First Dive Meet

Leo has been enjoying diving.  The program switched to the summer schedule last week and his group gets two nights at the pool instead of one at the gym and one at the pool.  This weekend his home pool hosted a dive meet that was open to all.  His coach encouraged him to enter so he could get the experience of participating in a meet.  

He was scheduled to compete in the 3 meter event on Saturday.  We got there bright and early to check in and warm up.  

 It was a beautiful day.

 Here he is with his team mates - George, Abigail and Sophia.

 Leo competed in the most entry level group for competitive divers.  There were only a handful of kids from Santa Clara Diving (his program) participating on Saturday, and a ton of kids from the Stanford diving program.  There were at least 20 kids diving in between his dives.  The kids do six dives for the event.  His coach told us in advance what dives he should register for and all the dives are building block skills that are essential for executing more complicated dives later on.

Here's his first dive of the day, a Forward Jump Straight.

Forward Jump Tuck. 

Back Jump Tuck

Forward Entry Straight

He got a little feedback after a couple of dives from his coach Karla.

 After he was done, he changed and we wandered over to the award presentation.  We weren't sure what to expect.  There were only about seven or so other boys competing in his level so I thought his chances of getting a medal was pretty good.  He had solid scores and he looked good up there.

And sure enough, he won third place.  It was super exciting!

 Here he is on the podium.  His teammate Sophia won first out of over 20 girls.

 He didn't expect to win.  Prior to the meet, we talked a lot about this just being a learning experience and how he just needed to try his best and have fun.  He was so thrilled.  He wore his medal to the falafel joint where we got dinner.

 This morning was the 1 meter event.  The 1 meter boards are further away from the stands so I couldn't get any good pictures or videos.  There were less kids competing today, probably because it's Father's Day.  He did really well on some dives and not quite as strong on others.  He got third again!  Very exciting.

Poor 5th place winner Armando was not having a good morning.  He was with the Stanford diving group and he was in tears in the pool and before the awards, and then he was especially miserable after he got fifth.  His parents still had him get up on the podium and kept telling him to smile.  I felt so much for this kid and his mom.  Baseball used to bring out a lot of tears in Leo and I've been that mom trying so hard to get your kid just to suck it up enough to get through the activity.  

I'm not sure how Leo would have felt if he got a ribbon instead of a medal.  I'd like to think he would accept it with grace.  He enjoyed being part of the meet and wants to do it again.  I knocked out 50% of my volunteer responsibilities on Saturday by working in the snack shack for almost four hours.  It was super exhausting but less disgusting than the little league snack shack.