Watershape University

09/28/2026

Watershape University’s 2026 Fall Session is coming to San Diego December 2–4, bringing three days of advanced education for pool builders, designers, contractors, sales professionals, and business owners ready to sharpen their skills and grow.
Choose from courses covering:
• Essential Pool Construction
• Quality Shotcrete
• Advanced Residential Watershape Construction
• Essential Business Administration
• Essential Revit for Watershapers
• Sales & Marketing for Pool Companies
• Outdoor Finish Material Science

Whether you want to build better pools, lead a stronger team, improve profitability, create more professional designs, or close more business, there is a course designed to move you forward.

If you work in the pool and spa industry in San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, or anywhere across Southern California, don’t miss the opportunity to learn from some of the industry’s best without traveling across the country.

📍 San Diego, California
📅 December 2–4, 2026
Explore the courses and reserve your seat:
https://na2.hubs.ly/H07vJCt0

Southern California pool pros, this one is in your backyard. 🌴

09/25/2026

Most of us think we’re doing solid work. Until we’re exposed to a higher standard.

Growth rarely starts with someone telling you you’re wrong. It starts with realizing there’s a better way — and wishing you’d seen it sooner.

In any skilled trade, it’s easy to operate inside your own bubble. You pick up habits. You trust experience. You assume what’s working is optimal.

But real progress often comes from stepping into a room where your thinking gets stretched.

A few reminders worth considering:

Even seasoned professionals have blind spots.
Refinement beats reinvention — small improvements compound fast.
Investing in your craft builds confidence you can’t fake.
The right education doesn’t just teach — it recalibrates your standards.

The question isn’t whether you’re good at what you do.
It’s whether you’ve exposed yourself to what “great” actually looks like.

Sometimes the biggest cost isn’t the class. It’s waiting too long to take it.

Find your next class at https://na2.hubs.ly/H03Yqh-0 and keep your hands dirty.


The Grit Game

09/23/2026

Southern California pool builders and renovators: What do you want to build next?
A stronger foundation in pool construction? More confidence with complex residential projects? WaterShape University’s Fall Session has a course for your next step.

CONSTRUCTION 2111: Essential Pool Construction
December 2–4 | 24 hours | 2.4 CEUs
Explore engineering disciplines, layout, shotcrete, waterproofing, tile, coping, finishes, and project handover with Ben Lasseter and Bill Drakeley.

CONSTRUCTION 4112: Advanced Watershapes Construction – Residential
December 3–4 | 16 hours | 1.6 CEUs
Dig into difficult sites, advanced foundations, vanishing edges, moving floors, glass tile, and more with David J. Peterson and Paolo Benedetti.

Choose the course that fits your experience and goals. Then make San Diego your classroom this December, with time to enjoy the city around your training.

Explore the Fall Session and register at https://na2.hubs.ly/H07PkqD0.

The Grit Game Drakeley Pool Company

09/21/2026

Your next level has a name. It’s called preparation.

Most people want growth. Very few prepare for it. They wait for bigger projects, higher-paying clients, more recognition — but they don’t upgrade the skills that would justify those opportunities.

If you want to operate at a higher level, you have to think, design, and execute at a higher level first.

That means studying the craft.
That means learning the standards.
That means exposing yourself to people who are already where you want to be.

Find your next course at https://na2.hubs.ly/H03Yqm40 .

That’s why education matters. Not random information — structured learning from people who have already done the work.

Taking Watershape University classes isn’t just about adding credentials. It’s about tightening your fundamentals, expanding your technical depth, and raising the ceiling on what you’re capable of building.

Your next level isn’t blocked by the market. It’s unlocked by mastery.

If you’re serious about growing, stop asking “When will I get there?”

Start asking, “What do I need to learn to reach it."

Keep your hands dirty.


The Grit Game

09/18/2026

Watershape University’s 2026 Fall Session is coming to San Diego December 2–4, bringing three days of advanced education for pool builders, designers, contractors, sales professionals, and business owners ready to sharpen their skills and grow.
Choose from courses covering:
• Essential Pool Construction
• Quality Shotcrete
• Advanced Residential Watershape Construction
• Essential Business Administration
• Essential Revit for Watershapers
• Sales & Marketing for Pool Companies
• Outdoor Finish Material Science

Whether you want to build better pools, lead a stronger team, improve profitability, create more professional designs, or close more business, there is a course designed to move you forward.

If you work in the pool and spa industry in San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, or anywhere across Southern California, don’t miss the opportunity to learn from some of the industry’s best without traveling across the country.

