About
Bear Paddle Swim School - Oakley Station, located at 3099 Disney St, Cincinnati, OH 45209, USA, is a dedicated facility offering year-round swim lessons for children of all ages. It focuses on providing a safe, fun, and engaging environment with small class sizes and enthusiastic instructors to help children learn to swim and develop confidence in the water.
The swim school maintains its pools at a comfortable and consistent temperature of 90 degrees Fahrenheit, ensuring a warm and inviting environment for all swimmers.
What are people saying (AI review summary)? The swim school receives a range of feedback, with many positive experiences highlighting amazing, caring, patient, and attentive instructors who foster significant progress and comfort in children, often with an appreciated emphasis on safety skills. Management is frequently described as engaged, lovely, and organized, and facilities are generally noted as clean, well-maintained, and conveniently located. However, significant criticisms point to a perceived 'money grab' and transactional approach, a lack of compassion from management, high instructor turnover, and inconsistent progress reporting. Recurring operational issues include challenging scheduling and rescheduling processes (lack of online options), 'hit or miss' instructor quality, and coaches potentially struggling with larger class sizes. One review also mentioned a recent decline in service and poor facility hygiene (e.g., smell of weed in bathrooms).
Location
Gallery
Amenities
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Accepts Credit Cards
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Accessible Entrance
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Accessible Restroom
Reviews
Listing Reviews
September 12th, 2025Elle Teale
If you're looking for bare minimum money grabs, you'll probably be okay with this place. Very transactional, no compassion. If you're unhappy, they'll throw money at you to shut you up. Every now and then, you get a good instructor, but then they burn out and quit and you're back to square one. Maybe you'll get a progress report, but they might also tell you that your instructor didn't finish in time so you're SOL. And management will only ever talk to you when you're dropping so then they can keep getting your money. Bathrooms also smell like weed here. Just an observation. Some of the instructors look like they count swimming as a shower. Seriously has gone downhill over the past 6-months to a year. Should've left a lot sooner than we did.
February 8th, 2025Martha
As others have said, the instructors at this location are amazing! We saw great progress from our son in the year that we were in lessons with Luka. You can tell he really cares about the kids and their progress! He definitely delivered in teaching our son how to swim. Management also seemed engaged with frequent kid/instructor/parent check ins. Docking 1 star because as other have mentioned, scheduling/rescheduling is a challenge. I would have loved to reschedule lessons online, but for some reason couldn't.
July 8th, 2023Martha Rice
Arianna was ver excited about starting her swim lessons! She had previously been a little fearful, but after touring the facility with Vanessa (I believe that was her name) she seemed very comfortable with starting her journey, she had no issues getting into the pool with her coach and one other child. My only concern was that the coach didn't seem very informative about what to expect from that first encounter, I don't even recall her calling her into the pool(another employee actually approached us) once in,i suppose her interaction was good, Arianna didn't want to get out!! She can't wait til her next lesson!😊
March 2nd, 2024Elizabeth Walcott
I’m writing this review as I sit on the bench watching my daughter have her lesson. I can’t say enough good things about Bear Paddle Oakley. The staff is amazing. Management is lovely and very organized. The coaches we’ve had (Ben and Sophie thus far) have been so kind, patient, positive, and attentive. My girl took a long time to become comfortable in the water and they never pushed her too quickly. I’ve seen her grow so much since we’ve started here am thrilled about the trajectory they’ve gotten her on. We spend a lot of time at the beach as a family, so I really appreciate their early emphasis on safety skills. Thank you, Bear Paddle Oakley!!
August 30th, 2018Nick Pop
Great place for the kids to start getting used to the water (as early as several months old) and growing to being prepared to join a swim team by the time they reach level 7. The place is very convenient, right next to Oakley Plaza Kroger, it is always clean and well maintained. The staff is friendly and helpful. The coaches are hit or miss though. Some of them know and have more experience than others. I was happy with most of the coaches we had, but there were several that just wasted our time (we are currently in level 7 - the highest level they offer). That being said, if you feel you are not getting what you need from the coach, just mention it at the front desk and they will move you to a different class. One other thought, sometimes the class has 4 kids, and the coaches have a hard time keeping up. Overall we are happy with Bear Paddle School.
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Opening Hours
| Sunday | 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM |
|---|---|
| Monday | 4:00 – 8:00 PM |
| Tuesday | 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM, 4:00 – 8:00 PM |
| Wednesday | 4:00 – 8:00 PM |
| Thursday | 4:00 – 8:00 PM |
| Friday | Closed |
| Saturday | 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM |
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