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History of Aquabears

Aquabears was formed in 1989 by Dianne Gilchrist to provide better training for swimmers that wanted to swim in Victorian Championships.  Aquabears motto was originally 'Force From the North.'  However when swimmers started swimming in Australian Championships the motto was no longer relevant because North applied to the Northern Suburbs of Melbourne and not the North of Australia.  Dianne coached Victorian Age and Open champions, Australian Age and Open qualifiers and also Australian Age medalists.  Dianne decided to retire from coaching for various reasons after the 1994 Australian Age Championships.

A group of Aquabear swimmers decided to coach themselves until Andrew Gilchrist showed interest in coaching the club.  In August 1999 the numbers in the club were growing very fast.  This then forced Andrew to split the squad into two.  Andrew is head coach of the National squad which consists of Australian Age champions who hold Victorian and Australian records.  Former Aquabears swimmer David Chambers filled the coaching position of State Development squad.  This consists of State qualified swimmers up to Victorian champions who are striving towards National qualifying times.  David also coaches the Junior State Development squad.  This squad consists of swimmers who are much younger and show interest in becoming a State qualified swimmer.  Aquabears have only recently added a Fitness squad ( coached by Brian Miller ) to cater for those swimmers who do not wish to train more than three sessions a week.

Aquabears have been supported by the Aquastyle swim school who are the feeder Swim School to our club.  At present there are approximately 180 swimmers in the Aquastyle squads.  This has helped the club grow to 99 registrations this season.  As with numbers growing so has the clubs performance at major swim meets.  Aquabears has consistently ranked in the top ten at the Victorian Championships over the last three years and have increased their points every year at this meet and the Australian Championships.

With the rapid growth in numbers and talent, Aquabears are now striving to become a force from Victoria and further down the track a force form Australia.