Swimming Club Near Me in the Fillmore: SF Tsunami Masters at Hamilton

SF Tsunami Aquatics has no clubhouse of its own. Since 1986 the team has borrowed city pools, and its home in practice is Hamilton Pool at 1900 Geary Street, at Steiner, where three of its eight weekly workouts take place. It is a masters team for LGBTQ+ swimmers and allies, open to fast competitors and adults who only recently learned to swim laps. If you are hunting for a swimming club near me with a coach on deck, a free first practice and a social calendar, this is the team to try.

The team grew out of Gay Games II, held in San Francisco in 1986. Swimmers who had trained together for those games wanted to keep going, and Tim Elliott hosted the first organizing meeting at his home on September 28, 1986. Rick and Cris Meier-Windes, Neil Hart and John Harry Bonck were among the early leaders, according to the team's 40th-anniversary site.

Forty years on, the team celebrated with a gala at the Verdi Club in the Mission on October 17. Its motto is Be Bold, Swim Proud, and since 1998 its members have raised more than $56,000 for groups including Shanti, Project Open Hand and the San Francisco LGBT Center.

The New Fillmore calls the team a fixture at Fillmore's Hamilton Recreation Center for three decades, and credits Hamilton's aquatics community with helping launch it in 1986. Neil Hart later helped push the center's $18.1 million renovation, which added new locker rooms and meeting rooms. The heated pool also gained two indoor water slides, which the city says are the only ones in San Francisco.

Hamilton hosts the Tuesday evening practice from 6:30 to 8 PM and both Thursday sessions, from 6:45 to 8:15 AM and again from 6:30 to 8 PM. Outside team hours, the city runs morning lap swim there from 6:30 to 10 AM, Tuesday through Friday.

The team describes its sessions as coach-led practices at community pools during the week, so each one is a structured workout rather than open lane time, with a coach on deck from the first set. The rest of the schedule moves around the city. Monday runs from 6 to 7:30 PM at the City College pool. Tuesday has an early slot at Garfield Pool, 1271 Treat Avenue, from 5:30 to 7 PM. Wednesday is at Sava Pool, 2695 19th Avenue, from 5:30 to 7 PM. Saturday has two one-hour sessions at Martin Luther King Jr. Pool, 5701 3rd Street, at 9 and 10 AM.

Sava is worth a special trip on its own. It is an eight-lane, 25-yard pool that reopened in 2009 after a $17 million rebuild, lit by rooftop monitors and decorated with Catherine Wagner's tile work Swimmer's Waves. MLK Pool measures 25 yards by 25 meters and also has a wading pool for children.

The team runs bookings through Mindbody and spells out the steps. Create a Mindbody account, then sign up for a free U.S. Masters Swimming trial membership under the team's club code, TSUN. Upload proof of that trial in your Mindbody profile, using a computer because the phone app will not take it, and email billing@sftsunami.org for the free drop-in pass.

Then book the practice and arrive early to introduce yourself to the coach. The fitness bar is modest: you should swim eight lengths, 200 yards, in under five minutes without stopping. You do not need all four strokes or flip turns. The team does not teach adults to swim from scratch, so that part has to come first.

After the free practice, a drop-in costs $17.50 and a month-to-month membership costs $70, which covers unlimited practices. Members also need ongoing U.S. Masters Swimming registration, paid separately. The team offers financial aid case by case through the same billing address, and says drop-in fees are generally non-refundable.

The monthly membership also covers synchro, the team's artistic swimming group of more than 25 members. Synchro practices run on Wednesday from 6 to 8 PM and Saturday from 9 to 11 AM at MLK Pool, coached by Suzanne Baker and Ron Frost, and a beginner session runs on Saturday mornings through October and November.

Every practice has to be booked ahead on Mindbody, and the team warns that you may not be able to swim without a reservation. There is a ten-minute grace period, after which late arrivals are turned away. Lanes hold up to six swimmers circling counterclockwise, with at least five seconds between starts. Pass by tapping a foot, never mid-interval.

Paddles stay in the bag, and bikes stay off the deck. Sick swimmers are asked to wait 24 hours after a fever and four to five days after cold symptoms. Eleven swim coaches are on the roster this year, from Dave Froehlich, coaching since 2004, and Andrea Finlay, since 2012, to Danny Thomson, who joined in 2026.

The team holds stroke clinics through the year and sends swimmers to the IGLA championships, where an award in Rick Meier-Windes' name honors the top distance swimmers. Monthly happy hours and seasonal parties fill the rest of the calendar. After the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, members organized a citywide swim-a-thon that raised more than $20,000. The team describes its regulars as LGBTQ+ athletes and allies, from seasoned competitors to brand-new beginners, and board president Chris Stuart leads a volunteer board, with one member assigned to deal with Rec and Park about pool operations. Questions go to info@sftsunami.org, and the team posts updates on Instagram at @sftsunami.

Hamilton sits on Geary at Steiner, on the edge of Lower Pacific Heights, and Japantown begins a few blocks east along Post Street. The Japan Center malls at 1737 Post Street are a short walk away for a bowl of noodles after an evening practice. Fillmore Street's shops run north from Geary toward Pacific Heights.