Divers won't make a Splash

The proposed new Splash Centre is missing a facility in which Wanganui athletes used to excel.
A Wanganui District Council source confirmed that there is no provision for a diving well.
However, Splash centre manager Danny Jonas is not ruling out a diving well in the future.
Once the new Splash Centre was up and running, it was possible that there would be deep water for recreation, he said. The project would not stand still.
Wanganui was the second strongest diving centre in the country, behind Waikato, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Wanganui's diving committee is in recess, but it has state of the art boards in storage and there is a wealth of diving knowledge in the city.
Former diving coach Philip Sell said he would look at returning to coaching if a well was placed in the new Splash Centre.
"The only reason I got out was through the frustration of not having the facilities."
Mr Sell coached a New Zealand age group team at world championships and has been an international judge. He was chief referee at the 1990 Commonwealth Games.
He remains a friend of Wanganui's best known diver, Robin Hood, who, he said, remembered that in the 1960s there were six fully established swimming clubs in Wanganui, "all with active divers."
Mr Sell said diving had ceased in Wanganui when the district council took diving boards out of the city pools. Council had taken the boards from three pools, Wanganui East, Gonville and Central. The Wanganui East pool had a depth of 7ft 6in and the others were 7ft deep.
There had never been a problem with the old wooden boards and their coconut matting.
"The old Central pool had a tower, but it was deemed unsafe and removed before my time."
Better boards had been developed over the years and the diving committee had raised money through the local community and had obtained state of the art aluminium boards made by the Boeing Company in the United Sates.
But council had said it was unsafe to dive off 3m boards and had taken them out.
Mr Sell said he started coaching at the Girls' College pool because it was a bit deeper, but council had taken the 1m boards out and there had been no diving facilities in the city.
"We have got the boards in storage."
Those with diving knowledge in Wanganui included coaches such as Stuart Baird.
The original Splash Centre was to have had a diving pool, but the diving pool had been eliminated for cost reasons. When Wanganui's centre had its No 2 national provincial ranking in diving, Cynthia Binzegger of Raetihi, which was part of the centre, had produced many national junior champions.
The diving achievements had been carried out from the worst facilities in New Zealand.
"We used to train in Marton. They had a diving well. There were weekly trips to Palmerston North. Hawera had a diving well. Wanganui, with the worst facilities, still produced champions."
Among them was Ginine Flynn, who Mr Sell coached and who competed at the 1990 Commonwealth Games, and Hood, a Commonwealth Games representative in the 1960s.
Mr Sell said he and Mr Baird ended acting as feeders for other coaches.
"We would get kids to a junior level and they would have to shift to better facilities."
Robin and Ginine had gone to Hamilton and another gifted diver, Wayne Taumata, had gone to Auckland.
Robin Hood, who attended Gonville School and Wanganui Technical College, and who was coached early in his career by former Chronicle journalist Denis Galvin, has compiled an impressive international diving CV since representing New Zealand in the Commonwealth Games at Jamaica in 1966.
Now based in Auckland, he has been a member of the FINA (governing body) Technical Diving Committee since 1992.
He has been a referee and judge at World championships and at Olympic and Commonwealth Games.