Gerry Rodrigues

Gerry Rodrigues is the guru of open-water swimming. As Head Coach of the prestigious Tower 26 swimming program based in Santa Monica, California, Rodrigues is the swimming technique expert behind top triathlon coaches like Matt Dixon (Purple Patch Fitness), Jim Vance, Rad Hallman (Head Coach, USC Triathlon), celebrity open-water swimmers, and many high-performing professional and age-group triathletes.

Rodrigues grew up swimming off the Caribbean island of Trinidad, where he won many open-water ocean swimming races and earned an athletic scholarship to Pepperdine University. He won U.S. Masters Swimming national championships, set several U.S. and world masters swimming records, and has won over 100 open water swimming races.

Rodrigues started coaching triathletes in the early 1980s, helped found the first triathlon club in Los Angeles and Team Malibu, and organized the Malibu Masters Swim Club. He cofounded the World Open Water Swimming Association and has managed and coached numerous swimming clubs and teams in Southern California and coached dozens of swimmers to top 10 national rankings, national championship wins, national and world records, and has coached Olympic gold medalists and world champions.

Rodrigues was owner of SWIM Magazine and publisher of Swimming World and Swimming Technique magazines. He launched one of the world’s earliest swimming websites, swiminfo.com in 1995. In 1992, Rodrigues was named U.S. Masters Swimming Coach of the Year.