How High Are Diving Boards?
The quick answer is that there are 2 springboard heights used in competition: a 1 meter and 3 meter. That's about 3 feet and 10 feet. Some pools will (rarely) have a 1/2 meter and 2 meter springboard for training purposes, but those are never used in competition.
On the platform there are 5, 7.5, and 10 meter heights. That's about 16, 25, and 33 feet respectively. Training facilities will also have 1 meter and 3 meter platforms, and those cannot be used in competition.
What those numbers mean in practice
The 10 meter platform is roughly the height of a three story building. Standing on top and looking down, the water looks pretty far away.
The 3 meter springboard is about the height of a basketball hoop. This gives divers a lot more time to finish dives compared to the 1 meter springboard, but it is usually much scarier when divers are learning for the first time.
Which heights are actually competed
At the Olympics you'll only see 3 meter springboard and 10 meter platform, in individual and synchronized events. The 1 meter, 5 meter, and 7.5 meter are training and development heights internationally.
In the US it's different. High school and NCAA diving is heavily 1 meter, with 3 meter at some levels, and platform is comparatively rare because most pools don't have a tower.
The 5 and 7.5 exist mainly as stepping stones and to practice parts of the dive that you bring up to the 10 meter eventually.
Often times, in junior diving, most divers will do many dives off of the lower platforms if they do not have a consistent optional dive on the 10 meter platform!
The full event breakdown is on what are the 8 Olympic diving events.
How deep is the water underneath?
Deeper than most people guess, and it scales with the height above it.
That's a whole topic of its own and I've written it up separately in how deep are Olympic diving pools.
Why the extra height changes the sport
Height buys time, and time is what lets you fit more rotation in.
From 10 meters a diver has around a second and a half in the air, which is why three and a halfs and four and a halfs live up there. On 1 meter you have a fraction of that, so the same dives either aren't possible or are much harder.
The tradeoff is that you arrive faster. Around 30 to 35 miles per hour off the platform against roughly 20 off 3 meter, which changes how fast the water approaches, as well as how much tighter a person needs to make their body to have a good entry.
I go through the differences in springboard vs platform diving and 1 meter vs 3 meter.
- DG