Meet Swim Coach & Head Swim Instructor Kenneth Rippetoe

Coach Kenneth, has been a lifeguard and taught swimming since the age of 16. His love of the water and helping others learn to swim is a passion you will see in his teaching. He started swimming competitively at the age of 13. Kenneth competed in intercollegiate swimming at John Brown University and he is a 1993 All-American, as a member of the 4 x 200 yard Freestyle relay team. As a U.S. Masters swimmer, Kenneth set a FINA Masters World Record in the 4 x 100 short course meters relay, December 2009. Kenneth has 13 U.S. National Masters top-ten swims. He has worked as a swim instructor and lifeguard for over twenty-five years. He specializes in proper conditioning, training for longevity, and living a healthy lifestyle.

Coach Kenneth has attended training sessions on working with kids with Autism and Asperger's Syndrome, and other special needs with Kahlon Family Services and Inizio Interventions, in order to provide applied behavior intervention to individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. Additionally, Kenneth has attended teacher training sessions with World-renowned Shana Meyerson of mini yogis® yoga for kids and taught and coached with Swim with Heart, a local Santa Monica special needs swim team.

Kenneth is a very active member of the swim community and spends most days being One with the Water®. If he is not training, coaching, or competing with the local Masters swim team, he is teaching or lifeguarding. He is coached professionally by U.S. Olympic Team member - Rada Owen. His swimming accomplishments include over 15 individual and relay top-ten U.S. Masters National times.

Coach Kenneth, originally from Texas, started One with the Water® in Southern California. He comes to SoCal via New York, through Spain, Bolivia, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas. Kenneth studied mechanical engineering and has worked over 15 years as a mechanical engineer with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He has a Masters in Business Administration from Columbia College.

Kenneth has lived in Bolivia, Venezuela, and Spain, working as a volunteer for "sponsor-a-child" programs which provide education to children in developing countries. The projects he participated in gave sponsored children and their families opportunities to participate in skills training or livelihood initiatives, so that they could begin to rely less on sponsorship, and more on their own abilities to provide for their families, creating an educated path out of poverty. This mission aligns with Kenneth’s philosophy and integrates him as a perfect match for One with the Water®. He lives to help others achieve their dreams and believes that the pool is a magical place that levels the playing field… swimmers understand that they can do anything that they put their mind to, and become One with the Water®.

Meet Swim Coach & Swim Instructor Alissandra Hurdelbrink

Alissandra Hurdelbrink first learned to swim at an early age, before she could even walk! While in elementary school, Ali competed in backstroke, and her love of the water took her to new heights where she fell in love with diving. Continuing to compete in swimming until 6th grade, she started putting swimming on the back-burner, as she discovered other sports: dancing, basketball, softball, gymnastics, and track & field. In junior high, she competed in track, running the hurdles, and was a member of her school’s track relay team. She continued to excel in all sports. During college, Alissandra started taking journeys on her bicycle. She enjoyed this so much that she began entering charity events of long-distance Century Rides (100-miles).

Discovering that she had the endurance for long-distance events, she changed her focus and started entering marathons, Century rides, and long-distance swimming events. Of course, this was a natural progression leading her to triathlons! She currently trains for the Ironman® which she hopes to complete in 2013.

Alissandra runs a handful of marathons a year, bikes close to 100 miles a week, and swims with a local Southern California U.S. Masters Swimming team. Her training is intense in that it involves at least two of the three disciplines each day. To keep up her energy and stamina to sustain such vigorous workouts, Alissandra is well-studied in the field of nutrition, and she is currently pursuing a degree in Kinesiology.

Coach Ali joined One with the Water® in June 2012 and is coaching personal fitness training and triathlon-race preparation. Ali is very successful in her sports career. She loves helping others achieve their personal goals in fitness, as she believes that fitness has a positive impact and improves a person’s life. Ali continues instructing all levels of swimming for One with the Water® and enters Olympic-distance triathlons as often as possible.

