beginner diving lessons/summer camp for my gymnast son

Question
I would like to find beginner diving lessons/summer camp for my 14 year old son.  He no longer wants to compete in gymnastics,but has expressed an interest in diving.  The public high school he will be attending has a diving team(very small), and I think that it would be useful for him to have some exposure to the sport before school starts.  We live in Western North Carolina and I can't find much for beginners--UT has a day program, but that is almost 2 hours from where we live.  Any suggestions for a camp?
Thanks.

Answer
Hi Connie -

Most summer diving camps are held on the campuses of major universities that have the facilities to host them. Diving is very strong in your state, just maybe not in the western portion. There are teams in Greensboro, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Huntersville.

I will give you some websites to go to find a summer camp but in the mean time, he needs to find a place to learn to dive before he goes to a camp. Camps are primarily for experienced competitive divers who want to learn new and harder dives to prepare big meets. It is difficult, I feel, for someone with no diving experience to enroll in a camp and expect to learn the sport in a week or two. It is possible to do this and I am sure it has been done but it just makes more sense to me to go through a lesson program for a few months before going to a camp.This way, he can learn the fundamentals of the sport before learning dives for high school meets.

Since I do not know the city you live, I can only guess as to which NC program is closest to you. Is it possible that you live closer to Virginia than the program at UT? There is an excellent program in the Blacksburg area run by the coach at Virginia Tech. He has a team that uses a brand new aquatic facility in the town of Christiansburg. If this is feasible, contact Coach Ron by his e-mail: [email protected].

Here are some websites to go to find a camp:

www.usadiving.og - Click on Divers and then Camps and Clinics.Also click on Clubs and then Find A Club. Enter NC and a list of teams will come up.If he pursues diving, you will be using this site a lot. He may have to register with this governing body to be eligible for lessons or camps.

www.divemeets.com - On the home page, there will be a big ad for the summer camp at Duke. Also, click on Lists of Divers, Teams and Coaches. Click on Teams and a huge list will come up. Under AAU diving, scroll down to teams in NC. Click on the team name to obtain contact info. Scroll down even farther to NCAA and look up colleges in NC with teams. Finally, scroll to the bottom and look under the USA Diving team section.

www.diving.about.com - Site that explains the sport. In the Search box, type in Diving Camps and info will come up.

www.aaudiving.org - Alternate governing body of diving.Another organization he may have to become a member of.

Since he has a gymnastic background, he should take to the sport faster than kids that have no acrobatic ability. Good luck.Hope all this helps.