Diving Beauty

I've jumped off a few diving boards in my younger years, and even the top of waterfall once.... and while I can say that yes, it was a bit of thrill at the time, it also scared me quite a bit and I've gotten over the desire to throw myself off heights into pools of water. Diving has been one sport that I have watched whenever I get a chance to (usually during the summer Olympics as that is when it is shown) and really enjoy following. I love watching the grace, skill, and sheer nerve that divers exhibit. I haven't ever been to a diving meet in person before, and I really enjoyed it yesterday. Beth, Carissa and I spent the WHOLE day there- several hours more than I had planned actually. They started Preston's age group an hour later than was originally scheduled, and then a large rainstorm came through town and they had to stop the diving and clear the pool until the lightning had passed- 3 times. It didn't matter though, as I was there to see the 4 Holcombes dive and I really wanted to see Preston in action in person. He is one gifted diver, and I am looking forward to following his achievements down the road. All of the Holcombes dove well, and between the four of them they took home 1 silver and 6 gold medals- pretty good considering they entered 7 events!

They were a featured article in our local paper this morning, and Kathleen and Braeden's picture was on the front page of the paper and the sports section front, and the back page of the sports section where their article was has a picture of all four of them. The girls and I are even in the large picture, though you wouldn't know it was us because my head was cut off and the girls' faces are behind the Holcombe's heads LOL You can read the article in the Gazette here, though they don't have the pictures posted there that I can find.

I enjoyed using my friend's camera. The sequential action feature works pretty well and despite the poor lighting in the building it got some pretty good pictures. I even taught the dad of another diver how to use the feature on the camera- he saw me using the camera and came down to ask me what I thought of it as he had the exact same one. He was really frustrated with the shutter lag and not being able to get good pics of his daughter in her dives. Overall, I can't say that I would buy that particular camera as there were some things about it that really annoyed me, but I would certainly look into one with the ability to take rapid pictures like that if I was going to be taking more action pictures like I did yesterday. I wished the shutter speed was a bit faster so that I could have gotten more of the sequence of individual dives- it would take a picture about every second. A lot of time the diver would be at the top of the dive in one picture and the next one they were already splashing down into the water, so I missed everything in between. If the dive was a complicated one with lots of twisting and turning, then the person could be quite blurry too. There is one picture of Preston where you can see his head and chest and the rest of his body is so blurry that it looks like it isn't there; he must have been twisting quickly on that particular shot and the motion was just too fast for the camera to capture adequately.

OK, I'll stop yakking now and get the good stuff- diving pics! There were a few simpler dives where I happened to start clicking away at the right moment and was able to get a full sequence of shots from the board to the splash, so I put a couple of them together in an animated gif for you all to see. Here's one of Preston on the 1m springboard:

and one of him on the 3m springboard:

both are beautiful dives that received top marks. I look forward to the day when I can say "I knew Preston when...."

That's it for me tonight. Bryce's first day of 6th grade is tomorrow, so I have to get up early and see him off! night everyone!