Depending upon your age, you may have very fond memories of springing gleefully off a bouncy diving board into pools. Every pool in the neighbourhood had a diving board. They were as common to swimming pools as water. Unfortunately the only ones who have these memories are getting up there in years. For decades here was a time that probably ninety (or more!) percent of the pools we at Hollandia Pools installed had diving boards. Now? Probably only about five percent of our pools do.

So what changed?

Lots!

Probably not surprisingly one of the big changes involved the “S” word. Safety. Things that seemed, or at least were viewed as harmless and good fun in the sixties, seventies and even into the eighties have progressively had more judicious eyes cast upon them. The reality is that accidents happen, and diving boards can amplify accidents. Progressively over time, more and more people have decided diving boards just aren’t worth the risk.

Another contributing factor to the demise of diving boards was that pool dimensions changed. People spend eighty percent of their time in “play area” of pools. Play area is considered where people can stand with their head above water. Consequently many of the swimming pools we make and install now have proportionately much larger shallow ends, which leaves less and less room for diving board dives.

Along with this came the reality that homes are now being built on much smaller properties than they were decades ago. This again has created a dynamic where swimming pools are much smaller than they once were. Fewer and fewer pools have the room to spring off the board and still land in deep end water depths.

But can you still actually get a diving board?

You can, but they’re not what you remember. Those swimming pool diving boards from back in the day were manufactured with incredible amounts of spring. Now, even if you get one, they are substantially stiffer than they used to be. Manufacturers are fearful of being on the wrong end of a lawsuit. So what should a person who still wants to have something to dive off do?

Now people are much more likely to have a diving rock installed rather than the diving board.