Imagine for a moment... the sun set about an hour ago, it's 47 degrees outside, it's pouring rain, and there's a cold breeze picking up. All-in-all, it's not a pleasant evening... the kind of night when most sane folks would be curled up on a couch with a good book or watching television. Now imagine standing on a 14-inch-wide piece of aluminum, 10 feet above an outdoor pool, wearing nothing but a speedo... about to launch into the air, spinning and twisting toward the water below.
It's really a very surreal experience. Visible steam rises from your body, taking with it whatever warmth may have remained. A cloud swirls over the surface of the pool, partially obscuring the water's surface. You're slowly freezing into a human popsicle, waiting patiently for a signal to go ahead with the dive. There's a jacuzzi on the pool deck, but even that apparent sanctuary comes at a price... it's just that much more dramatic a temperature change when getting out.
This is my first winter diving here in Southern California and it's not exactly what I imagined it would be. While standing there, poised for take-off and shivering, one has a brief moment to question the sanity of the situation. Why am I here?? Most people know I don't do well in the cold, I just wasn't built for it: 16o pounds and 6.5% body fat don't exactly equate to much insulation. But, night after night, regardless of the weather, I still find myself drawn to the pool like a mosquito to a bug zapper. Though I may hesitate to lose the jacket and sweatpants each evening, it doesn't take much convincing to have me on a board, wiping the rain from my eyes and praying that the pool is as warm as it should be. After all, one can't let the 12-year-old kids on the team think you can't handle a little rain, wind, and arctic chill... on an average winter night, we'll have 10-12 divers in the pool, sometimes more!
Diving in this "mildly inclement" weather, I've discovered a few things about myself that I had no reason to know before... most importantly: 45-degrees (47-degrees, if it's raining) is the lowest temperature at which I will still strip down to a speedo and throw myself off a springboard. On nights like that, I have about 45 seconds to a minute before I have to be back in the water. Any colder, and I'm happy to stand there in the rain coaching, but at least I've got a jacket and an umbrella to ward off the impending ice age. I've also discovered that I tend not to over-analyze things when my brain is icing over. I used to get a little freaked out when diving on the 3-meter boards... but, when icy rain is pelting you in the face and your body is slowly turning blue, one tends to stop caring about petty details like how high off the ground the board is.
Anywho, I just thought you might enjoy a rather unique perspective on the weather here in Los Angeles these past few weeks. Tonight was one of those nights that found me standing on a 3-meter springboard, praying for warm water. There have been a few nice days here and there and we even hit 80-degrees a few weeks ago. But, it's these cold, rainy spells that tend to lodge themselves into memory. I'm looking forward to the rest of this week and the 75-degrees we've been promised... though it's supposed to start raining again on the weekend.
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