Making a splash, at NZ Diving Nationals
Splashy, not flashy - that's always been my level of springboard & platform diving. Despite that, I love it - and it was a thrill to take part in the NZ Diving Nationals this week. I even pick up my first ever podium place, placing second in the Masters category.
With diving, getting started is as easy as... falling off a log. But completing a dive with any degree of finesse takes a lot of training, mental perserverance and of course physical resiliance (my specialty: the belly-flop).
But in life there's no better feeling than accomplishing something you didn't think you could do - and diving is a sport that offers that feeling in spades, every day at the pool. Fear and fulfilment, time and time again. So there wasn't any question that it would be on my list of things to return to, this year.
Mind you, training had started last August, in my radiation sessions at Wellington Hospital.
By March this year I was champing to get poolside. I had a few neck & shoulder problems to overcome - at first I couldn't control my head to keep it tucked in and it kept lolling out in somersaults. And I couldn't straighten my arms above my head, meaning that the dives from my first few sessions were as about subtle as a flying octopus.
Winter came, and with that, my soccer season kicked in - so that each Saturday afternoon consisted of 90mins of running aimlessly around a park, then scooting straight off to the pool for another couple of hours of falling aimlessly into the pool. Gradually, for some reason, my diving started to improve. Perhaps because the two sports do share some common skills...
But the real reason was the patient and inspirational attention of my coach, David. Every session he would carefully target the right exercises for getting me back into shape, then set me dives that were not too difficult for my state, but still challenging enough to keep me improving. It's a great feeling to shoot up back from the bottom of the dive pool, break the surface and search across for the David's reaction - and get an enthusiastic, emphatic: "Yessss!"
So three weeks ago, when he asked if I wanted to enter the Diving Nationals, masters section, my reaction was of course: "are youserious?" And David's reaction was of course: "Yessss!". So it was decided. Then followed two weeks of training 3 times a week. On event day, last Saturday, we squeezed in a 7am training & 12pm training, before my event at 2pm. It all paid off - I dived better than I ever had, and failed to embarrass myself in front of 40-odd elite divers from around the country.
Later that afternoon, it was particularly rewarding to take part in the James Webster Memorial event, held in honour of the young Waitakere diver who died last year. We all watched a memorial video on the big screen, then mixed into teams (young and old!) to each complete one of James' dives from his dive list. I was in a team with several kids who knew James very well; they had competed the whole day with black armbands, and there was a lot of feeling in the event for them. But the event was also packed with plenty of laughs, some spectacular dives, and one or two equally spectacular wipe-outs (not from me, remarkably).
So, an enormously rewarding day. Big thanks to John, club president, for encouraging me to enter, and especially to my coach David, for making it all possible, and the training so enjoyable.
And, I came away from my first ever NZ Diving Nationals with a podium finish, placing second in the masters category. Yessss!
p.s. It was a small field, but that's my first ever placing at a NZ national sporting event. I'll take it. And I'm dedicating it to the group that helped me get me training again, way back in August last year: the RT's at Wellington Hospital's Radiation Oncology ward. This one's for you, team LA3!