Our 2018-19 Executive

David Carlson, President

David injured his knees playing soccer in university, so switched to waterpolo, where he was an average player on an average team playing at the OUAA level for three years. With marriage and kids, he did not find the time to swim seriously again until his middle child joined an age group swim team, and David noticed a masters group that swam at the same time. Since he was up and at the pool at 6:00AM, he decided he might as well swim, and joined the Hollyburn Masters in West Vancouver.

The kids are now older and have moved out, but David continues to swim at CMSC in the slowest of the fast lanes under the guidance of his coaches and the friendly passive-competitiveness of his lane mates. He has been with the Calgary Masters since moving to Calgary in 2011. David will be President from June 2017 until June 2019.

Dave Dickson, Vice President & Registrar

In February 2018, Dave celebrated his 20^th year swimming with Calgary Masters.

At the age of 11, Dave was a late bloomer to competitive swimming.  The Killarney Swimming Pool was close by his home and he was encouraged by friends and his parents to join their swim club.  After 5 years, Dave had had enough and moved on to other interests, not all of them necessarily healthy.

In February 1998, after 29 years of relative inactivity and a 230 lb. frame, Dave decided that it was time for a lifestyle change.  Getting back into the pool with the best Masters Swim Club in Canada seemed to be a natural fit.

Dave has enjoyed the terrific social aspects that Calgary Masters has provided over the last 20 years but the competitive side of the sport is really where his heart is and this is what truly motivates him in the training sessions.  He has been fortunate to have captured 27 National Records in 4 age categories over the last 20 years.

Dave has held positions in CMSC’s Executive as Member at Large, Meet Manager and Registrar, and is delighted to once again serve as Calgary Masters Swim Club’s Vice President and Registrar for the 2018/2019 & 2019/2020 seasons.

Curtis, Secretary

Curtis began swimming competitively with the Calgary Patriots when he was 10 years old and he stayed with the Patriots until the end of high school. He did two seasons of varsity swimming during his university years in Halifax, but he quit swimming in his third year to focus on partying (and schoolwork). After graduation, Curtis returned to Calgary and rediscovered the joys of the sport when he joined CMSC, where he has been a returning member for almost 10 years.

Greg McLeod, Communications

This is Greg’s 7th season with CMSC. Not a traditional swimmer, Greg never swam club or competitively growing up. However, he was an accomplished triathlete and was continuously trying to improve his distance swimming throughout high school and university. It wasn’t until his 3rd year at Queen’s University in Ontario where he was lucky enough to join the varsity swim team. It was during this time that Greg’s love of the sport grew. He even went so far as to marry another varsity swimmer, who now ensures Greg continues to swim.

The swimming bug bit hard, and Greg hasn’t stopped swimming since university. You will often see Greg complaining about kick, every stroke, the act of getting in the water… basically anything except middle distance freestyle at a mediocre pace. Outside of swimming, Greg is a software developer, small business owner and perpetually-injured tennis player.

Lisa Gordon, Treasurer

Lisa started swimming in the local summer club in Kindersley and usually just stayed at the pool all day in the summer. Eventually othersports started to take over in high school and most of that time was spent on the provincial Karate team. Lisa returned to swimming about 10 years ago when she was looking for something active that she remembered enjoying. She started back swimming with the Talisman masters club until joining CMSC two years ago. Lisa is an accountant that works to support her travel habit.

Leah d’Abadie, Member at Large

As a young child, Leah had bad asthma, so her mom decided to enroll her into swimming lessons with the hope that swimming would help strengthen her lungs. Leah soon took to the pool and while at one of her lessons, noticed some very fast swimmers in another lane. She learned that they were part of a competitive swim team and she knew she wanted to be part of that community.

Leah swam with the Calgary Winter Club until she was 16, and then took a many-year hiatus from the pool. Later on, she took up coaching the Bonnyville Requins pre-competitive swimmers for a couple seasons. It was during this time that she began to miss being in the pool, and when she moved back to Calgary she joined the University of Calgary Masters. Leah now swims in the early morning session as a member of CMSC. She enjoys the camaraderie of her lane buddies. She does not enjoy breaststroke. Leah will be Member at Large from June 2017 to June 2019.

Sue Hill, Meet Manager

Sue has swam most of her life, taking ‘Learn to Swim’ classes when she was ten and progressing through Royal Life Saving and National Lifeguard certifications as a teenager. She has swam with Calgary Masters since the fall of 1998 and enjoyed the competitive side of swimming until recent setbacks sidelined that aspect of pool life. She still enjoys working out and pushing herself in the pool. She has been a math, science, computer and French teacher by profession. Together with her husband, she loves long distance cycling such as GranFondos.