Low Dive & High Dive - Same Day

In a comparison of Jacob and Jensen, Jensen has been our daredevil...willing to try new things and a bit more reckless.  (Janie may end up putting them both in her dust.)  Jensen has ridden roller coasters, tried all sorts of gymnastics equipment, and is certainly willing to stand her ground while wrestling with her brother.  Therefore, it's been a little surprising to us that she has been unwilling to attempt the low dive at the swimming pool.  We've poked and prodded her all summer long in good fun but she's resisted our pressure.  She'll fall from monkey bars that are twice as high as the diving board, walk across a regulation balance beam, and ask to be thrown as high as possible into the swimming pool.  Jensen can swim the length of the pool and loves jumping into the deep end from the poolside so 12 feet of water is not a concern.  Yet, the diving board has been non-negotiable.

As recently as Sunday evening, we were trying to coerce her into jumping off knowing that summer is coming to a close and believing that once she did (just like Jacob last summer) she would love it and never stop. 

Unfortunately, I didn't get to observe this firsthand, but everything changed on Monday afternoon for one reason or another.  Perhaps Jensen wanted to commemorate Jacob's first day of 2nd grade by joining him on the low dive given that she has seen him jump off hundreds of times this summer.  Maybe it was because the pool was basically empty so nobody would be paying attention. (Jensen likes all eyes on her about has much as she likes tomatoes.)  Possibly she was tired of me begging so she figured she would settle that by doing it for the first time when I was nowhere to be found.  Whatever the case, she did it and I'm told there wasn't much apprehension and it looked like she was a veteran of several summers.  Jensen proceeded to jump over and over again.

Well, seeing Jensen going of the board got Jacob motivated.  The boy loves the diving board.  Most people at the pool know that when in doubt to look towards the deep end when trying to locate Jacob.  He's attempted the high dive several times the past two summers only to climb back down after surveying the view from up top.  There was one classic childhood moment where he was probably up there for nearly 5 minutes debating as seemingly the entire pool urged him to take the plunge only to decide his first jump would have to wait.  (By the way, we admire this quality about Jacob.  He seems pretty comfortable in his own skin and is willing to try new things when he's ready.)  If Jensen could do it, he could overcome his next challenge, right?  Right!

It wasn't pretty, but Jacob (after some positive self-talk) edged is way out and took the plunge.  We're still not sure he likes the process of getting to the edge of the board (I don't either), but over the course of the ensuing hour he jumped off numerous times while honing his can-opener skills.  Mission Accomplished!

You should know that I've intentionally omitted an important part of yesterday's story.  You see, not only did Jacob get motivated to jump off of the high dive after seeing Jensen jump off of the low dive, his motivation was also rooted in the fact that he watched his younger sister jump off of the high dive first!  It's true.  After navigating the low dive several times, Jensen was all of a sudden climbing the high dive steps without so much as a bold announcement of her intentions.  Shockingly, Jensen had firsts on both boards within a span of minutes.  I'm still in disbelief.

Oddly, history, in one way, is repeating itself.  About 30 summers ago, my younger brother Jeff negotiated the steps of the Northside Park high dive and took the plunge for the first time before I ever did.  While I had climbed the steps on several occasions, I didn't exit the board the right way until watching Jeff do it.  I'm glad I did.  Per the picture below, I'm making a fool of myself to this day.  Jacob and Jensen, see what you have to look forward to 30 years from now!