Diving program in Seattle eastside

Question
QUESTION: Hi Tom,
I have a 7 yr old son who loves swimming and it pretty good at gymnastics. He is showing an interest in diving. Do you know of any beginner diving programs in the Bellevue/Redmond/Kirkland area? Thanks!

ANSWER: Rita -

The only pool I know of that you could take him to for the rest of the summer is at a facility in Seattle called the Queen Anne pool:

www.seattle.gov/parks/aquatics/pools/queenanne/schedule.htm

There are pools with diving in the area you mention but they are either for high school students or for members of private country clubs.There are just not enough public pools with deep water for diving boards in general in the Puget Sound metro area.

There is a woman who teaches diving on Mercer Island but she only does them during the school year. After Labor Day, contact Patti Southerland and ask about her Learn To Dive Program.
E-mail is [email protected].

Wish I could have more places for you to check out but there are not many choices unless you want to drive a lot farther. There is a fantastic diving facility in Federal Way but I think that he may be too young for the ability level of diving program there plus it is a long way to drive for a 7 year old who has many years ahead of him to learn the sport.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the info! I am looking for something after summer so I will be sure to contact Patti. And you are right about the distance to Federal Way. It would be too much for a 7 yr old. So do most kids get serious about diving only when they get to high school? Or do parents do the trek to the nearest facilty and/or shell out the $$ for a country club membership?

Answer
There are kids who get serious about diving before high school because they take to it right away and enjoy competing. The youngest age group is 11 & under and there are national championship events for them. Most kids start competing when they are 12-13 to get ready for high school diving, which is very popular in Washington (I live in Everett).

Country club diving is recreational and very low key. It is presented as a fun summer activity and is mostly coached by high school and college kids who dive for their school.So I would not concern myself with having to join a private club because they are not in business to produce high level divers.If he really likes diving, you may have to travel to Federal Way, but I think that would only be in the spring and summer months when there are the most meets.

There used to be diving lessons at Juanita High School in Kirkland but they wanted too much money to rent the diving boards so coaches stopped offering diving programs. It is only for kids who go to the school and dive for the swim team.Bellevue has a diving board at the city's aquatic center but they only let high school kids use it.Same thing at the pool in Redmond which I think took out their board or may even closed the pool because it was too old and too expensive to fix.

Your area really needs a good aquatic facility but the cities and King County just do have the $$ to put one in.