San Diego JO Diving

Question
My daughter is 15 and a former competitive gymnast.  She has been diving
for about 6 months, we live in the city if San Diego and as far as I have found
there is only one club teaching JO skills in the city. I think there are clubs in
Poway and Carlsbad, but they are an hour away if the traffic is OK (which it
never is).  Do you know of any clubs in the city of San Diego?  Why does San
Diego have so little diving?

Answer
Janis -

In answer to your last question, San Diego has diving, it's just that it could only be for college students. There are (or have been) diving teams at San Diego State, U.C. San Diego and the University of San Diego. It is possible that these coaches only work with their own students and not high school age kids.

The best program in the greater San Diego area is Taylor Made Divers. Their coach, Dennis Taylor, runs his team out of Palomar Junior College. He recently put in an indoor dryland training center near the college that has trampolines and a dry board. He has excellent divers your daughters age. While it is far to go, his team is where you will get the best results. His website is www.taylormadedivers.com

Unlike gymnastics where coaches lease out a warehouse and put in their own equipment, diving coaches rely on cities, counties and schools to obtain their pools. You should find out where the pools are in San Diego city limits that have diving boards. Those are the only places you are going to find coaches.

To help you in your search, go to these websites:

www.usadiving.org. Click on Clubs and then Find A Club. Enter CA and a list of teams will come up.

www.aaudiving.org. Click on Diving Sport Contacts. When the map comes up, click on the District number closest to where you live. Try that person for more info.

www.flipnrip.com. Website for divers and parents.

www.mastersdiving.org.Look up Dave Cotton's name in the e-mail section. He lives in San Diego and knows where coaches are.

www.diving.about.com. Info about the sport.

www.usadiver.com. Articles on diving.

www.springboardsandmore.com. Equipment website.

www.divemeets.com. How to enter diving meets.

Good luck in your search.