jump system or diving board...opinions please

[Karen14]

I'm just looking for people's opinions on these different types of diving boards from s.r.smith. They have the salt pool jump system or the flyte deck II dive stand. We have a 8 ft. vinyl pool going in and are trying to figure out what sort of diving equipment to choose. We have 3 young children and want to keep it safe but fun. thanks....

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Ok, I just found out that our pb is now using the interfab durobeam 8' board. So any input on that would be great as well....thanks

 

[jblizzle]

An 8' board seems awfully big to me for a pool that is only 8' deep ... unless it is not very springy so that it acts more as a platform.

It is really easy to hit the bottom with only 8' of water. I would highly recommend you get in the habit of calling it a jumping board and not a diving board ... especially when the kids get older.

 

[bmoreswim]

Salt Jump is a more bouncy type of base versus the Flyte Deck II which is a solid platform. Our board is 8'. Honestly you do get some bounce, especially bigger kids and adults. And really unless your pool is 10' deep, for liability reasons you don't want a very bouncy board. You will have the ability to hit the bottom even with the Flyte Deck and 8 1/2' deep (our setup).

 

[Karen14]

Thank you for your experiences. I am ultra safe (I have read that having a diving board is safer then not because it defines the safe place to dive). So as much as I want this to be fun (i.e. A super bouncy board) I would sacrifice that for safety. Do you think a 6' board would be safer or doesn't it matter too much?

 

[bmoreswim]

Perhaps marginally less flexible, but can't be much. One thing to consider is scale. 6' for ours would look a little bit stubby (pool is a 38' long rectangle).