Dive-o-lympics?

A friend and I came up with the idea of something fun our diveshop could do..a Diving Olympic competition. Now..we are still talking about it..not even in the planning stages (as the shop owner, aka my BOSS) hasn't been approached about this.

But, IF we decide to present it to the "powers that be" we need ideas for events. We figured there could be silly competitions open to anyone, like the "one fin race". And also have serious events for each cert level, like navigation for AOW, fastest rescue or tired diver tow, and equipment exchange for DiveMaster and candidates.

I know this can't be an original idea! Someone out there has been involved with something like this. Any suggestions on events? Serious OR silly? (can't wait to hear the silly ones!)

This sounds deliciously fun...

:tease:

It's a lot of fun. My shop did it last year, and we've got it planned again for this year. Here's what we did...

Participants got pledges from whom ever would sponsor them - all money raised went to a local charity for kids. We Had a decathalon (lets see if I can remember them all):
-entry - points for the "best"
-hand fin race - fins on the hands and swim a short distance
-hurdles - buoyance control, swiming over and under ropes
-shot put - toss a coated weight
-weight lift - move a heavy (and I mean heavy) weight belt a short distance
-buddy row - divers hold on to each other, one uses only arms, the other only legs to do the course
-obstacle course - buoyancy again, swimming through hoops

sorry can't remember the others, but if you're interested I'll find out from the organizers.

Keep these replys coming because I like the idea. Our club was thinking of putting on a SCUBA carnival, but this sounds much better.

Brad

underwater egg and spoon - use a pingpong ball and spoon - swin a length without letting the pingpong ball floating up to the surface (or touching it)

Underwater hocky - otherwise known as octopush.

It you can get some form of net, and a suitable ball that is almost neutral you can also do underwater volleyball, although this is best in a DEEP pool!

There are also plenty of toys available that work well underwater like the underwater frizbee, but they are harder to integrate into a competition

Just a couple of ideas for the moment, my brain isn't working properly, I have played lots more silly games underwater.

Hum

JT

One of the dive clubs in the Houston area, "Bay Area Divers" does a Scuba Olympics every year in November. You can go to their web site at http://www.bayareadivers.org and then click on the link to see what they do.

Incorporate some skill building/strengthening stuff like two rows of divers (maybe teams of 4) sitting on the bottom of the pool without masks on... One person holds a mask in their hands from each team. As soon as the signal is given, they don the mask, clear it, get a signal from a judge on each side and then remove and pass it to the next teammate. The first team to complete wins!

Another one we like to play is Pre-weighted B.C.s in the deep end of a pool. Two teams must race to skin-dive to the weighted B.C.s and manually breath air into the bladder. The first team to get their B.C. to float wins!

How about buddy teams racing to remove their gear and swap it with their buddy on the bottom of the pool. Everything must be swapped including mask and fins... sounds like fun to me!

How about a blind folded building task that's timed. A buddy team gets black rags stuffed into their mask's, they descend to the bottom of the pool and pick up a pile of precut pvc pipes and have to assemble them into a certain shape. This one would be fun with comm gear!

etc etc etc... this could go on forever. Just start somewhere and have a good time. The shop owner is going to love any ideas that get happy divers into the store.

I participated in the Table Rock Lake Fun Dive Weekend a couple of weekends ago. 4 Dive shops from around Missouri sponsor this activity filled weekend. My husband and I took 4th place in the scavenger hunt. The organizers placed some "treasure" that was worth different point values in a marked off area between 7 and 47 feet deep. There were also some numbered golf balls that were good for instant prizes. We also made it a project aware event by picking up any trash we found. The team with the most trash won a consolation prize.

In addition to the scavenger hunt they also had a "poker run" which consisted of an underwater navigation exercise. When you got to each underwater check point, you got playing cards. The team with the best hand at the end of the run won a prize.

All the prizes were donated by local dive shops. I got a pair of fins for our 4th place scavenger hunt finish. It was a really good time and a chance to have a little friendly competition.

Hope this helps with your event! Us Scubabunnies have to stick together!

**Hops to shore and waves across the big pond**

KC_Scubabunny

Thanks for the suggestions...keep them coming! I knew I could count on this board for suggestions!

We definitely think its good to have "silly" games (like the spoon race...great idea!) that everyone can compete in, and also have "serious" games that involve skills. Do you think having some events limited to Rescue, or Divemaster (ie. equipment exchange) is a bad thing? Promotes furthering diving education..which I KNOW my boss will like..but I don't want to exclude anyone who has been diving for 20 years, has more experience that GOD, but still is OW cert. BUT, I don't want a OW diver trying gear exchange and panicing...and suing our butt.

Which brings me to another issue I have to look at...what about liability?

I'm really excited about this idea, but I need to cover all my bases here.

Can you tell I've never tried to "organize" anything before? hehe

*hops to the shore and waves an ear back to the KC*

As with everything else in today's letigious society, you must cover your butt thouroughly! Make sure waivers are signed, and noone is allowed to enter the water without one. There are generic type of waivers available in the PADI Instructor guide, which you should have signed as well as one prepared by the shop. Also make sure all professional divers (DM's Instructors etc) have their policies upto date.