
The innovative curriculum of Starfish Aquatics Institute’s swimming and rescue courses isn’t new. What is new is adapting those courses for new international locales in 2013 in a partnership with the Professional Association of Diving Instructors’ swim schools.
To date, Savannah, Ga.-based Starfish has completed programs in Dubai, the Maldives and the Netherlands.
In the Maldives, most pools are in resort hotels, so “very little of the local population can swim,” White says.
Because Starfish couldn’t teach its programs at the resort pools, the instructor training program was adapted and taught in the Indian Ocean.
In Dubai, because of the Muslim culture, lessons had to be taught in separate locations and times for the different sexes.