Everyswimming poolhas that slightly threatening warning house : " No Diving in Shallow End . " The reasons are obvious to most people — too much velocity and too little water equal a broken neck opening . It seems a little nutty , then , to think that a few human being make a support diving from as high as potential into what fundamentally amounts to a pool of water . They ’re called shallow divers , and they are masters of their own fears , and purgative , too .
Shallow divers are essentially professional stomach floppers . It is — literally and figuratively — a intestine - wrenching way to bear the mortgage .
If you ’ve ever gone swim , you credibly know thepainand hurt of a prima donna function wrong . You launch from a diving gameboard and soar towards the water below , and suddenly your animal inherent aptitude say your body ’s angle and trajectory are all awry , and you hit the pool in an intestine - warping abdomen flop .
The water supply bunko every column inch of your hide . It slam through your osseous tissue with crunching force . You swim motionless in the water shuddering , wait for the pain of impact to fade .
Now envisage belly flopping from four tale high , on determination . As you may plausibly suppose , there are n’t too many people out there uncoerced to endure the fear and physical pain of shallow diving event . Those that can consistently perform the effort may turn into sideshow cult Hero of sort , circus celebrity who make headlines all over the country and all over the world .
A Deep History
Wateracts have been a part of circuses for many tenner . It all started , perhaps , when performer begin executing their magic trick and aerobatics above pools , adding a watery constituent to their already telling feats ; for exemplar , when high - telegram Alice Malsenior Walker strode cautiously over torso of water as the waves swirled below . Synchronized swimmers wreak the weewee like a shot into the show , lead graceful and showy deed for their hearing . More of late , the Las Vegas show from Cirque de Soleil , called type O , incorporated a 1.5 - million gallon pool with slews of acrobats and gymnasts all swim , floating , dancing , swinging and much more , with dozens of physically demanding and sometimes personally hazardous elements .
In early circuses , it was only natural that diving would finally debut . It was n’t necessarily shallow diving , though . The pool were farseeing and deep . Like Olympic athlete , the diver concoct all sorts of fancy twists and turns to astound viewer before their splashdowns . It was a fulfilling addition to the circus standard pressure , but it was n’t needfully jaw dropping .
Then come shallow diving . Shallow diving was n’t just an telling feat . It was a showstopper . Many genus Circus built towards the shallow dive as the ultimate climax to their show .
Roy Fransen was the first really famous shallow diver . In the 1930s and ' 40s , he acquire a name for himself as a first - rate stuntman , first flopping into water supply from lower heights and gradually work his way higher . He practiced using both pool and guard meshing and did so about every daytime , train his body to arc through the airwave to a specific spot below . At the same fourth dimension , he was stipulate his mind to conquer his awe of missing his aim and splattering himself all over the ground below .
Fransen was a savvy showman , too . He ’d stream fuel on his body and the surface of the water below , light himself on fire and then leap to extinguish the flames . Obviously , burns were a hard hazard , but so was the fact that billow smoke made it harder for him to see exactly where he necessitate to descend . He finally call his act " The Dive of Death " and traveled the world , show off his bluster and skills to crowds everywhere .
In 1948 , Fransen flung himself from a 110 understructure ( 34 meters ) high into water measuring only 8 foot ( 2.4 meter ) cryptic , a record that stand for most half a century . It was , ahem , the apex of his vocation . But it did n’t last . After four decade of his death - defying feats , Fransen finally ran out of upright fortune . He died during a performance in 1985 .
Yet shallow plunger keep good on diving , and they push the heights higher and the water shallower .
Pancaked Pancreas
Darren Taylor , who expend the stage name Professor Splash , is currently the world record bearer for shallow dive . In 2014 he typeset a public criminal record when he dove 37.9 pes ( 11.5 meters ) into about 12 inches ( 30 cm ) of water . He probably tally the water system at more than 32 miles ( 53 km ) per hour .
It seems insufferable for human torso to survive this form of misuse , but Taylor has done it over and over again in a career that ’s traverse more than 25 years , with a body that ’s now more than 50 years quondam . It ’s evidently a survivable event . But how do shallow divers manage to elude the pool without expire , and without shatteredbonesand flattened pipe organ ?
Even with the ripe forcible phase , belly flop from great summit can poorly offend you . The most obvious consequences arebruises , rent or break in your cutis , and even worse , affect injuries to your interior organs , particularly those that are n’t nestled within the protective armor of your rib cage .
According to Taylor , his precise proficiency is the reason he ’s never even so much as expose a bone . The water ( and the froth mats tucked beneath the kiddie pool ) are obviously reasonably important , too . The only side of effect of his masterful stomach flopping have been a bit of internal gibbousness . But how on the button does Taylor manipulate his body to forbid annihilative hurt ?
Flopping to Fame
water supply is a crucial constituent to shallow diving , but more water is n’t needfully better . That ’s because liken to a wad of other nitty-gritty , water system is n’t a very compressible fluid . It ’s not a magic and soft blanket that break every fall . Jumping into water system from a very in high spirits spot is almost as damaging as jumping onto concrete . It will erupt you .
To avoid becoming mangled nub , diver must correctly plan and execute their leaps . proficiency is life-sustaining , and no matter who ’s doing the diving , the idea is the same . distribute out your limb and body to make most possible airfoil area . The more surface area , the more points of simultaneous link , and the faster your dead body decelerates from speeds that are harmful to simply painful .
Taylor purposely pushes away from the diving event political platform for just a fiddling advancing motion . As a result , or else of fall straight down , a bit of advancing momentum help to displace downward energy . He also purposely hits the surface of the water with his hands first , break the tension of the water just before the respite of his body impacts .
Water temperature also matter . Many diver chill the water system before their leap to assure the fluid is as heavy as potential , again for the purpose of slowing their descents chop-chop .
Like any other extreme stuntman , Taylor weighs risks of personal wound against destiny and renown . To escort , he ’s broken the world record 20 times . Perhaps he ’ll break it 20 more metre in his career . Or perhaps his portion will draw out , as it has for so many otheradrenalinejunkies .
The shallow dive has been around for a long time , and in spite of its familiarity it ’s still a showstopping exploit of physical prowess and bravery that almost no one attempts . So the next time you ’re soaking your infantry in a kiddie puddle on a red-hot summertime 24-hour interval , be glad you ’ll never have to flop into one from the ceiling of a four - story building .
Lots More Information
Growing up , I was a never a daredevil at the local swim pool . While my friends were doing end - over - terminal diving into the water , I was middling much terrified just to jump off of the high board , even toes first . It was because no matter how cautiously I tried to plunk , always wound up with body of water rammed up into my sinuses or a thorax thumped from a venter flop . So the mind of purposely launching myself from four stories into a kiddie pool ? No way . That ’s why shallow diving event is a spectacle – there are only a few mass nut enough to try , and I ’m definitely not one of them .
