About Shiva de Winter

Shiva de Winter is the independent authority on swimming safety in the Netherlands and Flanders — and the expert mind behind Europe's largest independent pool network. Not "someone with a blog about swimming", but the person who interprets, underpins and shapes the public conversation around water safety.

Thirty years in and around the water

Shiva has been teaching swimming lessons for nearly thirty years, in just about every lesson system the Netherlands has to offer. For fourteen summers he stood poolside as a lifeguard. That combination — teaching and supervising, year after year — is what his judgement rests on: not on theory, but on what actually happens at the water's edge.

Chair of the NSWZ

Shiva recently became interim chair of the NSWZ, the independent national foundation for water and swimming safety. That chairmanship is an important anchor of credibility: it stands entirely apart from any commercial interests and safeguards the independence of his voice.

What he has built

• Zwemschool De Winter Sport (Huizen & Doorn) — his practice, where it all began.
• De WaterExpert — his public platform, where he shares what he has seen and learned over thirty years.
• WaterZeker — an educational programme that helps parents and children engage with water safety at home, from the shallow end to the open sea.
• SwimFlow — advisory work for municipalities, swim schools and organisations.
• europeanpools.eu and the underlying country sites — the pan-European pool network he developed, with nearly twenty thousand pools across seventeen countries. Through it, he champions swimming safety on an international scale.

Guardian of the European Pools Rating

Shiva is the developer and guardian of the European Pools Rating — the independent quality mark for swimming pools. He vouches for the method, not for advertisers: the score is never for sale. That independence isn't a detail — it's the entire premise.

How he works

Direct, honest, nuanced. He doesn't make parents feel bad and he doesn't sell fear — he gives clarity exactly where things get genuinely nerve-racking for your child, backed by evidence and free of hidden assumptions.

For press, policy or advice, Shiva can be reached through De WaterExpert.