Children in New Zealand, Australia and Canada will relay one continuous WaterWarrior Wave across three nations on Saturday 25 July.
At 10am on Saturday 25 July, swim schools across Australia will pause their lessons for sixty seconds. A WaterWarrior Wave will roll across each pool, children and instructors together, ending in one giant splash on the cry of “turn the tide!” And because every school waves at 10am local time, the wave keeps moving: starting in New Zealand, crossing Australia east to west, then handing over to Canada, where it rolls from Newfoundland to British Columbia. Nineteen hours, three nations, one unbroken wave.
The WaterWarrior Wave is run by the Australian Swim Schools Association (ASSA) and the Canadian Swim Schools Alliance (CSSA), with participating schools in New Zealand. It takes its name from S.A.F.E.R. WaterWarriors, powered by Rheem Pool Heating, the characters who front the associations’ water safety education. For one minute the wave brings hundreds of independent swim schools, many of them local competitors, together as a single voice. That is the swim school sector’s answer to the WHO’s 2026 World Drowning Prevention Day theme: Unite to Turn the Tide.
Every lesson taught in those pools is drowning prevention at its most practical. People learning to float, to breathe, to reach the edge. Drowning claims more than 300,000 lives worldwide every year, and swim schools work at that number every day of the week, lesson by lesson. The wave gives that work visibility.
“SwimSchoolers teach swimming and water safety all day, every day, across the world!”
said Luke Daly, Chief Executive Officer of ASSA, who also leads CSSA.
“On the 25th you’ll see them do it together. Swim Schools will pass the same wave around the world on Saturday. That’s what uniting to turn the tide looks like.”
The campaign asks nothing of families beyond what they already do: turn up to swimming lessons. Schools film their sixty-second wave in a single take and share it with the hashtag #WaterWarriorWave, a rolling record of the wave as it crosses the planet.
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About the campaign partners
The Australian Swim Schools Association (ASSA) is the peak industry body for swim schools in Australia, representing member schools that deliver learn-to-swim and water safety education to children and families nationwide.
The Canadian Swim Schools Alliance (CSSA) connects and supports swim schools across Canada, championing learn-to-swim as the foundation of drowning prevention.
World Drowning Prevention Day, established by the United Nations General Assembly and led by the World Health Organization (WHO), read more here, is observed annually on 25 July. The 2026 theme is Unite to Turn the Tide.
S.A.F.E.R. WaterWarriors, powered by Rheem, is the associations’ water safety education program for children, and gives the wave its name and its characters. Meet the S.A.F.E.R. WaterWarriors.
Media Filming and interview opportunities are available at participating swim schools on Saturday 25 July at 10am local time. Pools full of children mid-wave make strong pictures and better video.
