Diving is an exhilarating sport that promotes strength, stamina, and flexibility. It can also be fun for casual days at the pool. However, diving also has some risks.
If you’re thinking about installing a diving board in your pool, or if you’d like to take up diving, either for fun or in a competitive manner, it can be useful to know if there are any weight limits.
Diving Board Weight Capacities
How much weight a diving board can hold depends on a few factors. However, most residential, non-commercial diving boards can support about 250 pounds. Commercial boards can usually support closer to 400 pounds, and some can even hold up to 600 pounds. How much weight the board can hold depends on what it was designed for, what it’s made of, and how old it is.
Diving Style
How you dive and what you intend to use the board for make a big difference when it comes to how much weight it can support.
Commercial boards can often support more weight and can stand up to great force because they’re designed to flex.
When a professional diver uses a diving board, the diver will jump up and down slightly to create more spring. This helps to propel the diver higher into the air, and it causes the board to flex.
This flexing of the board puts a huge amount of strain on the board, so a commercial board must be able to stand up to this type of flexing.
If you’re planning to use a diving board as a professional diver would, you’ll be creating flex and therefore adding strain, so you’ll want to ensure that you don’t exceed the board’s weight limit.
If you plan on this type of diving, it’s also a better idea to invest in a commercial board that can support more weight.
If you plan to simply walk out to the end of the board and jump off, though, you won’t cause the board to flex nearly as much. Most residential diving boards are used in this way.
When you use a board in this way, it puts very little strain on the board, so a board might be able to support someone over the weight limit.
Material
Diving boards can be made of various materials, including wood, fiberglass, and aluminum. Wood and fiberglass are used in residential boards. These materials are sturdy but less expensive than aluminum.
They also offer less flex and less overall strength, so they tend to have a lower weight-bearing capacity.
Aluminum is used to make commercial boards or strong residential boards. Aluminum used in professional diving boards is designed to be incredibly strong, durable, and flexible.
It can stand up to strain and can be used over and over for years without showing much wear. Aluminum diving boards generally have much higher weight limits than other types of boards.
Residential, non-commercial diving boards can support about 250 pounds.
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Age
If you’re using an aluminum board and it has been well cared for, its age matters very little. When they’re properly cared for, a commercial aluminum diving board can last for decades.
Wood and fiberglass diving boards, on the other hand, can sometimes become brittle with age. They may develop small cracks. In this case, the diving board won’t be able to hold as much weight.
Before using any diving board, it’s important to inspect the board for any signs of cracks. It’s also a good idea to check the board’s supports to make sure that nothing has broken or rusted.
Overloading a Diving Board
When a diving board is used by someone over the weight limit, it can sometimes snap.
Most boards won’t break the first time someone goes over the weight limit, but exceeding the weight limit frequently, or using the boards for professional-style dives and causing them to flex while overloaded, can weaken the structure of the board over time.
When a board snaps, it can be incredibly dangerous. If a board breaks while you’re jumping on it, the sharp edges can cause cuts. If you land on the board, it can also cause serious injuries.
If the board breaks as you’re about to execute a dive, the force of the break can also send you up higher than you might have intended, or it can send you crashing into the water.
This can cause bruises, and if you’re knocked unconscious, you run the risk of drowning. For these reasons, it’s best to always obey the weight restrictions of any diving boards you use.