The Dangers Of Diving Boards
By: Joseph DevineWith Memorial Day and the start of summer rapidly approaching, many backyard and neighborhood pools are being readied for use by their owners and maintenance crews. One part of many of these pools is the diving board. Diving boards, while they can be extremely fun, can be exceptionally dangerous to the health and safety of pool patrons everywhere.
The first area of danger on a diving board is the top of the board itself. While the majority of boards are treated with a gritty surface to make them less slick, sometimes, particularly on older boards which have seen lots of use, this surface doesn't quite prevent falls. When the boards become slick, the chances of people slipping on the boards and either falling off and hitting their head or falling off and breaking a limb increase dramatically.
Another problem with the surface of a diving board is the effect it can have on people once they leave the board. The same gritty surface which is supposed to prevent falls can inflict a lot of damage. The gritty surface is more than capable of scratching people's skin. While that may not sound too bad, the scratches can scar and become infected.
The majority of people who use diving boards are not going to attempt particularly risky dives. Due to the construction of pools, however, any dive can be risky. Whenever a person enters the water head first, he or she runs the risk of making contact with the bottom of the pool. This can be done at either the up-slope (the part of the pool leading from the "deep end" that is on an incline) or the bottom of the pool in the "deep end."
When individuals hit the upslope of a pool following a dive, it is usually because the builder of the pool didn't start the upslope far enough away from the end of the diving board. The American Red Cross/YMCA and the pool and spa builders' association have very different ideas as to what is an adequate distance. Injuries can abound in this situation. Everything from simple scrapes and bruises to broken facial bones and paralysis are possible. For this reason, it is important to emphasize that when people dive out, they dive shallower.
Diving down can be more dangerous than hitting the upslope. This is because when people dive straight down, there are fewer options for what can make contact with the bottom of the pool. The only real option is hitting one's head on the bottom. This can result in paralysis, severe head injuries, and even death.