Meet Swim Instructor Ben Odell

Coach Ben is a lifelong swimmer and surfer. He grew up swimming in the Pacific and eventually competed for Team Santa Monica and Loyola High School (where he was a CIF champion and high school All American). He went on to swim at Harvard College, where he qualified for Senior Nationals in the 400 I.M.

Ben loves working with everyone from new swimmers to seasoned competitors — he's equally at home playing water games with kids or discussing hydrodynamics with adults. Ben has taught swim lessons for 20 years, including volunteer coaching with the Special Olympics. Trained as a yoga teacher, Ben's coaching combines anatomical precision with sensitivity to the breath, mind, and emotions. He believes that you are your own best teacher, and if you listen to the water, it will teach you everything you need to know.

Like all of the instructors at One with the Water, Coach Ben never gives one-size-fits-all instruction. Every lesson is customized to fit your background, personality, strengths and challenges.

Meet Rodney Alves

Rodney Alves is a business attorney specializing in contracts, mergers & acquisitions, foreign investments, international transactions, and entertainment. Rodney is dually trained, experienced and licensed in California and Brazil. Rodney has extensive experience in international deals and for almost 20 years has assisted international clients, including large multinationals, in the U.S., Brazil and other Latin American countries. Rodney speaks in conferences and events often and has written several articles and papers on business transactions as well as doing business in Brazil. Rodney graduated from Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie School of Law in São Paulo, has post-graduation course in Antitrust Law from ENAP, Brasília, and holds Master of Laws (LL.M) from the School of Law at UCLA – University of California, Los Angeles.

Rodney speaks Portuguese, English and Spanish. Mr. Alves is a member of the Brazilian Bar Association and the California Bar Association, as well as the ABA - American Bar Association, being the vice-chair of the Anti Money Laundry Committee of the International Section and seats in several other committees. Mr. Alves is also a member of AIJA - Association Internationale de Jeunes Avocats; IBRADEMP – Instituto Brasileiro de Direito Empresarial (Brazilian Institute of Business Law); BCCC – Brazil California Chamber of Commerce (Los Angeles, CA); BayBrazil (San Francisco, CA), and others.

Meet Scott Greenberg

Scott Greenberg relocated to California in 2012 after working for over a decade in investment banking at Morgan Stanley in New York. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Scott advised corporations as a tax accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Scott received his JD from USC in 1997 and his BS from Cornell in 1994.

Meet Jim Rygg

Information about Jim coming soon.

Meet Laurel Kaufman

Laurel Kaufman has built a career that blends her deep personal passion for food, wine and lifestyle with considerable business acumen and legal expertise. Her love of food and wine began during her college years in Santa Barbara, pouring wines and producing events for Geisinger Winery. After graduating, Laurel moved east to attend Rutgers University, where she received both her J.D. and M.B.A. and began to expand her taste buds nationally.

Laurel continued to fill her appetite for the food industry while in Philadelphia, producing special events for the city’s only five star Mobil and three star Michelin rated restaurant, Le Bec Fin as well as their more casual dining bistro Brasserie Perrier. While east Laurel also did marketing for the Public House Restaurant Group, helping to open their first flagship restaurant in Philadelphia.

Upon returning to Los Angeles, Laurel took on the role of Executive Vice President and In-House Counsel for Bassett, a national retail brand, and subsequently began consulting for beauty, fashion, hospitality and entertainment companies founding Elevate My Brand in 2010. Laurel has followed her passion by consulting with creatives, focusing on restaurants and retailers, and continues to distill her love and hunger for elevating food, wine and retail brands globally.

Laurel sits on the board of directors for Change America, The Fender Music Foundation, Totally Fabulous Females, and Startup Demo and is an advisor to the Los Angeles Chapter of Girls in Tech. And she now joins the Business Advisory Board for One with the Water®. Laurel is a mentor with Jewish Big Brother Big Sisters of Los Angeles and has been a member of the California Bar since 2006.