About us

Founder’s Story

Rick Kiddle is a former British triathlon champion and upon retiring from the sport he managed one of the biggest open water swimming venues in England. At the time, the way of managing swimmers and venues were stagnate, traditional, and inefficient (by today’s standard anyway). It was also inadequate for running a venue safely. Administrative tasks and costs were huge obstacles to a venue’s success. It was these frustrations that lead Rick to develop NOWCA and it’s integrated systems designed to make people safer, reduce administration and put money back in the pockets of swimming venues which ultimately enables more people to swim, more often, and more safely.

One of Rick’s true passions is getting the best out of people through coaching as well as educating people on open water safety. This led him to develop the very first Open Water Swimming qualification – the STA Level 2 Open Water Swimming Coaching. With the support of the STA, the course became part of the national framework and still runs to this day, helping hundreds of people convert their open water swimming passion into a long term career.

It’s been a long and arguous road, but Rick perservered with NOWCA and it is now the UK’s largest network of safe open water venues. Now that NOWCA is established, Rick wants to increase its impact on the sport and the community by being a spokesperson for the large network of venues that use our systems, to engage with our 45,000+ members and to help private business and governments create new open water swimming communities across the country.

TEAM WORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK

Rick is supported by a core team of passionate people who share the companies mission to open up more water, for more people, more safely. Each of our team members share a core passion for health & fitness and are of course open water swimmers! Due to the reach of NOWCA these days, people often think we are a large corporation with hundreds of minions keeping things moving…. but in reality, our success comes from a very small team who want to make a positive contribution to open water swimming. Our team work hard to ensure we can keep costs down, our technology relevant and build community initiatives that advocate safety, promotes confidence in open water, and create opportunity for the gathering of like-minded people.

WANT TO JOIN US?

Volunteer

Get in touch if you are also an open water lover and want to be part of our volunteers team.

Ambassador & Content Creators

If you’d like to become a NOWCA ambassador or content creator, please click here to apply.

WHAT WE DO

NOWCA is committed to working with private owners, organisations and local authorities to enable more open water,
for more people, more safely. We do this by supporting swimming communities nationwide through the use of unique technology
specifically tailored for the needs of open water swimmers and venue operators.

Our venue network comprises of independent operators that use our safety system to manage swimmers during sessions.
But we are more than our systems. We offer guidance and support to enable venues to build swimming communities.

As we are not a governing body, our mission is not constrained by bureacracy or politics and remains agile to represent our members, our venues and the community at large.

As NOWCA grows we hope that we can build a bigger team, and offer more careers for more people within the sport, to give back to the community and to support the entrepreneurs who run venues, and by raising the bar for safety in swimming.

We aim to….

Continually invest in existing and new technologies that create opportunities to bring swimmers together.
Offer our software for free to those who wish to use it.
To expand the support system by training future coaches so they too can pay it forward.
Give back to the community through a wide range of initiatives and charity support.

Continue to reinvest large portions of our membership fee directly back to venues, to enable them to further support their swimming communities by staying open all year round and keeping swim costs low without compromising on safety.
Develop programmes and initiatives that create positive returns for the community such as adaptive swimming programmes, supporting underprivileged communities, and to encourage health & fitness through our nationwide initiative of NOWCA Swim – the ParkRun for swimmers!

NOWCA: THE FACTS

SAFETY IS OUR TOP PRIORITY.
Always has been. Always will be.

NOWCA was founded upon the need for a better and safer way to manage open water swimming at venues. Safety is the key driving force behind everything we do and continue to do and this is realised in 4 core forms:

NOWCA has a range of systems that are fully integrated to deliver a 360° management and safety solution for open water swimming. Developed over the past decade, our systems are free to use and have been tailored for venue managers and swimmers.

One of the unique benefits of NOWCA membership is the insurance protection. All NOWCA members are covered for personal accident & injury for approved swims, activities and events. This protection includes the commute to and from the venue.

Education is a key tool for water safety in general. At NOWCA, we offer a range of courses for swimmers as well as professionals, such as coaches and lifeguards. Some of our most popular online and in-person courses are:

Seasonal programmes that are FREE and promote swimmer safety and community spirit:

Summer: NOWCA Swim

Inspired by the ParkRun concept, this programme encourages health & fitness through open water swimming. It offers a 30 minute swim around a 400m course in one of 3 waves – Chill, Challenge or Sprint.

Winter: Sub10 Club

This initiative removes the ‘challenge’ aspect and focuses on educating swimmers about the effects of cold water and how to manage each swim safely.

Supporting safety for the WHOLE open
water community.

Our goal is to build tools that can support swimmer safety, whether at a managed venue or in the wild. Here’s 3 of
the key ways we deliver benefits for our members and partners: