A Stairway to the High Boards
Years ago (1985?) a park district, where I ran a diving program, removed its high board much to my dismay. The reason for their concern was not the safety of diving from that board but rather the safety of the ladder system leading up to the high board. Their concern was that someone would slip and/or fall from the ladder to the concrete deck. At the time I was not aware of any such incidents occurring which prompted me to cite that the common angled ladder system was the safest. I suggested educating the patrons with the method of hand over hand while ascending and using the ladder rungs instead of the piping. I also suggested that maybe there should be a minimum height for the user. That would insure that the user was physically developed enough to hold on to the ladder. None of those suggestions mattered because the high board was eventually removed. This organization was responsible for 4 other outdoor pools and eventually removed the high boards from them.
This was one of the many reasons that prompted my Safety Research investigating as to why high boards were disappearing. I could not find statistics relating to injuries do to falls from ladders because all falls were listed under one category. Since that was the case, my search for answers encompassed the safety of the activity and the misrepresentation of the type of pools that diving board accidents were being reported. Articles in both trade and risk management magazines were circulated across the country containing those results.
About six months ago this same park district informed me that they were going to reinstall the high board in one of their outdoor pools. That pool has gone through some major renovations including a redesign of the ladder system to the high board. It turns out now that another one of their pools may be doing the same type of renovation. The change was in design from a ladder to a stairway system leading to the high board. This stairway is similar to the stairways leading up to waterslides seen in many leisure pools. It will have about 10 stairs leading to a landing (or a waiting area) and then another 3 stairs leading to the diving board. The concept is fairly simple and appears much safer than the angled ladder system used in many facilities. The individual steps will be deeper and wider than the ladder rungs and there will be a railing system to prevent falls from the side.
PICTURES
These pictures were taken at the Arlington Heights Park District's Frontier Park in Arlington Heights, Illinois. The design shown here has steps made of concrete with side handrails lining the entire edge of the structure, including the platform on which the springboard is situated. The rails also serve as a barricade to block users from falling through the side rails to the deck below.
It appears that the above stairway enhancement has been received more favorably by the risk management sector of the industry than the other ladder systems. But again the pool patrons must refrain from horseplay while on these stairs. That is assuming pools are built in the future with 3-meter diving boards. After writing some articles criticizing water park swimming pools that didn’t incorporate diving boards in their design, here is an idea that surfaced from those leisure pools that will make high boards much safer to climb. Personally, I would like to thank the Arlington Heights Park District and their staff for making this idea a reality. Their persistence has now made diving much safer from both ends of the 3-meter diving board.