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John was an avid swimmer as a young person and was ranked in the top ten in Australia in several events. John also started his passion young and also started coaching at fifteen in Ingam, North Queensland. He continued coaching and teaching in Brisbane, Townsville and Gladstone as a volunteer while working full time in retail sales. John still enjoys swimming and participates in the Coolangatta Gold and is an active member with Currumbin surf life saving club.
Judy found her passion in life early and started teaching when she was fifteen assisting a local summer swim team. At university she earned a degree in Physical Education, but decided that teaching and coaching swimming were much more fun than teaching at a high school. After teaching and coaching in Naples, Italy and then Santa Barbara, California, she went back to graduate school and earned her Masters (Honours) in Exercise Physiology. During these years Judy was very involved with Masters Swimming in the United States.  She was the first president of the Masters Coaches Association and in 1997 became the first recipient of the United States Masters Coaches Lifetime Achievement Award. Her passion for swimming then took her to south Florida where she (and then John) had the opportunity to work with U.S.A. Olympics coaches at a fantastic facility in Boca Raton.

John and Judy met in 1988 at the Masters World Swimming Championships in Brisbane. Both having a love for swimming and coaching - they hit it off. So John then joined Judy in South Florida where they married and had two boys who are now in high school. Geoffrey swims competitively in the pool and participates in surf life saving. Ian enjoys Scouting, Army Cadets and playing in the water.


In South Florida, John led his age group team to area champions and had a national champion and several nationally ranked young swimmers. Judy continued teaching young children as well as still specialising in Masters Swimming and running many camps and clinics.

After ten years in South Florida, the urge to move to Australia became strong and they accepted the challenge of managing the Killarney Swim Centre in Sydney. Killarney is one of the largest swim schools in Australia and part of Carlile Swimming founded by the famous Olympic coaches Forbes and Ursula Carlile.

After nine years there, the opportunity to own their own swim school and to live in the beautiful Gold Coast area became a reality and in 2006 the Bonning’s made the Tweed Shire their home and Billabong Swim School was established.