close camps to rhode island

Question
my daughter is 15 very interest in platform diving.  can you tell me the closet training camps to rhode island.

Answer
Isabelle -

You happen to live in a state with no diving programs and also no high diving platforms. The only team I know of is at Brown University and is for the college students. They may have a springboard program for non students - you would have to check at the schools athletic department website.

The closest programs to you are 50 miles north in Boston. There are platforms at Harvard and MIT. To find out more info on how to join, go to www.usadiving.org and click on Clubs and then Find A Club. Enter "MA" and a list of teams will come up. Check out Charles River Diving run by the Harvard coach and the Badwest Team that uses MIT.Those are the two schools with platforms. While at this site, enter "CT" and you may find programs in that state that are closer to you but you will not find any with platforms (I do not think).The New England area has lots of pools, just not many deep enough for a platform.

If your daughter is new to diving, be prepared to have her spend a long time (up to a year) learning dives on the one and three meter springboards. None of the coaches you find at this website are going to teach a new diver to learn the sport at heights ranging from 16.5  to 33 feet without having a good background on springboard.

Other diving websites include:

www.aaudiving.org

www.usadiver.com

www.flipnrip.com

www.diving.about.com

Good luck in your search