I would guess that your privilege to use the diving blocks is only valid during team or masters practice... how is she (or any random lifeguard) supposed to know that you're entitled, during an open swim session? Even if she knows, because she knows of you, how does she explain to all the other people in the pool that they cannot use the blocks?

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Less is more.

doesn't sound like she reprimanded you. Just told you about the policy. It actually sounds like she was nice because she did it via IM and not in public in front of everybody.

Pool i work at only allows squad to use the blocks when supervised. I use discretion and would let squad kids i know have a practice, but I don’t know all of them.

How is it her place to even say anything? She’s not a lifeguard or a coach, yet she went out of her way to specifically talk to management and determine I was the person diving. Since there are others that dive off the blocks are they going to find and tell them as well? Perhaps if there was a problem it should have been management’s role to talk to me. Provided I’m not a danger to myself or anyone else what’s the issue and why am I the only one being told I can’t do it anymore.

Hell, during swim meets kids that aren’t even members are diving often without being watched. WTF?...

Full disclosure, I had my own lane and no one needed a lane to share.

Apparently I’ve lost the privilege to dive, so yeah I’d call that a reprimand.

Very bizarre she didn't say anything at the time and followed it up with a FB message! In Australia a lot of pools ban diving off blocks for safety reasons, especially in shallow pools. Lifeguards would normally pull u up on this. I'm surprised (if it was banned) that no-one mentioned it at the time. It would have been obvious to the lifeguards, unless they weren't doing their job.

Why do you need to practice diving-do you compete?

She asked if I was swimming this morning around 10am. I told her I was. She then told me diving was not allowed and she verified it with management. She said “So you’re aware the next time you swim”. Diving is permitted for the swim team and masters (which I paid for two years). Many other fellow swimmers practice dives. I feel like she really singled me out.

Why don't you just ask management to confirm it?

It is painted “No Diving” all over the pool deck.

It sounds like she's not singling you out at all.

As a former lifeguard and pool manager loads of things going on here:


This. We never allow the diving blocks to be used during public sessions. By anyone. Only when directly supervised by a swimming teacher/coach in a lesson or squad training session.


If she is an employee of the pool (as opposed to someone hiring pool space to run her own sessions) then she has a duty of care to report H&S issues, regardless of her actual job role.


Yes and no. On the one hand she was in the middle of delivering a session of her own. But on the other hand, if it is truly against the rules for H&S reasons, that should have taken precedent.


But this is quite odd. Although:


Which is actually quite a nice way to go about it.


Keyword there, apparently. I'd check with the pool management exactly what the score is next time you go, because if you really aren't allowed to dive off the blocks, I can't believe that any lifeguard who's not literally asleep would let you do it 12 times. Back in the day as a LG I would occasionally be "slow" to tell people they couldn't dive in so that they got their one in, but knew they couldn't do it again, but 12 times? And if the LG wasn't paying attention, I'm surprised that the instructor didn't point it out to them at the time so that they could speak to you.

Ultimately, the mistake you made was diving in next to the aqua aerobics session. From my lengthy experience in Leisure, albeit in the UK, aqua classes are populated in the main by a certain sub-section of customers, ones who sure as shit don't come to the swimming to pool to get their face, or god-forbid hair, wet!

Some things are just incompatible. Racing starts and people bobbing along during aqua aerobics, playing soccer on the velodrome grass, walking the dog in the bike lane and so forth. Those are just a few things that I can see that seem like logical oil and water type problems. I guess "management" does have a policy in place, whether enforced or not 100% of the time seems like bad management. I would have expected the lifeguard to mentioned something to you at the time. I know I have told others as a lifeguard/ pool manager to keep out of the lap lanes when they are playing, controlling ball playing, rough housing during open swim, and not doing sprint kick drills next to the exercise classes. I have seen a lot of odd things in the pool but never recall seeing racing starts next to the aerobics class. That seems like a no brainer. Everyone comes to the pool expecting an enjoyable experience, getting totally splashed by divers during aerobics class probably isn't going to help.

