Our Team
Becky Puhl
Miss Becky’s mother had her in the water before she was one year old. Having learned to swim at an early age, Becky competed in my first exhibition race at age 6, and swam competitively through high school, even working as a lifeguard. Becky Puhl understood the importance of water safety at an early age. She taught swimming as a hobby to those she babysat and to her infant daughter. By the time her son was born, Becky’s family had just moved into a house on a lake, which moved her to seek lessons for her infant to alleviate the constant worry associated with the large body of water behind her house. After enrolling her son in lessons, Miss Becky realized that teaching children to be comfortable and secure in the water is a life’s passion. She trained with ISR and began teaching in West Volusia County in 1998 and has taught survival skills and stroke techniques to more than 3,000 children — several of them have joined local swim teams. Miss Becky was instrumental in training more than a dozen instructors in Central Florida and Texas. Miss Becky also teaches adults to swim, whether for survival or fitness. In 2009, Miss Becky joined Infant Aquatics. She is active within the community and is a member of the Drowning Prevention Task Force, the NDPA, and is the chapter holder of the Volusia County NDPA. She also provides water safety presentations to organizations such as Mother’s Groups, pediatricians, and schools. Miss Becky earned a BS in Psychology in 2005 and has participated in two internships at Easter Seals in DeLand. Having worked with children and families with Autism Spectrum Disorders, PDD, low muscle tone, speech delays and various other disabilities, she understands the importance of connecting with these families for support and advice. Miss Becky’s goal is to build an indoor aquatics facility so that she can teach lessons year round and provide instruction to underprivileged children within West Volusia County.
Kristy Sias
My children began lessons with Miss Becky in 2016 at the ages 8 months, 2 years and 5 years. I realized that keeping them safe around the water was a priority due to their close ages. We are always around the water with family and friends. The skills the students were able to learn were fascinating to me. I spoke with Becky about training and teaching and told her I would train and teach as soon as the baby was in VPK. I completed my training and began teaching in the Fall of 2019. They say If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. Knowing I could be saving a child’s life doesn’t even feel like work to me. This is truly a rewarding career!
Erika Falco
I don’t have any kids of my own, but I do you have a nine-year-old niece who I love like she is my own. Nine years ago we were on aware of the importance of water safety. Today I can thankfully say that is not the case anymore thanks to Miss Becky and Krysti Sias. I became certified the beginning of 2021 during Covid. Having witnessed Miss Becky and I‘s first student graduate together it brought tears to my eyes watching the child be able to survive in the water. Watching these kids accomplish a task to survive in the water is unimaginable but the most heartfelt happiness. I am on honored today to be a survival swim lessons teacher and can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Katie Linthicum
When my first child was only a few months old, a local child drowned and I was determined after that to get him into lessons. I am from upstate New York and there are very limited water resources located there so I was very unfamiliar with the process. Once both of my children graduated from the initial swim series with Becky I knew that this would be a career that I would be very passionate about and immediately discussed training with Becky. I completed my training in the spring of 2021! Watching all of my students really nail their first roll and float is so satisfying to me. I really feel as if I have helped potentially save a life. There’s no greater job than teaching infants and children a skill that will stay with with them for a lifetime.