The Aqua Centre Swimming School was started in 1992 with just 6 students at The New You Hydro Spa in Edenvale & was originally called Teacher Toni Swim school, this was the indoor facility that was used to teach children to learn to swim, as well as coach children. The Edenvale High School was the outdoor venue which The Aqua Centre Swimming School used for the bigger children. Antoinette Macaulay was the founding member of The Aqua Centre, and owned the school from 1992 until the end of 2017, when Justin Bertz together with his Partner Kirsten Hubbard, a past pupil of The Aqua Centre, took over the swim school. Kirsten swam with The Aqua Centre from January 1993– May 1998, where she moved to a long distance coach to further her swimming career which resulted in her many achievements. At the young age of 7 Kirsten came first in the girls under 10 category at the Germiston Lake 1200m “Big Swim” and by age 13 Kirsten ranked No3 overall for Girls 13/over Breast Stroke 100m Nationally in South Africa. The love for swimming did not stop there, Kirsten went on to achieve many top 3 finishes in a number of races before discovering lifesaving & promptly got her spot on Easterns provincial lifesaving team in February of 2000. If that wasn’t enough, Kirsten has completed 20 Midmar swims & 8 Midmar assists (assisting a disabled swimmer) among her achievements.

All praise to Antoinette Macaulay for sparking the swimming bug in Kirsten and laying down a fantastic foundation for her swimming career. Although Kirsten strayed away from swimming for a number of years, the passion for swimming was hard to ignore & so many years later in 2017 Kirsten got in touch with Antoinette Macaulay to get involved with swimming once again. As coincidence would have it, Antoinette had recently decided to part with her school & so it didn’t take much for Kirsten to decide to purchase her Legacy many years later.

Photography by Chris Phillips, In loving memory of our dear friend!