Pools are expensive to operate and multiple use groups are often sharing times/space. People need to be considerate of others and I guess some people that instance thought you were not. If this bothers you, why don't you just talk to the Pool or Facility Manager?

After all, what's the problem ? A splash ? FFS Its a swimming pool ! Its got water in it ! And its not like the heard of hippos in the class are going to be splashless and waveless is it.

I'd go do it on purpose then. Just to make the point.

Alternatively.. are there any 'no bombing' signs ? NO ? GOOD.
time to get some top bombing practice in. You never know how useful a life skill it is.
I got on the TV a year or so back at a local Tri by doing a bomb (into suitably deep water of course) start.

Then as you're a masters swimmer, I guess your butterfly is OK ? A few vigorous lengths of that, with maybe an over- exaggerated kick.

After all, wHt do they want ? Dry water ?

Do you know for a fact that she doesn’t contact everyone that’s diving outside the permitted times privately and respectfully remind them of the pool policy on diving just like she did with you?

I'm definitely a big hater on those aquatics classes that think swimmers splash too much. But I wouldn't ever do dives off a block next to them if I wasn't doing a workout with the swim team. Seems incredibly rude from here.

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 . . . aaahh, I think that is the rule most places. Lots of good explanations as to why.

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David
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Your first mistake was getting the blue-hairs wet :)

Sorry you can't dive anymore :(

The indoor pool is 24 hours with no lifeguard. You sign a liability waiver as part of your gym contract and that’s it. It is only guarded for public swim on weekends from like noon to 5pm. It’s pretty remarkable really and surprising. The deep end is 6 feet and the shallow end is 4 feet, so it’s shallow but still deep enough to drown. I’m kind of surprised she didn’t say face to face anything either.

I’ve competed in masters meets in the past. The workout from Triathlete.com called for dive sets. It’s a skill set I’d like to maintain and it breaks up the monotony. In my opinion they’re like flip turns in terms of prioproceptive movement.

You’re right about the mistake being I was diving next to the class. They were off the the shallows, but there must have been comments about whether it was dangerous or permitted. Perhaps her hands were tied. OTOH, if it was 5am no one would have said a word.

I was 25 yards away and was already using that lane. All other lanes were in use. They were not even close by.

From the tone of the thread it seems like the aerobics instructor handled the situation quite well. On one hand it's probably not her job to guard the pool but as she's on deck she takes on some responsibility.
She recognised you and realised there was no real danger but knew about the rule.
Rather than make a fuss she informed you via message so in the future if someone does say something you are informed.
I've been on both sides of this. In the UK many of the pools have a blanket ban on paddles, snorkels, fins etc. I've been a user and been informed by a snotty lifeguard and I've been the coach that says "I don't care if you use them but there is a rule so if anyone complains just put them away".

This sounds like one of the one eye closed, one eye open situations. You sound like a regular that the staff recongnizes and gives you a wider berth. Probably safely doing the dives also helps.

But like many above have said, pretty sure it's required by most insurance policies to have the no diving signs present and enforced.

So while you probably felt that it was ok to use the diving blocks and continue to use them after no one said anything the first time, that doesn't make it right.

Was it right for the instructor to question your practice, absolutely. May it have been a bit douche, subjective. How she handled was definetly more classy than just going up to you at the pool and up front shutting you down. FB msg part agreed is above and beyond.

Unless your pool is an outlier, fairly sure I'd just chuck this up to you had a good run while it lasted.

....but, you never had the "privilege" to dive? Were you diving while practicing with the masters team you paid for?

It sounds to me like she just doesn't want to hear her class members complain to her about your diving in the future. Probably nothing more nothing less, and to be fair to her, you even say there are "no diving" signs plastered all over the joint. So one could probably infer that the management aren't too keen on diving in the pool. I don't know. Just a guess.

My guess is this ^

She likely doesn’t really care, but someone on her class complained to her, so she had to say something to you so that she could tell her member that she spoke to you about it.

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