Height of diving board?

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ssgumby

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Feb 17, 2012
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Maryland
Im building a wall on the deepend of my pool with a waterfall. My pool is 8' deep in the deep end. What is a safe height for diving? I do not want to have folks diving, but I wonder what would be safe as far as height and figure a diving board height would be the safe height.

thoughts?
 
jblizzle said:
8 foot is marginal diving from any height IMO. Also depends on the profile of the bottom and how quickly it rises.
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Its the standard diving column, I do not know the angles off the top of my head but it has the standard slope.

I personally agree with regards to diving, but people put diving boards in all the time around here and 8' is what everyone has.
 
I'm actually figuring out how far out my board needs to be. WE are doing our patio now. The code calls for 6' of water at the farthest point out of the diving board, to the slope. Read up on "American National Standards for Residential Swimming Pools" and it has a ton of info, that has my head spinning, about this. My diving board company, Inter-fab, will tell me exactly where to set my jig (diving board mounting bracket) for proper depth over the board, but they make you sign off on it.
 
Mine is 8' with diving board ... but the bottom comes up so fast, you better have your hands out to push off the bottom. We call it a jumping board and have "No Diving" signs because if you do not know what you are doing ... or have had a few beverages ... nothing good will come of it.

Now I am teaching my kids to dive from the side and the board, but a 40 pound standing kid is a little different than a 150+ pound adult actually springing up in the air off the board.

I "dive" into 4' of water laterally ... you just have to know what you are doing.

And how can you be sure that the people who come to your house know what they are doing as well. I have yet to decide what will be done when my girls get older and start having their dumb male friends over ...
 
My diving board manual does have info on the max height of the board above the water, and I'll tell you, the spec is crazy! You also do need to know what type of pool you have, per the standards I referenced above.
 
You should also check with your home owners insurance company. Ours wouldn't allow a diving board, no discussion. So then we called around and couldn't find anyone in this area who would allow a diving board on a residential pool (this was years ago).
 
Keep in mind this is coming from a person with a 20x40 ft pool that is just over 8.5 ft deep and has a diving board (traditional hopper end pool). Diving boards can be an accident waiting to happen. Over the 30+ year life of my pool there have been multiple incidents with the diving board, one teen age girl nearly lost some teeth after kissing the slope and tearing a thumb size hole in the liner after diving face first, thankfully she had braces which held the teeth in. (It did extend the time she had to wear the braces by a year or two). Shortly after that a somewhat drunk 260 pound man snapped the diving board in half by jumping on it and trying to spring off, no injury there, but a lot of potential for one. Years later an 11-12 year old boy broke his arm on the diving board when he jumped feet first too close to the end. In addition to these memorable events there have been numerous slips, trips, etcs associated with having the diving
 
All these are very valid points.

As far as insurance, correct they will not allow a diving board.

We are building a waterfall on the deepend, we will prohibit diving but inevitably someone will do it at some point.

As far as the bottom coming up fast, I am 6'3 210lb and diving off the deck the bottom comes up very fast. I make sure I dive out, not down. Diving out I go down and skim across slowly.
 

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I know this sounds crazy, but my insurance company says they get more claims from non diving board related pool accidents, than with. Something about diving off the side, and hitting the slopes. Sounds counter intuitive, but they said the board positions you over the deepest part of the pool properly.
 
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