Connor Dives off the Diving Board

Connor loves jumping off the diving board. But, apparently he's getting a little bored with his standard jump, because he's started adding a few "tricks" to his repertoire. He started out by doing some twisting or turning once he hit the water. Then, he decided to try jumping off the board backwards (and almost clipped his chin, and I am not looking forward to another trip to the ER). Finally, he decided he was going to dive in. Only when he tried to dive the first time from the board, as was completely predictable, he performed a belly flop instead of a dive (ouch!). Luckily, he was wearing his standard wetsuit*, which probably makes it hurt a lot less, but he still decided not to try that again for a while.

A few weeks passed, and he decided to attempt a dive off the board again. Now, mind you, he doesn't bother telling anyone he's going to try this, he just gets this impish grin on his face and goes for it. So no one ever has the opportunity to provide him any helpful tips. And besides, we're parents, and it is already clear to Connor at times that we have nothing to add. The second attempt was actually much better than the first, but his hands weren't together, so his big head hit the surface of the water first. Ouch, again.

He studied the diving lessons going on one day while we were at the pool pretty intently, and I asked him he wanted to take a lesson so that the coach could show him how to dive without it being painful. He thought that was a good idea. The coach suggested he join a group lesson that started in a few days, but I thought five days in a row with kids who probably knew how to dive might be pretty intimidating. Plus, I didn't know if Connor would actually like diving once he tried it (he is, after all, related to Aunt Linda - see below), so I wanted him to have the opportunity to try it once and walk away without it being awkward. I asked the coach if Connor could have a private lesson instead. The coach was happy to do this, it just wouldn't be as economical as the group lesson. It was the end of the diving season, and the coach's schedule was busy, and then we were in Cape May, and finally our schedules met up last Friday, and Connor went to his diving lesson.

Coach Bobby Meeks is fantastic. He started the lesson by watching Connor jump off the board a few times. Then he showed Connor how to really bounce on the board. After that, he showed Connor how to dive forward, backward, and then do a roll off the board. Connor then talked the coach into showing him how high he could dive, and then begged the coach to give him just 8 more minutes of a lesson, or maybe 16, please, please, please!! (And yes, Coach Bobby did indeed stay a little late with Connor - who could resist, really?)

My very favorite part of this video is about 10 seconds in when Connor struts out to the board to do his first dive. He is completely confident, and definitely ready to impress.
After his lesson, Connor asked me if he could have at least twenty more lessons, a number he revised to 100 shortly after I agreed that yes, in his lifetime, he could surely have twenty more lessons.

Congratulations, Connor. Your Aunt Linda might fall over when she sees this video. Although Aunt Linda ended up being a very good long distance racer, my whole family remembers the two or so years it took her to learn to dive. I have to say, though, the people teaching Aunt Linda how to dive totally sucked compared to Coach Bobby. If she had been taught by him, she would've learned the first day, just like you did.

*We've learned that in diving nomenclature, a wetsuit is a "smack suit". As in "Wow! He must be getting ready to do something really cool. Look at that smack suit!"