How to do: 3 step hurdle, front dive pike.

This dive is my favourite dive to do, because I'm really good at it and because it's the easiest dive you'll ever have to learn. Also it's the easiest dive to learn. This dive combines your hurdle, your pike (which I will explain in one of my next blogs) and your dive. It seems hard to put all of these things together, but it really isn't.
There's a few steps to follow to be able to do this dive but they're not complicated:
1. In one of my earlier blogs I explained hurdles, if you didn't read that one you should go read it because it explains how to do them. The blog is called ­­­­­­"Hurdles".
2.The next step for doing a 3 step hurdle pike dive is, when your up in the air you want to bend your body in half. At your waist.
3. Next, after you bend your body, you don't unbend your upper body to go in feet first, you would unbend your body so that your feet are in the air.
4. After that part it becomes really simple, you would just need to make sure you whole body is straight and your hands are in one another to create kind of like a vacuum so that the splash is smaller(I'll write about that some other time).
5. Last but certainly not the least, you have to point your toes, I honestly can't stress that enough. It doesn't seem like it but if you point your toes your legs will automatically stay straight when you hit the water.
Here's an example of a 3 step hurdle front dive pike:

How to take care of your bathing suit.

If you have a bathing that may be a expensive, it's a good idea to take care of it. After your done swimming, diving(this goes for all water sports). You should rinse out the chlorine and/or salt in cold water mixed with baking soda. After rinsing it with cold water and baking soda, you hang it to dry. Depending on what pool you go to and and what they use to disinfect their pool, there could be either of the two in there and even maybe another different chemical. If you don't rinse out the chlorine and/or salt your bathing suit will start to disintegrate and it won't last as long. This has happened to me once and it was very unfortunate. My bathing suit was all stretched out and the colors faded, it was never the same. To protect the color, you can take some vinegar and soak your bathing suit in it for twenty four hours and then just let it dry. After that the colors in your bathing suit should last as long as the suit does.

This is a website where I found 2 examples of ways to protect your bathing suit, click on the link to find out more:
*I know the link says how to protect your bikinis, but all bathing suits still are made from the same fabric, you can still protect them the same ways.*
http://ezinearticles.com/?Womens-Swimwear---Five-Ways-to-Protect-Your-Bikinis-From-the-Effects-of-Chlorine-and-Chemicals&id=1865481

Bathing suits.

What bathing suit is the best to wear while diving? Certainly not a bikini. Any one piece bathing suit is perfect for diving. I honestly can't tell you what kind of one piece you should wear because it's all personal preference, but my favourite type is ones with thick straps and there's a circle in the back, it's a Speedo bathing suit. There's a lot of different brand names such as Speedo is the most popular and Jantzen is an older brand and Tyr swimwear is the most recent brand, and all of those are perfect, because they'll last a long time. For me, a bathing suit only lasts about 3 months because the pool i go to has a really high concentration of chlorine and because I'm in the pool 5 times a week.
Honestly, these brand name bathing suits can be a little pricey, but its all worth it. The two Speedo bathing i just got were really high priced and they've lasted that longest. It really depends if your into the sport, or just trying it out, because if your just trying it out it doesn't really make sense to buy a fifty dollar bathing suit and not have you use it again. That would be a waste of money. Like I said it's all personal preference, and it may take a few bathing suits before you find one that works for you.

Hurdles

*The hurdle is the maneuver the girl in the video does while she's on the board.

Hurdles are mainly used to get the height you need to execute your dive successfully. There are two types of hurdles: one step hurdle and a three step hurdle. The three step hurdle is the one in the video. Here's some step by step instructions on how to do a 3 step hurdle.

All of these steps should be done in one fluid motion.

1. The girl in the video doesn't do this but you're supposed to measure your three steps by going to the edge of the board and taking three steps and a half step. The half is for the little jump you do after your steps.

2. Next, you face the water and take your first step with your right leg (if your right handed that is, if you're left handed, replace right with left and left with right).

3.After, you did those three steps, lift your left leg about half way.

4.When you're on your way down you lift your right leg and bring them both together in the air.

5.While you're doing your three steps and your little jump, your arms should be swinging, and they should make a full circle, in the backwards direction.

6.Finally, after you complete all of theses steps, in one fluid motion, you leave the diving board in a completely straight position.

The hurdle is not a hard to learn, to make it perfect you just need to practice. Also, it's a tool that is used for almost every forward dive.

Types of diving boards

There's two main types of diving boards springboard and platform. The springboard has two different heights 1 meter and 3 meters. The platform can go a little bit higher than a springboard, it's 3 meters, 5 meters, 7.5 meters and 10 meters.

I think that the springboards are way better than the platforms because you can get more height off of the 3 meter springboard than the 3 metter platform. You have more time to execute the dive properly if your higher up.

Divers who only use the platform should have a lot more leg muscle than the divers who use the springboards, because when your on the platform, all the force you put into your dive comes from your legs and your arms. When you use the springboard less force comes from your legs and your arms, you don't need as much force because as you land on the diving it comesback up and pushes you the rest of the way.

One of the main differences between the springboard and the platform is the way you do the dives. You'll be able to do the same dives just not the first part of the dive, the fist part of the dive is a hurdle(which i will explain in another blog). To get a lot of height off the springboard you do a hurdle and it will get you up really high, the more force you put in your hurdle the higher you'll go, but on a platform usually you do just a standing dive, you just start your dive standing up and swing your arms and bend your legs to have enough force to complete your dive.

Intro, :)

Hello, my name is Nicole Lanteigne. During the next few months, I will be writing blogs about diving.In the blogs that I write I will talk about the equipment, the best swim suits and also many fun and interesting facts about diving. In some of my blogs I'll put a video up of a dive and I'll explain how to do it, so you can try it at home.
I've been diving since i was 10 years old, I'm completely capable of giving advice and insight about the sport.
Also, I've participated in many competition within the city I live in. In those competitions I didn't do too badly. I came in 6th the first year I competed and 9th the second. The third year, i came in 5th and the fourth year I competed I came in 10th, because I went into a higher division and also my coach put me in that division against my will, and the one dive that was mandatory, is the only one i couldn't do. The year after that I went back into the division I was in a few years before, and I won, out of 16 other divers.
Diving is best described as a way to get out, to feel the air threw your hair as your falling from great heights.
Hopefully everyone who reads my blog can benefit of it, and enjoy it.