OUR TEAM
MEET OUR COACHES
Director of Coaching & Pukaki Coach
HUIA MIKARA
A nationally experienced and accredited coach with more than 30 years experience, Huia established the Waitaha Aquatic Centre, Canterbury Swim School and Waitaha Swim Club alongside Jenny Jones in 2013.
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Huia has taught and coached swimmers from Learn to Swim right through to Open National and International Level competitors, and has been committed to swimming and assisting youth in the community for many years.
In 2015 Huia and Jenny were presented Service Awards by Swimming New Zealand in recognition of their outstanding contribution over many years to swimming.
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Huia currently coaches the Aoraki squad
Head Coach & Aoraki Coach
PATRICK LANGLEY
Patrick is a highly skilled swim coach with advanced training in swimming and sports leadership. He is excited to be guiding the swimmers to excel personally and competitively with a strong skill base.
Patrick will be a valuable asset to the Waitaha Swim Club. Patrick brings with him the experience of having competed with distinction at National Level, a range of valuable skills he has been taught and retained from his former coach, "Master Coach Frank Tourelle". Frank is a highly respected gold licence coach who has put a number of swimmers onto NZ teams.
Patrick’s own swimming journey took him to National Age Groups Division 1 at the age of 13 through to 18, placing in the top 10 throughout the years. Patrick also swam for the Wellington All Stars Zonal team in the Auckland invitational championships, and attended the Queensland state championships in 2015.
Notable achievements include gold medals at the Wellington Long Course and Short course Championships, including winning the 50m Freestyle against swimmers such as Lewis Clareburt.
Patrick started coaching at Canterbury Swim School in 2018 when he moved to Christchurch from Wellington. He then focussed on coaching swimming as he studied throughout the years.
Waitaki & Te Waihora (presquad) Coach.
MATTHEW HURLEY
Matthew's been been teaching since 2009, and coaching competitive swimmers since 2016.
He was 8 when he started swimming competitively under Huia's coaching, until a shoulder injury at 14 got the better of him. Matthew said that while he represented the Canterbury West Coast region at the old South Island Champs, hands down the best part of swimming were the swim camps (and we still have them every summer!)
When Matthew's not poolside he's a maths/science enthusiast who also loves skiing & snowboarding, mountain biking, gaming, and woodworking.
Waiau Coach
CARL PETERSON
We’re super fortunate to have Dr Carl Petersen, Strength and Conditioning Coach and Applied Sport Scientist at the University of Canterbury here with us and taking some of our swim school groups as well as Waitaha Swim Club squads.
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Carl lectures in Sports Nutrition as well as Strength and Conditioning and is currently supervising PhD students with a research interest in enhancing physical performance, and personally undertakes applied swimming research investigating potential performance enhancement strategies.
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Carl is running the dryland training for the squads and is applying his research with his developed and coaching of the "Lightning Sprint" and the "Dolphin Distance" swimming programmes and is also teaching some of our swim school students, often using advanced technology with headsets and various swimming aids. Not only is this a fantastic opportunity for our swim school students, but Carl is also a great resource for our teachers and coaches with whom he willingly shares his ideas!
Hauora Coach
RICHARD PEARSON
We're really pleased to have Richard Pearson recently join our swim school team!
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Richard is a Bronze-accredited coach with a wealth of coaching and swimming experience. Richard was a former competitive swimmer himself for 10 years, and until his recent move down here to the mainland, Richard was head coach for the Bay of Islands Swim Club, coaching swimmers to the NZ Junior Festival, NZ Div IIs, and NZ National Age Groups.
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Richard’s approach to coaching is one where he strives to instill technique, drive motivation, and create a positive culture, and believes these are the foundations of success. Technical excellence, he says, takes time, patience, and constant practice.
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Richard is part of the SNZ Coach TED mentorship program under the guidance of SNZ and Wayne Goldsmith, was part of the Northland Te Tai Tokerau High-Performance Coaching Programme, and has a degree in Biology part of which includes physiology, metabolism, and anatomy.
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At Canterbury Swim School we have an absolutely fantastic team of coaches and teachers - it's really exciting for us to be able to provide our swim school students and the swim club with such a wealth of depth and experience!