It may be hotter than Hades everyplace else around Austin, but Barton
Springs Pool will be 68deg. cool just as it always is. And it will be even more fun
than usual next Saturday, July 19, as a whole lot of folks make mighty big
splashes off the diving board at the fourth annual Barton Springs Diving Championships.
Sure, the annual diving competition attracts some serious divers to compete for the
Grand Champion’s Diving Cup. But this is Austin, Texas, where fun is a fine art,
partying is paramount, and wacky is wonderful.
Last year’s Barton Springs Diving Grand Champion was Nick Olvarado, a
mountain of a man attired as a sumo wrestler. “He was an awesome sumo
diver!” marvels Craig Biddle, the event’s primary organizer, as he enthusiastically remembers
other highlights. “The Flying Squirrel is popular with the younger kids. It
looks just like it sounds. And last year, `Bob Dole’ from Esther’s Follies did the
`Dole No-Dive.’ You had to be there!” A 298-pound LBJ High School senior
nicknamed “Fluffy” performed some pretty interesting dives, including the
“Fluffy Explosion” — which looked like underwater detonation had taken
place.
All divers may compete in two categories: Best Splash, Most Original, and
Best Traditional. First place in each category wins a three-foot trophy. Second
place winners get medallions. Third place winners get ribbons. The winners in each
category are recognized in the awards ceremony, and then everyone is invited back up,
so that the winners may compete for overall Champion. The Grand Champion is presented
with a silver Barton Springs Diving Championship Cup — and anointed with water
from the Springs. The Grand Champion’s name is then etched on the cup, which is on
display at the Barton Springs Gift Shop all year.
The Barton Spring Diving Championships began in 1994, spearheaded by Craig
Biddle (who manages the Austin office of the San Antonio Spurs). Biddle has been
swimming in Barton Pool since 1977. According to Biddle, the event “was born out
of the frustration of having this wonderful natural resource involved in a
political” controversy, referring to the Save Our Springs initiative (S.O.S.) and
ongoing battles between developers and environmentalists.
“We have attempted to stay out of the political battle. We’re
grassroots.” The roots got a bit deeper when Helen Ballew of the Hill Country Foundation
signed on to help Biddle implement the idea. With her experience and assistance, the
diving championships became a reality.
The theme for this year’s event says it all: “Dive in for
Education.” All this cool, wet fun benefits some very cool causes: increased awareness of
Barton Springs, aquatics scholarships for underprivileged youngsters, and a new
state-of-the-art interactive educational facility being built in the Barton Springs
Bathhouse.
In 1996, proceeds from the championships paid for 12 children to learn to
swim, dive, participate in swim teams, take lifeguard training, and other aquatic
education programs. So far this year, 29 youngsters have received scholarships and
Farhad Madani, who administers the Barton Springs Diving Championships Scholarship Trust
Fund for the City of Austin, expects that 40 underprivileged students will be enrolled
by the end of the swim season.
The programs of the Barton Springs Diving Championships are funded through
entry registrations and donations. Even area swim teams, made up of kids ages 7-17
years old, have donated swimathon proceeds to the diving championships.
Local swimmers Jimmy Bynum, Mike Stirling, and Trent Turner swam 20 miles of
Lake Austin — from Mansfied Dam to Tom Mueller Dam — on June 12 to raise money
and turn attention to the diving championships. Bynum says, “Next year, I’m
thinking about towing one of those big party boats down the river, pulling it
myself….”
Where do the results of all this community fundraising finally end up? A
proposed $300,000 education facility at Barton Springs is slated to “open in
stages,” according to Austin Parks & Recreation Department’s Jim Halbrook. The
Diving Championships Board of Directors and Craig Biddle have played an active role
in the concept and fundraising. The center, which will open in existing facilities
at the springs, has just been named the Beverly S. Sheffield Education Center, in
honor of the now-retired, 84-year-old longtime parks director (from 1946 through
1973), who still swims in the pool two or three times a week.
The new center will tour visitors through the Splash Into the Edwards
Aquifer exhibit on the day of the championships. The display serves as a preview to
the types of programs the center will regularly host upon its completion and includes a
working aquifer model in a facility designed by EuroDisney designer Patrick McMillan.
The education center is being constructed behind the pool shop and will be
managed by the newly renamed Austin Nature & Science Center.
Nature center biologist Jim Collett explains, “The diving
championships have been a big supporter of the exhibit.” The exhibit is a “highly
interactive educational experience [covering] geology, hydrology, aquatic ecology, and
water resource preservation. Everybody loves Barton Springs, and everybody wants to
do something positive for it,” says Collett.
So, sure, it’s all for a really good cause, Biddle explains, “But the
Barton Springs Diving Championships are strictly a fun deal. Bellyflops
win!”
You, too, can enter the diving competition, or you can just lounge on the
grassy lawn and watch. Pack a picnic to enjoy outside the pool area or buy
refreshments at the pool concessions stand. Plus, there will be special kids’ activities
so that the little ones won’t be left without anything to do.
Sherry Winette, of the Austin Nature Center, is coordinating some
children’s activities at the Diving Championships this year. “There will be face painting,
magnet fishing, water art, and Barton Creek Critters.” Barton Creek
Critters? Winette laughs, “Beforehand, we go down to Barton Springs and look under
rocks to find critters who live there: teeny tiny leeches, nymph stages of damsel
flies, and different insects. Children will look at these critters under our
microscope and identify them from a chart. No salamanders will be caught,” she
assures.
“We want all of these activities to be fun for the kids, but we also
want them to be educational,” says Winette. “We’re going to talk about
water, the different ways that it is important to people. For `Water Art,’ we have
little cut-outs or the children can draw their own pictures — covering the art with
blue cellophane makes everything look underwater.”
An impressive variety of area musical talent will be on hand to entertain
the crowd. Pura Vida Jazz Band plays on a stage set up on the south side of
Barton Springs Pool at noon, followed by Ponty Bone & the Squeezetones (perhaps
Squeezetone Danny Young, the “Honorary Mayor of South Austin,” will accompany
Ponty on washboard?). After the 4:30pm Awards Ceremony, Toni Price plays at 5pm,
and Jimmie Dale Gilmore plays at 6pm.
Warm-ups and registrations begin next Saturday, July 19, 9am, with
preliminary diving at 10am. Divers must register in one of four age groups: Youth (13
& under); 14-23; 24-29; and 40 & over. In addition to individual competition, this
year, for the first time, divers may enter as three-person teams, with members from
three different age groups. Registration is $8/youth and $12/adult, with an
additional $10/team. (Entry fees include admission to the pool and a participant
T-shirt.) Team members dive in the preliminaries as individuals. Then, scores will be
tallied to determine team placement in the finals.
There is no extra charge to attend the diving championships; normal pool
admission fees are in effect, and the pool is open normal hours. The rain date for the
Barton Springs Diving Championships is July 26. May the best flop win! n
For more information, call Barton Springs Pool at 476–9044. To assist with
the Kids’ Activities, call Sherry Winette at 327–8180. To donate to the Barton
Springs Diving Championships programs, call Craig Biddle at 480–2255.
Mary Beth Gradziel is entering this year’s Barton Springs Diving
Championships. We hope her bellyflop wins.
This article appears in July 11 • 1997 and July 11 • 1997 (Cover).