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Story: Swimming

Demonstration dive, 1957

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Demonstration dive, 1957

Gerald (Gerry) Fitzgerald of Gisborne demonstrates springboard diving at the Naenae Swimming Pool, Lower Hutt, in 1957. In the background are the springboard and two diving platforms. In New Zealand, competitive springboard diving began in 1920, and platform diving in 1952. Springboards, being flexible, allowed divers to jump higher, whereas platforms, with their greater height, gave divers the opportunity to perform more acrobatic stunts such as somersaults before entering the water.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP/1957/0215

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

John McBeth, Swimming – Other swimming sports, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/40223/demonstration-dive-1957 (accessed 24 June 2026).

Story by John McBeth, published 30 November 2012, updated 27 January 2015.