WOODSTOCK — Westley Hatch, 7, of West Paris was the only kid with dry hair at Bryant Pond. His brother Gavin, 14, was out by the raft, dipping in and out, while Westley’s classmate, Christopher Lavertu, 6, of West Paris, ran straight in.

On the shore, Westley’s grandmother, Deb Ladner of Norway, shouted, “Hey Westley — put your head in the water.”

Swim teacher Makayla LaCombe was unfazed.

“My first two years all my Level 1s wouldn’t put their faces in the water. The past two years I’ve had almost every kid put their face in the water, even the deathly terrified ones,” said LaCombe.

Christopher’s mother, Celina Lavertu, said since lessons began three weeks ago, he has gone from using a floatie to swimming on his back — a big leap. Now, when they swim at other ponds, he wants to swim to the dock. Completing swim lessons are the motivator to get there.

LaCombe had the boys swimming forward and backward through hoops. Then it was time to dive for rings. Christopher went under; Westley kept his head dry.

“I’ll tell you I just want to pour a bucket on his head,” said his grandmother, watching from her chair. She added, “I don’t get my head wet either. I gave that up along with parallel parking.”

“Just do one,” she urged him.

Finally, on LaCombe’s urging, Westley swam under. He popped up rubbing his scrunched nose.

LEVEL 2 SWIMMERS

While the Level 1 group had just two students, LaCombe’s Level 2 class drew a much larger crowd — about 14 children, most between the ages of 6 and 8. Many of them arrived with a swim assistant, by bus from the West Paris Explorers summer program; others, like Willow Dunham and her older sister, Bayley, walked from nearby homes.

The students gathered at the water’s edge as LaCombe, a certified water safety instructor, outlined the lesson. With only days remaining in the program, students were working to demonstrate the skills required to advance to Level 3 next summer.

Each child was called individually as LaCombe checked her binder and assigned tasks. Next she lined them up in the water, explaining that she would front glide first and if any of the others could reach her distance then none of them would have to do “bobs.”

She said the competitions help her secretly test them. “They will go ‘all in,’ if I give them something to work toward.”

LaCombe pushed off for an underwater front glide of about 25 feet. One by one, the swimmers followed. None could make her distance, but nearly all made the required two to three body lengths.

Caleb Sessions, the last to go, nearly reached LaCombe’s mark as the others cheered him on.

Not quite. “50 bobs everybody!” LaCombe called out.

Even the bobs help her test them. “They are doing rotary breathing, the process of blowing bubbles under water and breathing in when you come up. When we do swim strokes in later levels they have to rotary breathe,” she explained.

LaCombe said she enjoys the fast pace of her job and is already thinking about the future, keeping an eye on older swimmers who might one day step into her role.

“I love that my job is action packed,” she said. “But I also have to have my head on a swivel.”