Making Waves: How Vasa and SWYMLINE Bring Virtual Swimming to Singapore’s World Aquatic Roadshows

The lead-up to the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore turned into a swimming tech playground. At busy mall roadshows across the island, shoppers came across a surprising sight: people "swimming" on dry land. They were lying on Vasa swim trainers, eyes fixed on a screen, racing through virtual pool lanes with the SWYMLINE app.

As we announced on Instagram, we were "thrilled to announce that SWYMLINE and Vasa Trainer are teaming up to show support for the upcoming World Aquatics Championships happening in Singapore".

Singapore's roadshows: high-tech swimming fun

The community roadshows were all about bringing aquatic sports to people's doorsteps. Visitors could try a water polo reaction wall, a VR high-diving experience, an artistic swimming photo booth and the swim trainer stations, where SWYMLINE ran a virtual swim challenge.

At one launch event, Olympic champion Joseph Schooling and local musician and former swimmer Benjamin Kheng each captained teams in an aquatic showdown, racing each other on swim trainers in front of a cheering crowd. Curious onlookers became eager participants, kids queued up to have a go, and everyone left with a taste of Championship fever.

What is SWYMLINE?

SWYMLINE is a virtual swimming app that lets you train without a pool. You pair it with a swim erg, and every stroke moves your swimmer through an immersive virtual world on screen.

• Immersive environments: a large open-water lake and a 25m pool, with a 50m pool coming soon.
• Live data: power, pace, stroke rate, distance and heart rate as you swim.
• Workouts and challenges: structured workouts, races against yourself or other swimmers, and a SWYM report after every session.

SWYMLINE started when its creator found himself with no way to train during pool closures, and wanted dryland sessions to feel like real swimming. Setting up takes minutes: download the app on your iPad, iPhone, Android tablet or Windows laptop, pair your erg and start swimming.

A perfect pair

The roadshows showed how well a swim erg and SWYMLINE work together. The erg gives you the physical experience: the burn in your arms and the pull through each stroke. SWYMLINE gives you the mental one: you see yourself racing down the lane, with your speed and progress updating in real time. Early user Katie described it as "kind of like Zwift for swimmers".

The stations were busy all day. Some visitors had never seen a swim erg before; others were seasoned swimmers keen to test themselves over a timed sprint. Friends challenged each other, and personal bests drew cheers from the crowd.

Singapore was hosting the World Aquatics Championships for the first time, and the roadshows were designed to build excitement among the public. Simulating a sprint yourself gives you a whole new respect for the athletes, and many visitors stepped off the trainers breathless and grinning.

Update, October 2026: Vasa's founder has since retired and Vasa's online store closed in April 2026. SWYMLINE still works with existing Vasa swim ergs, and also with the KayakPro SwimFast Ergo, which is available to buy now.