About Us

Oconee Flippers Swim School is located in Watkinsville, Georgia 1545 S Bishop Farms Pkwy, Watkinsville, GA 30677. The school was founded in 2023 by UGA Alum Carly Lobdell. Her dream was to create a safe and fun environment for kids to learn how to swim. She specializes in helping kids with a fear of water develop a lifelong passion, and since opening has worked hard to recruit and train a staff full of people just as enthusiastic about keeping our community’s children (and grown ups!) safe in and around the water.

We are excited to be a Red Cross affiliated facility as of March 2026, meaning we can offer Red Cross swim lessons and lifeguard courses.

Our program’s goal is to make swim lessons the best day of your student’s week! We offer fun prize incentives and positive feedback for adults and children after class. Our classes push for rapid development and all students receive progress reports at the end of the month. A strong part of our curriculum is teaching the ‘swim-float-swim’ method to all of our students so they are able to roll over to their backs and float if they ever find themselves in trouble in the water. We also cater to kids with special abilities and develop individualized lesson plans for those students and our private lessons! The Oconee Flippers are equipped to teach students aged 6mos up through adults – it’s always the right time to learn more about swimming and water safety!