📍 San Diego, California
📅 December 2–4, 2026
Explore the courses and reserve your seat:
https://na2.hubs.ly/H07vHTt0

Southern California pool pros, this one is in your backyard. 🌴

09/16/2026

Your pool company does great work. Does your marketing make that clear?
Join the instructors of BUSINESS 2323: Principles of Sales & Marketing for Pool Companies at WaterShape University’s fall session in San Diego.

Built for pool contractors and pool service companies, this course connects the dots between standing out, generating leads, and turning more inquiries into customers.
Explore brand messaging, paid and organic marketing, website conversions, and sales techniques, plus where AI can simplify the work.

December 2 | 8 AM–5 PM
San Diego, California
8 hours | 0.8 CEUs

Give your next season a stronger foundation. Register at https://na2.hubs.ly/H07NjC90.

The Grit Game

09/14/2026

Join Watershape University for Multi-Course Mastery Week, September 21–25, and choose from three courses designed to help pool builders, designers, service professionals, and industry experts strengthen their skills and increase their professional value:

⚡ Essential Electrical Workshop
Learn the critical electrical principles, codes, calculations, controls, and installation practices needed to build and service pools safely.

💧 Essential Advanced Fluid Engineering
Take a deeper dive into hydraulics, vanishing edges, gutters, surge basins, water features, lazy rivers, and other complex watershape systems.

🎨 Essential Color Theory, Materials & Textures
Discover how color, materials, light, and psychology can elevate pool design, influence purchasing decisions, and create a stronger client experience.

CLASSES SELL OUT! Do not wait to reserve your spot.

Each course counts toward professional certification, including applicable IWI pathways, and offers education you can put to work immediately.

If you design, build, engineer, or service swimming pools and spas in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, or throughout the Southeast, this is an opportunity worth traveling for.

📍 Greensboro, North Carolina
📅 September 21–25, 2026
🍽️ Lunch included
🎓 IACET CEUs available

Explore the courses and reserve your seat:
https://na2.hubs.ly/H07vHNl0

CLASSES SELL OUT! Do not wait to reserve your spot.

The Carolinas’ pool and spa professionals: world-class industry education is coming to Greensboro, NC!

09/11/2026

Join Watershape University for Multi-Course Mastery Week, September 21–25, and choose from three courses designed to help pool builders, designers, service professionals, and industry experts strengthen their skills and increase their professional value:

⚡ Essential Electrical Workshop
Learn the critical electrical principles, codes, calculations, controls, and installation practices needed to build and service pools safely.

💧 Essential Advanced Fluid Engineering
Take a deeper dive into hydraulics, vanishing edges, gutters, surge basins, water features, lazy rivers, and other complex watershape systems.

🎨 Essential Color Theory, Materials & Textures
Discover how color, materials, light, and psychology can elevate pool design, influence purchasing decisions, and create a stronger client experience.

CLASSES SELL OUT! Do not wait to reserve your spot.

Each course counts toward professional certification, including applicable IWI pathways, and offers education you can put to work immediately.

If you design, build, engineer, or service swimming pools and spas in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, or throughout the Southeast, this is an opportunity worth traveling for.

📍 Greensboro, North Carolina
📅 September 21–25, 2026
🍽️ Lunch included
🎓 IACET CEUs available

Explore the courses and reserve your seat:
https://na2.hubs.ly/H07vHJQ0

CLASSES SELL OUT! Do not wait to reserve your spot.

The Carolinas’ pool and spa professionals: world-class industry education is coming to Greensboro, NC!

09/10/2026

Build better pools. Avoid expensive mistakes. Become the professional everyone trusts. Classes sell out. Register today at https://na2.hubs.ly/H07wTFy0.

CONSTRUCTION 2111: Essential Pool Construction is a three-day, hands-on learning experience covering every major phase of the construction process—from engineering, layout and forming to utilities, shotcrete, waterproofing, finishes and start-up.

Led by Ben Lasseter, IWI, Watershape University’s Dean of Construction, this course will help you strengthen your technical knowledge, improve your project ex*****on and build pools that meet a higher standard.

📍 Katy, Texas
📅 September 28–30, 2026
⏰ 8:00 AM–5:00 PM CT
🎓 2.4 IACET CEUs available

C2111 also fulfills the course requirement toward becoming a Certified Watershape Foreman, an industry-recognized credential for pool, spa and water-feature construction professionals.

Classes sell out. Register today at https://na2.hubs.ly/H07wTFy0.

09/07/2026

Happy Labor Day to all! Here is a great article from Eric Herman at Watersahpes about the end of summer.

We would love to see you at an upcoming live event: https://watershape.org/events

The lives of beach bums, surfer girls and hodads everywhere have become less comfortable in recent years, observes Eric Herman. In fact, the summer of 2023 might stand as the most unpleasant beach season ever, and one that sadly concluded with the death of summer's high priest, Jimmy Buffett.