety in and around the water. In just a short time Sabrina was promoted to Deck Manager and Baby swim instructor. This lead her and Co-founder Rafael Pena to create Viva Swim Academy. Co-founder Rafael handles all business and office work. Sabrina is the instructor and swim curriculum coordinator. They created Viva Swim Academy to further Mrs. Sabrina's journey, increasing water safety starting in Stanley county, NC and the surrounding area! Our journey with Viva Swim Academy has just begun!