Canberra diver using the Civic Olympic Pool diving platform. Well, those days are gone … Photo: File.
Growing up in Canberra, a plunge off the 10-metre platform at the Civic Olympic Pool was a rite of passage for many.
The sight of the utterly nervous making that trek up the stairs before taking a tentative step onto the board was entertainment in itself.
The plunge into the pool was icing on the cake.
People of a certain age still speak fondly of the platform dive (or jump) as if it were akin to a major event in their lives, as they overcame their sense of fear.
But it wasn’t for everybody. It definitely wasn’t for me. I must admit that, having arrived in Canberra in my late 20s in the 1980s, my risk-taking days had long passed.
But we now live in different times, and it’s doubtful that opportunity will ever return, with public insurance making anything with potential risk prohibitive.
I now read on the Civic Olympic Pool website that the 10-metre board is for club use only and is not available to the public.
I don’t know the reasoning, but having witnessed a few near misses over the years, I would assume the risk for the inexperienced is too great.
You don’t blame pool management. I would do the same thing given the litigious nature of the world these days, but it is tangible evidence of the society we live in.
Another rite of passage for many Canberrans who were prepared to take a risk was the Birdman Rally, staged at Regatta Point every March.
The Birdman Rally: we’re ready for another crack! Photo: ArchivesACT.
People constructed homemade flying machines before running and jumping off a six-metre launching platform into the Lake.
The $10,000 cash prize went to the flying craft that went the furthest. Some didn’t go far at all, especially those constructed with cardboard.
An estimated 100,000 people lined the shores to watch the fearless plunge into the Lake.
But in 1992, it became a victim of rising public liability insurance costs, and the event was no more.
I did notice there was an election pledge last year to bring back the Birdman Rally, but there is little evidence that it will actually happen.
Another of life’s milestones for the youth of Canberra was the water slide at Big Splash, as many took their tentative first steps in overcoming the fear of cannoning down a tube into the water.
I watched my own kids take that first nervous step before it became passe and the search for greater challenges began, but it was an important early test.
Big Splash Waterpark. Photo: James Coleman.
Sadly, with Big Splash not opening this summer and continued uncertainty over the park’s future, many will miss out on this part of growing up in Canberra that had been taken for granted.
Perhaps the ways in which we overcame fears and sense of fun in our time have been overtaken by other pastimes.
As I watch kids on e-scooters flying past at various speeds, I do ponder the risks they are taking. The risk is likely just as great, if not greater, than jumping off the high tower at Civic Pool or plummeting into the Lake with a handmade, cardboard craft. Maybe the risks associated with the excitement and rite of passage still exist in our city, but they have just taken on a new shape from those of old.
