Benoit (Ben) Lavigne is a Wellington swim coach. Through his company, Outpace Swimming, he offers private coaching, swim squads, video analysis, clinics, open water training, and swim camps. Ben is also the Head Coach at Tawa Swim Club and was selected as a coach for Swimming New Zealand's Under 19 Team at the 2026 Tri Series in Western Australia.

In this episode, Ben talks about his coaching method, offers technique advice, and shares his own swim journey – from a small child in France who was terrified of the water, to becoming a national-level swimmer and then a coach.

Ben has continued to learn, adapt, and innovate over his decades-long coaching career. His enjoyment and fascination with swimming remains strong, he is a caring and dedicated coach, and is a valued part of Wellington’s swim community.

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What: Ignite Freshwater Swim Fest

Where: Lake Pupuke / Pupukemoana, Auckland

When: February 13–14, 2027

Scott Rice is back on Swim Chats this month to talk about a brand-new swim event coming next summer: the Ignite Freshwater Swim Fest! It will be a fun weekend for the whole family in February, offering a range of swim distances to suit all abilities (250m to 10km), live music, food stalls, the first NZ Doggy Swim Champs (a 100m swim with your pawsome pal), a 4x500m relay, three national swim championships, and much more.

The event's charity partner is Live Ocean and the swim 'ambassadors' who will be attending include gold medallist Lewis Clareburt, ultramarathon swimmer Jono Ridler, Auramove's Laura Quilter, TVNZ's Wendy Petrie, and former All Black Ian Jones.

Scott is passionate about running safe, inclusive, and feel-good events that, as he puts it, are a "celebration of swimming". He founded the NZ Ocean Swim Series, and now runs the Z Manu World Champs and Ocean Swim Fiji.

Learn more about the swim festival and get your earlybird entries via the Ignite Freshwater Swim Fest website.

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When Wellington’s school pools began disappearing, Steve Hind decided to do something about it. The result was the Aquadome⁠ a thriving community swimming facility that opened in 2018.

In 2009, Steve noticed a decline in the number of school pools in the region. Both of his daughters attended Wellington East Girls’ College and there was an unused pool on the grounds. The council pools were busy at peak times, so Steve and Gary Hurring, a former NZ swim champion, decided to restore the college pool.

As Steve explains: “It felt like everything just came together. It became obvious to us that we should get it heated, get it covered – at the time it was just a hole in the ground. We set off with very naive ideas of the cost … we pitched it to the school originally as $200,000 but in the end it was over $1.5 million.”

The restored, indoor Aquadome opened in 2018 with a warm-water training pool and a 25m heated lap pool with six lanes, as well as new changing rooms and showers. The Wellington Swim Trust oversees the pool to keep it running and it's used by several primary schools, local colleges, and community groups.

In this episode Steve explains what compelled him and Gary to take on this massive project, how they raised the money (there was an unexpected donation of UHT milk), how the Trust keeps the pool running, and why it’s so important for kids to have accessible spaces to learn to swim and train for events.

Steve’s daughter Tash was a double Olympian and Commonwealth Games medallist, while his daughter Georgia has represented NZ in open water swimming and surf lifesaving – both have worked as swim coaches at the Aquadome.

Visit the Swim Trust website for more information about the Aquadome.

Photo: The Aquadome indoor swimming pool in Wellington (Steve Hind)

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