As a full-service aquatic consulting firm, we strive to design facilities that meet the needs of all user groups. While many aquatic sport facilities revolve around competitive swimming, we certainly do not want to neglect diving. While most university and high school teams only have 5-10 divers on their roster, they can be a secret weapon to propel a team over the competition. For instance, Purdue University finished in 13th place at the 2017 NCAA Championships with a final score of 106.5. The Boilermakers, Purdue’s diving team, scored 94.5 of the total 106.5 score for Purdue. Without the diving team, Purdue would have finished tied for 32nd place. Clearly, consideration should be given to a facility’s diving amenities.
Coincidentally, Purdue has one of the premier diving training facilities in the country, which includes a separate warm water diving pool with a massive 1-meter, 3-meter, 5-meter, 7.5-meter, and 10-meter diving tower. This facility has even attracted athletes like Olympic platform diving medalists Steele Johnson and David Boudia to train and compete at the university. While not every facility has the capacity or need for a platform as elaborate as Purdue’s, there are subtle ways to make your facility stand out when it comes to springboard diving.
There are two ways to mount a 1-meter or 3-meter springboard: on a stand or on a concrete platform. We tend to see a prefabricated, manufactured stand more often than anything else. These stands are made of heavy-duty aluminum and anchored to the deck using bronze deck anchors. The stands include handrails on both sides, as well as a ladder at the rear end of the board.
Shelby Bartlett, the four-time NCAA Zone qualifier and recently-appointed head diving coach at Saginaw Valley State University said that she prefers concrete platforms.
“They provide a more stable surface. Manufactured stands sometimes tend to shake, especially if they are older. And if the hand railings extend past the fulcrum, you can sometimes hit your hand on your walk down the board,” said Bartlett.
While manufactured stands are a good solution for low-level competition, Counsilman-Hunsaker has found that most high-level competitors prefer the more permanent solution that concrete platforms provide. These platforms also tend to be safer to travel up and down on.
Concrete platforms can be customized depending on the number and type of boards needed. Typically, we recommend providing two of each type of board to allow for multiple divers to practice simultaneously. Reinforcement for concrete platforms is designed by a structural engineer and is tested under both static and dynamic loads. A manufactured short stand is mounted to the concrete platform using bronze anchors and can come with or without handrails. If owners would prefer no handrails, they can be moved to surround the outside concrete platform to provide additional security on the elevated surface. This eliminates the risk of hands hitting the rails during divers’ approaches. In some jurisdictions, the concrete stairs leading to platforms fall under the design requirements of the International Building Code (IBC), which states that a maximum riser height for stairs is 7” with a maximum tread width of 11”. Both measurements are lower than that of most codes.
Counsilman-Hunsaker’s designed concrete stands have two intermediate steps bridging the elevation difference from the deck to the top of the one meter diving board surface. There is a 10” riser difference between the deck and the first step, as well as between the first and second steps. Between the second step and the top of the diving board, there is a 19-3/8” difference. Also, each step only has a “tread” depth of 4-3/8” at the deepest point.
While manufactured stands do not fall under the IBC, Counsilman Hunsaker can design custom stands to fit the gutter profile and meet requirements to provide a safer springboard experience.
Being leaders in aquatic design means presenting clients with all of their aquatic sport facility options. Determining the right diving amenities for you is just one of the many decisions we help make during the programming phase of design. Counsilman-Hunsaker has the tools to help guide your aquatic design to meet all user group needs.