Swimming Club Near Me in Culver City: SCAQ Masters at the Plunge

Southern California Aquatics, better known as SCAQ, calls itself the largest masters swimming program in the United States. Its busiest deck on the west side is the Culver City Municipal Plunge at 4175 Overland Avenue, an outdoor 50-meter pool inside Veterans Memorial Park. Founder Clay Evans, an Olympic medalist, still coaches there some mornings. If your search for a swimming club near me in Los Angeles points to coached workouts instead of solo laps, this is the place to start, and the first workout costs nothing.

Clay Evans and Bonnie Adair founded the club in 1979. Evans swam for Canada at the 1972 Munich Olympics and won silver in the 4x100-meter medley relay at Montreal in 1976, after swimming for UCLA. U.S. Masters Swimming named him its Coach of the Year in 1993, and he has broken more than 40 masters national and world records.

The club now runs more than 60 workouts a week across the South Bay, the Valley, the west side and downtown. Its current pools are the Culver Plunge, Santa Monica College, the Van Nuys Sherman Oaks pool, Echo Park Indoor Pool and the El Segundo Wiseburn Aquatics Center. Loyola Marymount, once part of the circuit, is no longer on the list.

Culver City opened the Plunge on August 31, 1949. Its heated competition pool measures 50 meters by 25 yards, set up as eight long-course lanes or 19 short-course lanes, and a separate 25-yard diving well has 1-meter and 3-meter springboards. Outdoor rinse showers line the deck, and indoor locker rooms have warm showers and a swimsuit spin-dryer.

The pool sits outside, so SCAQ's line is simple: we swim rain or shine. Workouts stop only for thunder, lightning or very heavy rain.

Weekday mornings carry most of the load. Monday and Wednesday run at 6 and 7 AM, Friday at 6 and 7 AM, and Tuesday and Thursday start at 5:30 AM in the long-course layout. Tuesday and Thursday also have noon sessions and 8 PM sessions. Sunday's 10:30 AM workout runs long course. Each workout lasts an hour and has a theme on the schedule, such as Distance Free, IM and Stroke, Sprint or Coach's Choice.

For the week of October 18 the booking portal listed Gina Greco on the Sunday, Monday and Wednesday sessions, William McKinney at noon, Dmitriy Banov at 8 PM and Margot Newcomer on Thursday mornings. Clay Evans had the Tuesday 6:30 AM long-course workout and both Friday sessions.

Every workout is booked through SCAQ's online portal, and the club warns that Santa Monica and Culver sessions often have waitlists. Cancel by 5 PM the day before by emailing the office. After that there is no refund or credit. The Tuesday and Thursday 8 PM sessions and the 6 AM Monday and Wednesday slots had the fewest open places in the October 18 week.

Culver adds one more step. Since July, every swimmer must swipe a Culver City Activity Card at the entrance, and people without one are turned away. Create an account on the city's Active Network site, then have your photo taken at the pool desk to get the card. Sort this out before your first early workout, not at 5:25 AM.

The trial is real: you can attend one workout free by emailing scaq@swim.net to arrange it, since the portal does not book trials on its own. After that a single workout costs $17, and a monthly membership costs $135. Some older pages on the club site still say $15, but the booking portal charges $17. U.S. Masters Swimming registration for 2026 is a separate $70.

Swimming outside SCAQ hours means paying the city's lap swim fee, $4 for adults 18 to 49 per 55-minute block. The club also offers financial help to swimmers who cannot afford workouts. Most members come about three times a week, and the club's own advice is that two is better than one, and one is better than none.

Lanes are set by speed, based on each swimmer's 5x100 interval, and the only entry bar is swimming 50 yards of freestyle without stopping. You do not need your own gear: the pools have kickboards and pull buoys, and SCAQ brings fins. The club also runs stroke clinics, open water clinics from late spring and support for triathletes.

City rules at the Plunge ban hanging on lane lines, deck changing, prolonged breath holding and cut-off shorts. Bring a lock, since locker storage is day use only, and the city suggests arriving dressed to swim. Two large bike racks stand in front of the entrance. The ADA pool lift and three accessible entry points make the deck usable for swimmers with limited mobility.

The Plunge closes from Saturday, December 19 through Sunday, January 31 for new filter sand and valves, repairs to more than 100 damaged tiles and a full drain and refill, and the city expects to reopen on Monday, February 1. The city also says Santa Monica Swim Center expects to reopen January 3. Children 8 and up can try SCAQ Kids at the Plunge, which practices Monday to Thursday from 6 to 7 PM and Friday from 5 to 6 PM. Swimmers need 50 yards of freestyle with side breathing and an evaluation, offered on October 21, 23 and 27, and two practices a week cost $87 a month.

From the 10 freeway, exit at Overland and drive about three miles south to Culver Boulevard, where the lot sits beside the pool, whose entrance faces the playfield. Culver CityBus lines 3 and 7 stop at Culver and Overland, and the 1C1 circulator links Veterans Memorial Park to the Metro E Line. After a workout, the 12.9-acre park has a walking path, picnic tables and tennis courts, open from dawn to dusk.