Five Years Later: Ed Accura Returns With a New Message on Water Safety

Five years ago, at Swim Strong Foundation’s 15th Anniversary celebration, filmmaker and water safety advocate Ed Accura stood up and shared a few words about the road ahead. Ed — the producer behind “Blacks Can’t Swim” and co-founder of the Black Swim Association in the UK — had spent years working to shift how his community talks about swimming, fear, and the water.

That night, he told us:

“Working with organizations like Swim Strong Foundation has made it possible for us to get the conversation going… conversations that were previously very uncomfortable to have. The more we talk about it, the more it becomes the norm — and the more people want to do it.”

He closed with something simple: “Happy 15th, and the best is yet to come.”

Five years on, we’re celebrating our 20th Anniversary — and Ed is proving his own words right. This month, he’s releasing No Lifeguard, a new feature documentary filmed across Ghana, Sri Lanka, and London. The film picks up a thread that runs through everything Ed has made: safety doesn’t begin when a professional lifeguard shows up. It begins with the choices people make before they ever step into the water.

A Message We’ve Always Believed In

It’s a philosophy that lines up with what we teach every day through Know Before You Go!® — that situational knowledge of water, not fear, is what keeps people safe. Ed put it in his own words back at that 15th Anniversary event, describing why the youth are the key to changing the narrative in underserved communities:

“If you keep telling people swimming is something that’s going to save your life, they’re going to stay away from it. But if it becomes something that’s fun, something interesting, then you’ll want to do it. Nobody wants to be left out of the party.”

That’s the whole idea behind our own approach — leading with fun, confidence, and community rather than statistics and worst-case scenarios. Over the past 20 years, that approach has helped us reach more than 121,000 students through Know Before You Go!® and teach 12,400+ people to swim, through more than $2M in free and low-cost lessons.

Timed With World Drowning Prevention Day

No Lifeguard’s release lines up with World Drowning Prevention Day on July 25 — a date Swim Strong Foundation marks every year as part of our own commitment to prevention-first education. Ed’s film doesn’t take anything away from the importance of trained lifeguards; instead, it places every person — swimmer, parent, bystander, community — inside a wider safety picture where everyone has a role to play before an emergency ever happens.

It’s the same picture we’ve been building in New York for two decades: one where situational knowledge, not silence or fear, is what keeps people safe around water.

Congratulations, Ed

Five years ago, Ed told us the best was yet to come. Watching No Lifeguard reach audiences across three continents this year, we’d say he was right. Congratulations to Ed Accura and the whole SpaceDNA Studio team — we’re proud to have been part of this journey, and we can’t wait to see where the next five years take this conversation.

Watch Documentary Here