Chris Shapland

Karen Fowke, a professional swimming teacher for over a decade and a half and a Shapland Swim School franchisee at the Taigum Swim School, was horrified to find out that over 350,000 Asian children drown each year so she decided to make this holiday a productive one. Karen is very excited about her trip to East Timor where for two weeks she will give of her time and talents as a swimming instructor.

Congratulations Blake Cochrane on winning the Men’s 100m Breastroke – SB7 at the Paralympic games in London. Not only did Blake win the gold he also broke his own world record. I first met Blake in the late 1990’s when his father bought Blake to the original Shapland Swim School at Clontarf to learn how to swim.

Not only did Brendan Hall win the final of the mens 400m freestyle S9 and break the world record; he did it convincingly. Brendan swam a well judged race. His early pace avoided any excess build up of lactic acid so he was able to power home in the later stages of the race.

On the 31st of August 1992, the Shapland Swim School at 50 Goodfellows Road Kallangur opened for business. With a very young family and a large financial commitment, John and Sally, in what was an act of faith that Hilton and myself could duplicate the Clontarf model at Kallangur, committed to opening the first-ever Shapland franchise. So it was all hands to the pumps with John taking on at least six hours a day in the pool and running the plant and Sally concentrating on raising four small children, running the office and also teaching.

Since the Shapland Swim School at Sinnamon Park opened in January 2000 Pamela has kept an accurate record of the reported aquatic accidents children have had. They include situations where they fell into a body of water and the children used the skills they learned at the swim school to not panic, and automatically turn around and grab the side of the pool/river bank/rock wall and hold on till help came. Each child is given a Hero Certificate to record the event.

The Shapland Story starts in Toowoomba in the late 1930’s when Thomas Shapland was teaching swimming on a voluntary basis at the Toowoomba Municipal Baths. Thomas formed the Saturday Morning Club in order to introduce the children and youth of the town to the joys of being able to swim. Thomas was a strong swimmer and started out in life as a mariner.

Chris, who turned 56 in 2003 is a living example of how being able to swim is a life long life saving skill when he won the Australian men’s 55-59 rescue tube at the 2003 Australian Surf Titles at Kurrawa beach.