spring break dive camp

Question
We live in Colorado but are willing to travel. Can you recommend a good dive camp for spring break (3/21-3/29)? This is for a high school diver who made it to finals last year as a freshman.

Answer
Henry -

Most diving camps are held at major universities during the summer. During the time period you mention, you are not going to find a diving camp run by a college coach because it is the same time as NCAA Division I, II & III national championship diving meets.

There is the possibility of finding a camp run by a club team. I am going to suggest looking at three programs in Southern California. This area of the country is one of the strongest diving associations anywhere and produces very successful divers age 18 and under. If they do not have a camp going on in March, you can still ask them if your diver could join workouts for a week as a guest athlete.

The team in Mission Viejo, The Nadadores, has been known to offer spring camps in the past. I am not sure what they have to offer this year. Go to www.mvndive.com and take a look at their various programs. Click on contact and email or call to find out if your diver can be a part of the program for a week.

So Cal Divers is run by an old friend of mine, Scott Reich. He has done camps in the past during various times of the year. If you mention my name to him I am sure he will get back to you. His website is socaldivers.com.

Their is another team in Pasadena you should check out. The head coach is another friend of mine, Eric Elliott. Tell him I gave you his name. He has a great pool near the Rose Bowl football stadium. He used to be the head coach at the University of Kansas and other universities. The website for the aquatic facility is rosebowlaquatics.com. Click on diving to find his contact info.

Your diver is most likely going to need to be a member of USA Diving or AAU Diving to participate in a camp or workouts. This is to provide insurance. Membership is low cost (less that $20). Go to www.usadiving.org or aaudiving.org for membership info.

Good luck and if these programs can't help you, ask me a follow up question and I'll see what else I can come up with.