WET feet make smacking sounds on the pool deck before the diver grabs the two guardrails and makes her climb to the diving board.
Diving requires core strength, agility and co-ordination, but those few lonely moments of tension and stillness are enough to test the mental mettle of many athletes.
For 11-year-old West Vancouver diver Alison Komlos, learning to deal with fear has been a key part of looking down at the pool.
When asked about the biggest challenge of diving, the Ridgeview elementary student replies: "Probably getting over your fear to do the dive."
Alison's mother, Jill, has witnessed those challenges.
"For some kids just that fear of doing that new dive can be too much, but with Alison, knock on wood . . . she has fear but she manages it," says Jill. "She's like an old soul in a young body."
The psychology of forcing yourself to jump off the board can sometimes be harder than even a difficult dive, according to Alison.
"If I've done the dive before, I usually say that I've done it and it was fine and it was easy, and I do a few simulations of the dive," she says. "If anything bad happened before like I didn't land that well, then I just try to forget that and tell myself, 'One, two, three, go.' And then I just make myself go."
Alison has been going off the board since she was eight years old.
"I like being in the water and I like when you're in the air," she says. "And I like challenging myself."
Alison had shown promise as a gymnast, but Jill suspected the demands of the sport were too great and set about looking for something else.
"One day I was at the West Van pool and there was a pamphlet there about diving and so I thought, 'Hmm, maybe we should try this out,'" recalls Jill.
Growing up on the North Shore, Jill recalls babysitting Paige Gordon, a North Shore diver who went on to compete for Canada at the Olympics in 1992 and 1996.
At the B.C. Summer Provincials held in June 2012, Alison notched first place finishes with her dives off the one-metre board and the three-metre board. The performance helped her earn a spot on the Canadian junior national diving squad, but her ambitions are beyond Canada's borders.
"I want to go to nationals every year until I qualify for senior nationals, and then go to the Olympics," she says.
Alison is currently in training for a May competition in Saskatoon, Sask. A good performance in the Prairies will vault her back to the nationals for 2013.
Besides putting in time on a backyard trampoline, Alison does dry land training, diving, and ballet to stay sharp. She is planning to compete in the B.C. Summer Provincials from May 31 to June 2 in Victoria, and she advises all novice divers to take the plunge. "Don't let the fear take over because in the end the dive won't be as hard as you think," she says.
Alison is a member of the North Shore Dolphins Dive Club, a non-profit that gives competitive dive training to young athletes at Ron Andrews community centre and the West Vancouver Aquatic Centre. The Dolphins Dive Club is offering summer camps including trampoline and diving camp and evening dive sessions this summer. Registration for dive/trampoline summer camp is through West Vancouver Leisure Guide. Registration for the spring and summer evening dive sessions is at northshoredolphinsdiveclub.ca
