May 15, 2017

Meet Craig Lewin of Endurance Swimming in North Shore

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Craig Lewin.

Craig, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started out as a competitive swimmer career at the late age of 13. After swimming throughout high school, I went on to swim for Boston College. Through these experiences I developed a love of swimming both in the pool and open water. I began to swim competitively in open water distance races between 8 miles and 25 kilometers. This eventually led me to the sport of triathlon. After racing in triathlons for a few years, I began to see the potential for a business that focused on training triathletes for the open water swim portion of the race. Most triathletes are just trying to get through the swim as opposed to racing the swim. I wanted to help these athletes really enjoy training for the swim portion of the race and shift their focus from just surviving or getting through the swim to actually racing the swim.

In 2009 I stopped competing and launched Endurance Swimming which specializes in open water and triathlon swimming. I have coached triathletes of all levels from beginner to professional. These athletes race in local sprints all the way through the Ironman World Championships in Kona. I have coached two English Channel swimmers and was the pace swimmer for one of my athletes who crossed successfully. While coaching, I noticed that many athletes struggle with proper head alignment. To help athletes self-correct this inefficient position, I developed the Head Strong Posture Trainer, now a fully patented product, available at Finis.

I felt in order to really push the business forward, I would need education beyond my degree from Boston College. I decided to return to school and I now have a B.S. in Sport Movement Science from Salem State College and an M.S. in Clinical Exercise Physiology from Northeastern University.

The business has continued to expand over the past 8 years and in an effort to coach even more athletes beyond just the Boston area, I have started an online swim coaching service. This has been an extremely successful addition to the business that I look forward to continuing to grow through 2017 and beyond. I am no longer limited to just working with local athletes, and I can now work with individuals from all over the world.

Has it been a smooth road?
Personally, I do not think starting any business will ever be smooth sailing. There will always be ups and downs; but I believe how you act in the down moments is what drives a business forward. Learning how to handle obstacles and areas in which the business was not thriving has helped me to continue to develop Endurance Swimming.

A major component of a business like this is that I rely on a facility that I do not own. From the late spring through the late fall, I train my athletes in the open water, but we still need a place to practice during the winter months. This was by far my largest obstacle starting out. As a new coach with a new program in an area where pool time is extremely limited, it was very difficult to get pool time. My former club coach was extremely helpful in getting my foot in the door so that I could build relationships with facilities, though it was challenging getting pool time that worked for the majority of my athletes. When I first started I spent a lot of time on the road driving from facility to facility. At first I had to take what I could get for pool time and figure out how to make it work. Initially I would be up for practice or to teach swim lessons at 4:15am and not get back home until after 10pm. Over time as the program grew and my relationships with these facilities continued to develop, I was able to get the prime training times for my athletes. From this I learned that if you really love what you are doing, then you need to work hard to make it a success and you cannot quit on your dream.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Endurance Swimming story. Tell us more about the business.
Endurance Swimming is a coaching business that specializes in preparing adults for the swim portion of triathlons and training for open water swim events. We train athletes of all levels from those afraid of the water and have never taken a stroke all the way through professional triathletes. Our goal is to prepare athletes to transition from the pool to the open water and help them swim faster.

The Endurance Swimming program is different from others because our major focus is open water swim skills and workouts. We are one of a small number of programs in the area to hold open water workouts consistently. We work on skills that athletes will need to be successful in their races. We also teach athletes how to remain calm in dangerous situations and how to circumvent them safely. Open water races can be very dangerous and the risk of drowning can be high if an athlete is unprepared. Training athletes to be safe in all situations is of the utmost importance to us.

The aspect of Endurance Swimming that makes me the most proud is the amazing community of athletes that is involved. The environment is both competitive and highly positive. All the athletes push one another to step outside their comfort zones and go after some very audacious goals. No one is afraid to fail because they know they will learn and grow from it and have a community to fall back on to support them. It is an extremely fun and exciting program.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
During the next 5-10 years both swimming and triathlon should continue to see steady growth. Over the past several years triathlon has continued to rise in popularity and races are starting to pop up almost every weekend. Triathlon is becoming a collegiate sport which means club and development triathlon teams for children will be on the rise in the next few years. This bodes well for the industry as kids will start to be involved at a young age and the need for open water programs will also be on the rise.

Along with the rise of triathlon there is also an increase in swim run races. These races have teams of two that are tethered together swimming and running from one land mass to another. There are several different distances and formats and more are starting to appear in the USA. The increase in these two sports will continue to drive the triathlon and swimming industries for the next several years.

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