🏊 SwimSPLASHForward
5.0Kirkland, WA
Ages 14–18About this program
SPLASHForward is a Kirkland-based aquatics nonprofit that runs a teen lifeguard pipeline for the Eastside and greater King County. Its High School Lifeguard Training program sponsors American Red Cross Lifeguarding certification for high school students, and its Friday Night Teen Lifeguard Development Training at the Bellevue Aquatic Center gives 8th graders through high schoolers a chance to practice the certification prerequisites with a lifeguard instructor: the continuous swim, two minutes of treading water, and the timed brick retrieval from the deep end. Free skill-strengthening sessions are offered for teens who need to build up to those prerequisites first. Certification classes themselves run at partner pools including the Bellevue Club, Bellevue Aquatic Center, Samena Swim & Recreation Club and Julius Boehm Pool in Issaquah, and the nonprofit helps place newly certified teens into lifeguard and swim instructor jobs. Sponsorship funding for 2026 certifications has reached capacity, so check the current registration status before signing up.