We’re a family owned, award-winning business

Owners, Brendon & Vicky Rope are parents to three girls, and part of the Taradale Community. Vicky has experience in Relationship Management, Fundraising, Education, Communication and Marketing and Brendon with governance and operational experience in Aquatic & Facility Management. As past CEO at Pettigrew. Green Arena, EIT Institute of Sport & Health at the Sports Park and now as Senior Consultant running his own business smartz, Brendon’s skills lie in strategy, operations, policy and processes.

Michelle & Jon were founding owners, along with Vicky & Brendon, and have been a huge part of our journey. We thank them immensely for their passion, knowledge, hard work and friendship over the years.

Vicky continues to lead the team at Dolphin Academy ensuring a safe, inclusive and quality environment and programme is established for our community. Together our skill sets compliment each other, we are committed and driven to make this work and our values are aligned.

We are on a mission to be the best we can be!

The Dolphin Academy stands for quality, family friendly and community based swim instruction.

Award winning - In November 2025, we were awarded the Outstanding Swim School of the Year award (for <1000 students) at the Swim Teachers and Coaches NZ conference. Casey Bewick was also awarded Outstanding Swim Teacher of the Year for 2025!

Our vision is that everybody in our community learns to swim.

We hope you will support us!