Tuesday morning shortly after seven o’clock, I left my room in order to catch the bus into town to start a trip that would take me to Gaoxiong in the south of Taiwan. Even though the trip involved some unplanned delays, I still arrived in Gaoxiong around two o’clock in the afternoon. Vanessa picked me up at the bus station and we immediately went to the diving pool in Gaoxiong’s National Sports Training Center. The complex hosts much more than a nice diving pool, but this time that was what interested me. I have not been diving seriously since June, so I was very excited by the opportunity to practice again. Needless to say, I was equally excited by going to Gaoxiong to meet Vanessa, but this post is primarily about diving (I will publish another entry shortly about the rest of the stay in Gaoxiong).

Diving the first day felt awkward in the beginning, not only because I had not practiced for a long time, but also because I was the only one diving. Later, however, some other people (see picture below) arrived and it felt more natural. The second day felt even better and made me wish to do more diving in the future, if possible. Of course, going to Gaoxiong often is out of the question, because I need to skip classes and the way there is far from conveniet. However, going once or twice every month or so would be an option, especially if it is possible to go over weekends instead of weekdays. Writing about diving is perhaps not very interesting, so instead of doing that, I will use pictures and some minor commentary to let you know more about the trip. In all, I spent close to seven hours in the diving pool.

First, however, I would like to thank everyone who made this possible, especially  謝明璟 (who allowed us to come and practice with him) and Vanessa (who spent lots of time finding somewhere for me to dive). This means very much to me, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I and Vanessa had excellent company all the time!

Me and 謝明璟, thanks again for everything.

A little bit better than our diving pool in Sweden.

Having five three-metre springboards is pretty awesome (and six one-metre ones, whereof two are on land).

Having a pool just for the diving is also sweet, not having to care about swimmers or non-divers.

Hello!

Wee!

Trampolines are also nice, especially as a complement for diving practice. I spent a lot of time on these a long time ago, and even though I did not have much time to spend this time, it would be awesome to have for daily practice.

Something like this would be even more awesome. Springboards on land with the possibility of attaching lines to the diver in order to safely try new dives.

A similar set of lines for a normal springboard, also extremely useful for trying new things. So far, I have had to do it the hard way (i.e. trying and see what happens).