Writing Prompt: The High Dive

 Prompt: Write about a favorite memory.

The High Dive

I wanted to write about a cool experience in my life, one that didn’t involve weed or alcohol. So to find something, I had to reach into my memory bank, going back to childhood, or in this case my early teenage years, when I sported braces and the occasional zit. It was a time when I felt fearless, invincible, and I was open to dares and challenges. 

At age 13 in the summer, you could inevitably find me at the community pool in Bexley. It was a large outdoor pool with lap lanes, and there was a roped off deep water section with a low diving board and a high diving board. I love swimming and diving, always have, and I loved those summers spending hours in the pool. 

So when I was 13 I was a tomboy, and I loved hanging with a group of boys that hung out around the diving boards at the Bexley pool. This one guy, Wade, was a particularly good friend, and he was a very good diver. Wade preferred the high dive to the lower diving board, and had no problem doing back flips off of the high dive and neatly entering the water below.

Now, I had mastered the low diving board, doing pike dives and back flips with ease. But I was itching to do what Wade and some other boys were doing: the back flips off of the high dive. I spent a lot of time watching Wade and how he did his flips. He made it look effortless and I grew determined to do it.

Eventually the day would come when I knew it was time for me to do the back flip. I can’t remember if Wade coached me on it or not, if he was there observing me. Probably he was, and there very well could have been other friends of mine gathered to watch too. 

Whatever the case, I do remember quite clearly climbing up the high diving board, walking down it to the end, and turning around. My toes held me in place as I quickly surveyed the area around me. And then I just closed my eyes, arched backwards and fell back, seeming to hang there in the air for a long time until remembering to flip my legs over me so I entered the water feet first. And viola! I did it on the first try, my very own high dive back flip. I couldn’t wait to do it again.

This is definitely a favorite memory of mine, the free fall of a slow back flip off of an outside high diving board in the summertime. Having absolutely no fear of screwing up the dive and doing a belly flop. And upon completing the back flip, I felt part of a small club of people undaunted by the high diving board.