Gilles beaudin
|
Gilles is in his 20th season with English Bay Swim Club having joined the club in 1998. Arriving in Vancouver in 1982, he swam with the UBC Masters for 10yrs before switching over to play water-polo with the now defunct English Bay Polo Club. By 1998, he was ready to get back into organized competitive swimming and found his place within EBSC.
He wasn’t always keen on swimming, having failed his Red Cross Beginners 3 times! But at the age of 11 a friend of his in Greenwood N.S. suggested going to see a ‘swim meet’ .. thinking that it would be people ‘running’ through water, Gilles agreed to go and WOW! - what he witnessed blew him away and within a year he had passed his Beginners, Juniors & Intermediates (he was still too young to do his Seniors) and joined the Greenwood Dolphins the following year. Swimming has been his passion ever since! Gilles has had his share of Club, Provincial & National Records but a shoulder injury 4yrs ago curtailed that level of competition for him but not his passion & enjoyment of the sport. Always wanting to give back to this amazing team, he put his name forward last year for the Co-coordinator position and was voted in for a 2 year term. Gilles hopes to help the team continue to grow & evolve but in such a way as to not forget it’s history & place in Vancouver’s LGBT2Q* Community. Gilles was an Elementary School Teacher in French Immersion his first few years in Vancouver before switching professions and becoming a Travel Agent. |
Bryan illiscupidez
|
Nick Duprey is in his third season as a member of English Bay Swim Club.
|
Suyang duan
|
Suyang Duan is in his fifth season as a member of English Bay Swim Club. He started swimming with the club in July of 2014. He first learned to swim breaststroke at the age of 6. For the longest time, swimming was not his main activity when at the local pool during the summer -- there were always more important things to do. Such as trying to beat his friends in holding breath underwater, playing hide and seek in the pool (imagine a pool on a hot summer day in China), jumping off the 3m diving board with all not-so-streamlined-that-really-hurts poses.
Suyang moved to Vancouver in 2011. During his school time at UBC, he was smart enough to figure out that for each swim that he did for free as a student, he was saving money, or earning depending on how you see it, and could potentially earn his tuition back. That has been the only incentive for him to swim almost everyday while he was still with UBC. He used to be good with kicking when he had bigger fins until he lost one in Waipio, on the big island of Hawaii while trying body-surfing in waves like washing machine. He's been trying to find a new specialty ever since. Suyang is currently working as a software engineer. He enjoys cycling, Bikram yoga and XC skiing. |
Tim smith
|
Lisa Crofoot is in her fourth season with English Bay Swim Club. Lisa started swimming at age 8 when she decided one day that she wanted to be "good at a sport". Her lanky physique made her clumsy on land but was an advantage in the water. Lisa swam for 5 years with the Etobicoke Swim Club in Toronto and continued to swim with her high-school team throughout her teens. She then took a break from swimming to complete her Engineering and Masters degrees at Queen's University. It wasn't until she attempted surfing for the first time (and loved it... but found it very physically challenging) that she decided to get back into the pool. She joined EBSC in the fall of 2014 and fell in love with the fun, challenging, and competitive atmosphere of the club. Lisa enjoys many aspects of swimming, but in particular, loves seeing how hard work at practice can translate directly into improvement. Lisa is excited to be helping out on the Exec this year and is looking forward to the season!
Out of the pool Lisa is by-week a Mechanical Engineer and is currently working on designing the enclosure for the Thirty Meter Telescope. By-weekend she enjoys hiking, travelling, surfing, dogs, eating, entertaining, cycling, trying new things, comedy, and swimming of course! |
Christian meneses
|
Christian Menese is in his.....
|
Nick duprey
|
Chantal Lauzon is in her second season with English Bay Swim Club.
|
Keith adams
|
Emily Adamczyk is in her fourth season with the English Bay Swim Club. She swam competitively for a very long time, and after swimming varsity at the University of California, San Diego, she decided to take a break. However, she couldn’t stay away from the water for very long and decided to join EBSC when she moved to Vancouver in 2015, thus renouncing her “swammer” title. While Emily does not compete as frequently anymore, you can be sure to see her at the club’s Love to Swim meet and Provincials.
This is Emily’s second year on the Exec, and she is excited to help out as social coordinator this year! If you have any suggestions for social events, don’t hesitate to run them by her! When Emily isn’t swimming, you can find her scuba diving in seagrass meadows, climbing rocks in Squamish, or working on her PhD at UBC. |
Amelie ha
|
Michael DiPietro is in his fourth season as a member of English Bay Swim Club. He started swimming at the age of 3 when his mother would take him to Mommy and Me swim lessons at the local YMCA. This apparently stoked the embers that eventually became the burning passion he has for the sport of swimming. At age 11, after years of summer league swimming, he officially joined his first club team, the YMCA of Triangle Area (YOTA) swim team in Raleigh, NC. It was clear early on, that Breaststroke came the easiest to him, which is still his favorite stroke today.
He stayed with YOTA until he left for university, where he then competed with the SCAD Men's Swimming Team in Savannah, GA. After qualifying and competing at nationals in his freshman year, things took a turn for the worst. He developed an issue with his shoulders that lead to a string of intensive physical therapies, invasive surgeries, and an eventual premature end to his collegiate career. Fast forward four years, Michael has a BFA in Visual Effects, is living in Vancouver, with a job at a local Animation studio and has come "out of retirement" to swim with EBSC. He loves the camaraderie and atmosphere of the club. It has brought back the joy of swimming he lacked his last couple years of high school/university. He feels the coaches are really friendly and have a great presence on deck. Like everything else he does, he likes to be in control and help out to the best of his abilities. So besides contributing points for the team at meets, Michael wished to assist the club in other aspects. Queue the Executive Board and its' want to inject board positions with some new blood. The Secretary chair sort of fell into his lap. Hesitant at first, it has been a blessing in disguise since accepting. Being a part of the Executive has brought him closer to members of the team and it feels like more of a family now, than just a group of members wanting to endure painful sets and practices! |
Laura-lee findlater
|
Laura joined EBSC in 2002 and has been an active member ever since. She was first drawn to the club for its civilized workout times, but the instant comradery and challenging workouts kept her coming back.
Laura grew up swimming her parent’s back yard pool and took the Red Cross swimming lessons on her mom’s insistence. She swam a couple of seasons with her high school swim team and continued to swim on her own for fitness in university. Laura joined EBSC as a fitness swimmer and found it to be a great way to relieve stress and a perfect companion to her other favorite activity – eating dessert. She has started attending masters swimming meets more frequently in the last few years, competing at Provincials for the first time in 2018, 16 years after she joined. Laura enjoys swimming in the ocean in the summer and impersonates a cross-country skier in the winter. She works in environmental consulting for the mining industry which has taken her to far flung places in BC, the Yukon and abroad. |
