Waking up at the crack of dawn is routine for a group of swimmers at UCLA’s Sunset Canyon Recreation Center.
About 20 members of the Bruin Masters Swim Club – a UCLA Recreation program for adult faculty, staff and students – start their days with swim sets at 5:45 a.m every Monday through Friday. The swim club – founded in 1995 – includes former Olympians and UCLA professors alike.
Erika Stebbins, who has coached the team for 15 years, represented the United States in the 1988 and 1992 Summer Olympics and was a swim coach at the collegiate level. Swimmers have come in every day since the Masters Club’s founding more than 30 years ago, she added.
“This program … might be approaching 30 years, and I have people here that have been here that whole time,” she said. “I have a guy that I coached at USC. … I have someone I graduated with at the University of Texas. He’s an entertainment lawyer here and he swims with us. So it’s long-lasting relationships, friendships that have existed for a super long time.”
Stebbins said she coaches a wide range of swimmers – from novice to advanced levels – and enjoys seeing new swimmers become committed to being in the water.
“I want them to want to come at 5:45 a.m. and swim for an hour, an hour and a half, feel like they got something out of it.”
Howard Nourmand, a UCLA alumnus who has been swimming at UCLA for 16 years, said he first discovered the program through his brother.
Nourmand added that his desire to get into shape motivated him to put his goggles back on.
“When he (Nourmand’s brother) said he’s going to go do this Masters thing, I rolled up with him and I got hooked,” he said. “I have exceeded what I thought I would be capable of.”
Swimming at Sunset Recreation Center’s pool has a therapeutic quality, Nourmand said, which brings tranquility into his daily life.
“Swimming has kept me tethered mentally to a frequency that I think is very healthy,” he said. “Even if I’ve gone through rough patches in my relationships with my friends, with my wife, at work, whatever it is, as long as I swim, I kind of know I’m going to be OK.”
The consistency of showing up, Nourmand added, has taught him discipline.
“It takes a certain kind of person to want to wake up, throw themselves in a cold pool at 5:45 a.m, on a regular basis,” he said. “I have become one of those people. … It’s something that I’m really proud of.”
Niki Churchill, an alumnus of UCLA’s master of public health program, said she came from a Division I swimming background at UC Santa Barbara and joined the swim club to continue challenging herself. Being able to choose which days to attend made the program manageable, she added.
The swim club is an easy way to connect with industry professionals, professors and other students, Churchill said – while also tapping into those members’ competitive spirit.
“The people that you’re swimming with, they all love swimming, but they’re all very successful in their own careers,” she said. “Every once in a while you get some overly competitive swimmers, and that’s probably one of the most fun things with Masters, especially at UCLA.”
Swimming with former Olympians – such as Markus Rogan, who won two silver medals while representing Austria in the 2004 Summer Olympics and is a member of the swim club – has encouraged Churchill to maintain her competitive edge, she said.
“It’s so inspiring to see that these people have dedicated their lives to swimming, and that they are still swimming themselves,” Churchill said.
Stebbins said the Masters Club helps swimmers build relationships and, at the very least, enjoy the sunrise.
And despite the initial shock of first jumping into the cold pool, Nourmand said he always feels a sense of accomplishment when he finishes his swim set as the sun rises.
“It keeps me kind of connected to the light in my life,” he said. “The camaraderie is really special.”
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