ABOUT WRASA
WRASA is the best way to enjoy your Summer.
We are family-friendly and fitness-focused. Our athletes train hard all day and sleep well at night. As they become goal-oriented and learn that success comes with working hard, our swimmers tend to be good students and great members of the community.
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We think we have a pretty good thing going. For 100 years, WRASA has been a volunteer-run, non-profit community swim club. We keep our fees low so our programs are accessible to everyone in our community.
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Most of our coaches are former WRASA swimmers. Many of them have won gold at BC Provincials and some of them have even broken Provincial records. Our older swimmers gain valuable leadership and management experience as coaches in training through our Senior Leaders program. Many go on to varsity swimming and lifeguarding.
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We focus on building endurance, strength and power through a balance of dryland training and workouts in the pool. We give swimmers technical training in all four stokes and develop racing skill through starts, turns and finishes. Programs begin at age five and continue through varsity and masters swimming.
CLUB BEGINNINGS
Since 1919, in the water and on the podium.
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During cool summer mornings on White Rock beach, a small group of swimmers showed up in old fashioned swimming costumes and swam out to a collection of floating wooden decks which framed bottomless pools for swimming and diving. The tanks, as they were known, were the site of lessons, practices and spirited competition among the first members of the White Rock Amateur Swimming Association. The year was 1919.
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In those days, White Rock was still a remote retreat from the City and it was common for tourists to take the train from Vancouver and stay a few days in the big hotels. In the evenings there were dances on the pier and families rented small cottages or built their own. For a few years, the Vancouver Sun even offered plots of land with an annual newspaper subscription. For these first 50 years, WRASA attracted between 700 and 1000 members annually its program of competitive swimming, diving, water polo, synchronized swimming and swimming lessons for all ages.
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The city grew and on September 18, 1950, WRASA was incorporated under the Societies Act of British Columbia. By 1973, WRASA left the beach-front for its newly completed home at Sunnyside Pool. Surrey Parks and Recreation took the club's lesson program and WRASA refined its focus on training competitive summer swimmers. Through its second 50 years, WRASA honed its competitive edge and came to be known as a formidable force among swim clubs throughout the Lower Mainland.
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Summer swimming provides great friendships and personal development amid social and athletic development. This year, the WRASA is over 140 enthusiastic swimmers of all ages, from under six year old and semi-competitive teens to several provincial record setters, varsity swimmers and national team members. WRASA swimmers had a hugely succesful year in regular meets and at the Fraser South Regional Championships. At the Provincial Championships, WRASA swimmers led the Fraser South to a first place regional finish and WRASA achieved the highest club score in the province.
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For some, it's the medals and ribbons, for others it's the fun of meets and outdoor swimming. But for all, every WRASA summer is filled with glittering memories of great times by the pool, inspiring coaches and great friendships.
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Club Archives
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WRASA history featured in Peace Arch News
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Photographs from Early Days of WRASA
Summer Days in White Rock
Click image to play footage of the early days of WRASA tanks at White Rock beach; the club's annual swimming competitions included the Semiahmoo Cup competition against CBSC.
Semiahmoo Cup 1959
A close finish in the boys' freestyle races in the WRASA tanks at White Rock pier - WRASA appears to be winning...
WRASA vs. CBSC
The WRASA and CBSC girls battle for gold in the annual Semiahmoo Cup, a fierce inter-club rivalry that started between the two clubs in 1923 and raged on for decades.
Diving practice on the beach 1964
Diving practice in the old WRASA Diving Tanks at the end of the pier at White Rock Beach - photo taken in 1964
Olympic diving at WRASA
Canada's Olympian diver, Irene MacDonald [winner of the won bronze 1954 Commonwealth Games and bronze at silver 1958] gives WRASA a world-class diving demonstration July 19, 1964