If you have not seen the latest article in the Aquatics International Magazine "Taking a Dive", I would suggest that you pick up a copy and read it. Once you have digested the information in it, I would suggest that you do something about it. I did. I e-mailed the author and the editor asking for more articles like this one to continue clearing up the safety of the activity. I also wrote the Chicago Tribune and the Dailey Herald to see if they would use the information in an article prior to the opening of pools this summer. I also wrote CBS 60 II which a few years ago ran a piece on diving injuries in residential pools. Others that I have tried to contact are: Prima Central (the largest risk management company in North America), a research group on the East coast, the PDCA and Ellis and Associates. I also sent the info to various coaches around my state and across the country.

I suspected that something was going on but I didn’t have access to a lot of information. Diving in shallow pools is still not safe. But diving into pools with deep ends and large diving envelopes is very safe.

It appears that NSPI did a CYA move that purposely kept the Safety issue foggy. It did so apparently to avoid lawsuits. The question arises, "Is this in collaboration with the insurance industry?" Why else would premiums be high enough for owner/operators to consider removing or not building swimming pools with a diving end? The diving community should keep asking the insurance industry to lower the rates so that pools will still have diving boards.

I would like to thank Aquatics International Magazine and its author for investigating the Diving Safety issue. I think it was a great article. For those of us associated with diving, we have to keep this issue at the forefront of public attention. We can not let USD be the only one to do this because then diving would only happen in pools of Olympic caliber.

Back To Current Topics