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> But I pity the american bubble wrap culture. I don't see this in pools. 3m spring boards are still pretty common at pools in the US. My "nothing special" hig

> But I pity the american bubble wrap culture. I don't see this in pools. 3m spring boards are still pretty common at pools in the US. My "nothing special" high school had 3m springs. It's true that the 5m,7m,10m platforms are usually only found in sportsplex-type pools. They typically come as a package. But as you mentioned in an earlier comment, 5m+ starts the get actually dangerous. Flopping from 10m or even 7m without an agitator can do serious permanent damage. IMO a platform tower above 3m (or maybe 5m) is more "expensive sports equipment" than "general public recreational equipment". I maybe could see a 5m platform as "general public recreational equipment", but 7 and 10 are definitely not. And there are just better ways to use time/money than building a 5m platform when you already have 3m spring boards. American pools are moving away from exercise and toward recreation/amusement (i.e., switching out swimming lanes for "water playgrounds" and switching out diving boards for water slides). But that's a totally different phenomenon from "bubble wrap culture"; IMO those water playgrounds are way more dangerous than traditional pools (I've seen more than one kid injure themselves pretty seriously jumping off of the water playground into ~2ft water; that would never happen in a lane-swimming pool). And personally, I've had more injuries on water slides than on 1m or 3m spring boards. So there's something annoying going on with American swimming pools, but it's not bubble wrap culture.

namibj 8y ago
Agitator? Ugh... the 10m one where the 10yo kids were jumping had no waves. The water was perfectly flat. Or at least not deliberately agitated. There do seem to only be 3 of these in the local conurbation [0] (10 million population), giving 3.3 million inhabitants per tower, compared to 5.3 for the whole US. So yes, they might be more prevalent around here, but I don't know how open the facilities in the US are to the public/minors. They seem to be used for the Olympics and the associated training though. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine-Ruhr https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine-Ruhr
- throwawayjava 8y ago
  > the 10m one where the 10yo kids were jumping had no waves I know many, many just-below-olympic level divers. Of those, one suffered "minor" injuries (deep bruising basically everywhere on their body and a burst ear drum) and one suffered major life-threatening internal injuries (collapsed lung) after landing on their belly/back from 10m. The person with the less severe injuries flopped with the aerator on, which is probably the only reason the injuries weren't more serious. Diving from 10m is absolutely dangerous, even for professionals, especially without an aerator. > but I don't know how open the facilities in the US are to the public/minors. In the USA, at the places I know of, untrained children are allowed to dive off of 10m platforms during "free swimming" times. But only straight dives, and only after they demonstrate straight dives off of 5m and 7m. Which seems like a sensible compromise, given the risks. (Exceptions are always possible. If you are training for platform diving, you can simply tell the life guard and they will let you do fancier dives from 10m.) > giving 3.3 million inhabitants per tower, compared to 5.3 for the whole US "conurbation vs. entire population" not a fair comparison -- a huge portion of the US population lives in rural areas that couldn't support a diving tower even if they wanted to. All of the USA cities whose diving infrastructure I know about have between 1 million to 2 million inhabitants per tower. According to that metric, the USA is less risk averse about diving (but actually, it's really just a matter of wealth and interest, because diving is an expensive sport and platforms are actually specialized sports equipment). Edit: Also, the wiki list of 10m platforms in the usa is out of date or just wrong. None of the 10m platforms I've used on a regular basis are on that list...

namibj 8y ago

Agitator? Ugh... the 10m one where the 10yo kids were jumping had no waves. The water was perfectly flat. Or at least not deliberately agitated. There do seem to only be 3 of these in the local conurbation [0] (10 million population), giving 3.3 million inhabitants per tower, compared to 5.3 for the whole US. So yes, they might be more prevalent around here, but I don't know how open the facilities in the US are to the public/minors. They seem to be used for the Olympics and the associated training though. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine-Ruhr https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine-Ruhr

throwawayjava 8y ago
> the 10m one where the 10yo kids were jumping had no waves I know many, many just-below-olympic level divers. Of those, one suffered "minor" injuries (deep bruising basically everywhere on their body and a burst ear drum) and one suffered major life-threatening internal injuries (collapsed lung) after landing on their belly/back from 10m. The person with the less severe injuries flopped with the aerator on, which is probably the only reason the injuries weren't more serious. Diving from 10m is absolutely dangerous, even for professionals, especially without an aerator. > but I don't know how open the facilities in the US are to the public/minors. In the USA, at the places I know of, untrained children are allowed to dive off of 10m platforms during "free swimming" times. But only straight dives, and only after they demonstrate straight dives off of 5m and 7m. Which seems like a sensible compromise, given the risks. (Exceptions are always possible. If you are training for platform diving, you can simply tell the life guard and they will let you do fancier dives from 10m.) > giving 3.3 million inhabitants per tower, compared to 5.3 for the whole US "conurbation vs. entire population" not a fair comparison -- a huge portion of the US population lives in rural areas that couldn't support a diving tower even if they wanted to. All of the USA cities whose diving infrastructure I know about have between 1 million to 2 million inhabitants per tower. According to that metric, the USA is less risk averse about diving (but actually, it's really just a matter of wealth and interest, because diving is an expensive sport and platforms are actually specialized sports equipment). Edit: Also, the wiki list of 10m platforms in the usa is out of date or just wrong. None of the 10m platforms I've used on a regular basis are on that list...