Because of this situation, I went back through Gabrielsen's 1981 study of 152 cited diving and water slide incidents. One must take note that these injuries occurred prior to 1981. There were 16 incidents reported from the use of water slides. Of the 6 that happened in school pools, 4 were in shallow water. The two remaining incidents involved multiple bouncing of the board causing one diver to land on someone else and the other was propelled into 6-7 feet of water. The last diver's intention was to see how far out he could dive. There were only 4 city pool incidents in the report. One of which was in shallow water and 3 from a 3-meter board into a spoon shaped bottom pool. One landed in 6 feet of water with the hint that the depth was not sufficient for a 3-meter board in the other two. Also, no indication was given, if the last two even landed in the deepest part of the pool.

Of the 152 injuries cited, 120 occurred in backyard, hotel/motel and apartment pools. The rest occurring in the natural environment or commercial facilities. Since the 1980's, many hotels and motels have removed diving boards because the insurance companies told them to. 74 of Gabrielsen's diving incidents occurred in residential pools. It appears that residential pools and their injury incidents were over-shadowing the Safety of Municipal pools and the Safety of the activity of Diving back then. Those pools were usually shallow and if they had diving boards, the diving envelope was not large enough to keep the diver safe. Municipal pools, however, have a much larger diving envelope and are generally deeper. Pool Codes (Illinois) now regulate the distance to the slope and its rate of reduction to shallower water, if a pool is designed that way. Most recreational divers do not go straight to the bottom the way competitive divers do (Gabrielsen & Stone). They take an angle toward the bottom and arch back up to the surface (steering away from the bottom). With the minimum depths that are now established, the diver has more than 10 feet to the bottom from a one-meter board in Illinois. With the distance to the slope and its reduction rate regulated, the recreational diver has much more room to maneuver than ever before. This is not the case for residential, hotel, motel or apartment pools.

These findings should not indicate that swimming pools should be banned but rather looked at on an individual basis before any decision is made. (Weiner) Residential pools that are 4 feet deep are relatively inexpensive and can provide a lot of years of enjoyment for a family. This includes watching their children learn to swim. I have personally owned one for 18 years and never had an injury in it. I never put a deck around it or used the ladder to enter/exit it. There was always adult supervision when in use and fences were locked when not in use. I, alone, took that initiative for the safety of family and friends.

Diving into 5 to 6 feet of water or less is not safe. Families must know that diving into 3 * to 4 feet of water can be extremely dangerous. The same holds true for the in ground residential pools with diving boards. The owner must be made aware of this so that he can make a more informed decision when purchasing these pools and diving boards or making the decision to build a deck around it. The average homeowner may not even be aware of these potential hazards. They are just excited about having their own pool. Maybe the manufacturers don't want them to be aware, for fear that they will not buy their products.

There seems to be a need to clarify the types of diving when reporting injuries. This was the suggestion in an article of Sportsmedicine Magazine titled, Diving Boards Disappearing back in 1988. It is also one of the purposes of this article today. Grouping all Diving into the same category will keep clouding this issue and may cause the further disappearance of Diving boards in Municipal Pools. More than just diving boards will be lost. Diving lessons and Diving programs will also be lost. Municipal pools are safe for diving because they must follow the guidelines set by State Codes in order to have diving boards in the first place. These codes are refined every few years as the need arises or new technologies become available. Illinois has just completed another revision to its code. It's in its final printing at this moment (May 18, 1999).

In Gabrielsen's 1996 report, he makes suggestions pertaining to the diving envelope. It includes board heights, depths and distances to the slopes. I am not sure if I agree with them or not, but he has no argument with pools that meet the governing bodies depths (NCAA, High School Federation and US Diving). He reports that US Diving states, "there has not been an SCI injury in competitive diving in sanctioned pools". His argument deals with NSPI (ANSI/NSPI) and APHA standards. He believes they are wrong and should be changed. These do seem rather unsafe as compared to Gabrielsen's suggestions. Since I have been involved in the competitive aspect of diving for over 34 years, Gabrielsen's preferred envelope should be a minimum but preferably larger because of the increase of active adults.

The swimming pool manufacturers, who design and sell pools, regulate residential and private pool construction only. They give the owner some direction, specifically including operation and maintenance. After that everything is left up to the owner. No one comes in to make sure the pool a homeowner has installed, meets the health codes or is properly supervised. If statistics were reported in a different manner, they would, more clearly show that diving from a diving board into a Municipal pool is truly safe. People in the recreational field have spent a lot of time, effort and money to insure the safety of the public they serve by meeting or exceeding the State's Pool Code. This confusion in reporting injuries not only clouds the issues they have to deal with but also conceals the success they have had in this area of safety. I believe that the safety issues we dealt with in the late 1970's early 1980's have made municipal pools much safer for their patrons.

Finally, I believe that a pool should not have diving boards if that pool does not have a diving envelope large enough for the diver to easily steer away from the bottom. Setting specific depths may not be necessary to accomplish this. The pool's record of safety should dictate the results. I believe as Gabrielsen does that if all pools were designed with the same depth and bottom configuration, there would not be a need for people to compensate for changing water depths.