The intent of this article is to give a brief history of the extent of outside influences on the Sport of Diving. The general theme is to give some perspective into the swimming pool arena and why diving boards seem to be disappearing in public pools around the country. Some of the following were happening in the same time frame but does not distract from the argument being presented.
          Pools back in the early 1900’s were constructed to looks like lakes. The pool industry’s logic at that time may have been rather than people traveling great distances to the lake, we can build the lake in their community for their convenience. These were the bath and swimming pools of the era and were the original zero depth pools that included an area of deep water for diving. Concrete or wooden abutments were erected to dive from and later included diving boards. The author can remember one pool his area that was changed to the competitive variety we see today because it was going to host the Pan American Games in the 1950s.
         Pools built in the pre-1950s seem archaic as compared to today’s modern facilities. Many were 20 yards long by 5 lanes wide and 7 to 8 feet deep if there were diving boards. There were no gutters to act as skimmers or decrease the waves produced by the swimmers. The boards were made of wood either with a burlap or sandpaper covering. The length of the boards ranged from 8 to 16 feet. None were level as they are today. There weren’t too many standards at that time in the pool industry. Most pools were rectangular and could accommodate competitive swimming and diving along with recreational swims and lessons. If you were a diver in the 1950’s and 60’s, you could see divers catching handstands on the bottom of these shallow pools. At that time, there were no reports that divers were getting seriously injured in these pools.
          Even hotel/motel pools had a depth of the same 7 to 8 feet with diving boards and many were intended to be odd shaped, such as the kidney shaped pools. Some were flower pedal shaped with the deepest part of the pool being in the center of the flower. These pools had an immediate drop off from 4 or 5 feet to 8 or 9 feet deep. The problem was that the patrons could easily miss the deepest part in these pools and they did. After a period years the insurance companies told the hotel/motel owners remove the boards because of the number of injuries that occurred in them.
         At one point, many pools were being constructed and had diving boards but the depth of those pools kept getting deeper. Newer pools were being designed to be deeper. Over a period of time, one could see that there were varying depths and pool bottom configurations. This made visitations to different pools a challenge. One pool would be 8 feet deep and the next would be 12. The patrons would have to have the ability to compensate for these varying depths and bottom configurations when diving. Being use to 9 a foot depth and diving into a pool with a 12-foot depth was not a problem. Being use to a 12-foot depth and then diving into 9 feet of water did present some problems.
        In the late 1970’s, competitive diving began to feel the pinch of serious diving related accidents. Majority of these accidents were shallow water accidents and not from the use of diving boards. All of these accidents were classified as Diving Accidents and almost caused the demise of the Sport. Diving was a popular activity and people were diving everywhere including into shallow water in lakes, rivers and streams. After some serious research (1977 to 1986) and convincing, diving was saved from being an endangered sport. Unfortunately the statistical data continued to haunt it. By the mid 1980’s the dilemma had the NCAA, High School Federation and even YMCAs looking at the deep end of the pool. Many YMCAs took out their diving boards as a result of the depth and liability issues. The High School Federation and many State Health codes set minimum depth standards. These codes were eventually expanded to the depth under diving boards and now cover the rate of reduction to the shallow water in front of the boards.
        As time passed, pools that were considered too shallow for diving boards had removed them. Backyard swimming pools became popular in the 1980’s and caused a rising concern because of their shallow water and resulting diving accidents. These pools became relatively inexpensive and were now being seen in a lot of backyards around the country. The above ground pools contributed to the shallow water diving injuries. It seems that as the public pools became larger and deeper, the in ground backyard pool and apartment complex pools began experiencing more diving related injuries. These private pools began to contribute more to the diving accident dilemma. The safety mis-interpretation mainly stemmed from the manner in which these accidents were recorded, categorized and then reported. Diving into an in ground backyard pool is a lot different than diving into a public pool. No distinction was made between the two.
        As one can see, competitive diving has been misinterpreted as being unsafe. Some pool owners were seeking a reduction in insurance rates if they removed their diving boards. Was this really an insurance issue or was this the start of another change occurring in the pool industry? Regardless, it did create the self-insured and risk management organizations of today.
Prior to the new millenium, the pool owners/operators have changed their strategy and wanted to make a profit from their pools. Up to this time, the goal was to be not for profit and at least try to break even. This is where the water park situation begins. Diving boards are being removed and replaced by waterslides. Zero depth pools are replacing baby pools or are being added on to the existing pool. It begins to make these pools look like a lake again. Things to climb on and swing from are added to increase the activities a patron can do. Fountains, mushroom sprays and waterfalls were added. All of these add ons where in place to entice more people to go to these pools. Every add on changed the pool design so that in the future these water parks will not be able to conduct competitive swimming or diving. A few of these pools are beginning to appear on college campuses.
        As this author digests and evaluates the information at hand, it would appear that the owner/operators are the cause of the disappearance of diving boards. They build their facility with the idea to make money by drawing in as many patrons as they can. The author has been told by one owner/operator that they don’t want a highly competitive program. Later the reason for this was discovered. Waterslides were added. If there were a highly competitive program there, there would be problems closing down half of the diving area and 3 lanes of the swimming pool in order to operate the waterslides. Some of these pools operate continuously, not closing for the dinner hour like they use to.
        The risk managers seem to be around either to temper the owner/operator’s enthusiasm or figure out ways to manage the risks in these new facilities. With each of these changes, they knowingly or otherwise have raised their liability. Because of the changes described above, more lifeguards are needed to insure the safety of the patrons. This presents a problem of its own because the pool of lifeguards in many areas of the country seems to be getting smaller therefore making it more difficult to find people who want to guard. Maybe this is due to the low wage they are paid for all of this increased responsibility.
        In many of these water park facilities, there is a current. This current is produced by pumps that push water up to the slides and by gravity as the water empties from the slides. In some pools, an intended current pushes the patrons in a circular path. All of these things add a little something to a pool that may not have been there before but adds to its liability. Wave pools and the like, create an uneven surface and have a tendency to flip some patrons into others or into the pool side or even the bottom of the pool.
        The time seems to be approaching where the water park idea may be becoming another passing fad. Some owner operators have tried to add waterslides or zero depth pools and saw no increase in their average daily attendance. This might suggest that the market is already saturated. Many pool owner/operators saw some water parks making lots of money and wanted to do the same. Unfortunately not all pools that were transformed into water parks made the kind of money they thought they would. The time may be right for pools that are considering the change to update their existing facilities and start a new/old fad that includes diving boards and pools for lap swimming because it will be different from what is already out there. The advantage of doing this would be a reduction in liability. That has already been proven in the past and has been passed over for these new ideas. It would also decrease the number of staff needed, which would keep the cost of operation down.
        If we look at this entire picture, it appears that the industry has almost gone full circle. In 100 or so years our swimming pools are almost looking like the pools of the early 1900s with a few new twists. Right or wrong, this trend has happened at what appears to be the expense of competitive diving and now competitive swimming.
 
 
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