I went back to visit my old neighborhood pool. No high diving board. How's a kid supposed to stand a chance of clearing the diving well rope?!
I loved to swim and dive at my old pool, and the same fate of the high board you have described at your pool, seems to be universal.
When I tell my son that I used to do "gainers" and "doubles" off the high board at the pool, he can't even imagine what I am talking about.Seeing how they have removed it. He has never seen a high board, except on TV.
The sad thing is, other than the occasional "belly buster", I can't recall anyone ever getting injured from diving off the high board at our old municipal pool.
Well, the current idea is to not even have really deep water. Some of the newer pools don't get any deeper than 4-5 feet deep (slides, sprinklers, but no diving boards). I'm speaking from my experience here in Kentucky; I know two of our State Parks have these new pools with no deep water.
When my sons first learned to swim at our city pool, jumping off the board was the ultimate goal. My youngest wanted to try, and so I asked the lifegaurd (who had given him lessons) if he thought it was okay. He promised to watch him, but it was pure torment for me. My little boy jumps off, then proceeds to semi-swim, semi-dogpaddle to the side of the pool, as the lifegaurd and I both watched from the edge (it was only a short distance to the side of the pool, but it took him forever). He made it, and then did it over and over and over again that day. He is now an excellent swimmer, but I don't think a kid could be truly adept at swimming if they didn't have experience in deep water.