Don't know what it's like elsewhere, but in Edinburgh and it's surrounding area there are only 2 pools with diving boards (until the commy pool opens again). When I was growing up (in the midlands) there seemed to be a lot more pools with boards - which is a shame as I used to spend a fair bit of time mucking about on them as a lad.
But here's the main point of the rant - one of the pools in Edinburgh lets you do whatever you want, and is populated with kids of all ages flinging themselves about doing jumps / summersaults / backflips - the lot, which is fantastic. The other one, and the commy pool when it opens I suspect, only allows diving - no flips etc and not even jumping in of any kind.
Why? Probably health and safety, but kids are being stopped from having a whole pile of healthy challenging fun, and how do you progress to diving if you can't start by jumping in? Probably by enrolling in 2 years worth of diving classes.
breathes out, rant over, thanks for listening....
