Proud provider of the Swim Float Swim and Infant Self Rescue (ISR) Method.

 Trained by ISR and Infant Aquatics

Our founder and veteran Senior Instructor, Cathryn Van Der Linden, was trained by Infant Swimming Resource in 2008 and worked teaching solely ISR lessons for 8 years. After her experience with ISR and Infant Swimming Resource, Cathryn wanted to develop a training program for babies and toddlers that would cater to the needs of Californians, their schedules and their babies. She began teaching solely as SoCal Water Babies in 2016 and she brings with her the experience of personally teaching 50,000 lessons to over 3000 students 5 and younger. In January 2022, Cathryn went to Colorado to join forces with Infant Aquatics to become a better trainer for both children and instructors who are teaching for SoCal Water Babies.  SoCal Water Babies and Cathryn Van Der Linden's track record speaks for themselves: all of her past students have been able to complete the rollback to float sequence and none of her past students have experienced an in-water incident that resulted in injury or drowning. Can any other program say that? 

Trained by Infant Aquatics

My name is Cassandra DiYorio and I reside in Riverside, California. I am happily married to my husband of 15 years, and we have three amazing children. I have been a stay-at-home mom for the last 11 years and I enjoy watching my children grow up. I enjoy woodworking, crafting, spending time with my family, and volunteering in the children’s ministry at our local church, The Grove. I have also always had a love for water and I enjoy swimming. In high school, I swam for our local swim team, my high school team and played girls water polo. 

In the winter of 2016, I obtained my Associates degree in Math & Science from Riverside Community College. In 2018, I decided to go back to school to further my education. In April of 2021, I completed my bachelor’s degree in Health Administration through the University of Phoenix.

While conducting my job search over the summer of 2021, I came across a post from Cathryn from SoCal Water Babies, looking for swim instructors. I immediately thought this would be a fantastic opportunity for me, especially since I have always loved teaching children. I already knew Cathryn because my son completed the swim-float-swim program with her. He started in the Fall of 2018 and continued to return to her every season up until Spring of 2021, when he turned 5 years old. Once he turned 5, she helped my son try out for our local swim team and he made the team! Seeing what Cathryn does and being a parent to one of her former students, I found myself wanting to become an infant survival swim instructor.

In January 2022, I had the opportunity to train for 6 weeks in Longmont, Colorado with Judy, founder of Infant Aquatics alongside my boss Cathryn. Judy’s training program was intensive with academic work in areas of child development, behavioral psychology, anatomy and physiology, and water safety. I now posses the skills and tools to teach young children how to float and swim-float-swim. I am ecstatic to be a part of SoCal Water Babies and I look forward to teaching your children!

Trained by Survival Swimming Instructors

Sydney is a born and raised Redlands girl! She has always had a passion for service and has been very involved in the Redlands community! Sydney has a passion for swim safety with being a past swimmer and waterpolo player.
Sydney is a mother of an independent sassy 2 year old daughter and an outgoing 5 year old son with autism. Watching them both go through the survival float and rollback float sequence has made them both blossom into strong and confident swimmers. Both of them know their limits but are also not afraid to try new things, inside and outside of the pool. Sydney and her husband now no longer have to worry when they are at friends or family members house who has a pool because they know if they fell in they would be able to navigate their way out and have fun doing it! Sydney has watched her babies become independent kiddos and the hope of giving other mothers piece of mind is what inspired her to become a swim instructor.

Ms. Sydney has undergone training and certification through Survival Swimming Instructors.