You’re loading the car for an entire weekend trip to Louisville, Kentucky for the Lakeside Seahawks Invitational. You’ve got your hotel reservations, you programmed the directions into the Garmin, and your Sienna or Tahoe just got an oil change last week. Little Susie decides that now is a good time to mention that her goggles broke during yesterday’s practice, her cap melted in the dryer, and all her friends just got the ‘Sea Creature’ Silly Bandz that are way cooler than the dorky ‘Dinosaur’ pack she already has.

Luckily, you have options. You can either drive like mad to the local swim shop or you can just pick up some goggles and a cap from the meet vendor first thing in the morning. Do you know how that meet vendor got there? Do you know where they came from?

We’re from your local swim shop, we brought the store with us, and we’re probably staying in your hotel!

We’re at the meet (in the trenches just like you), adjusting Little Susie’s goggles minutes before her race. We’re your local swim shop, we’re parents and coaches and [former] athletes, and we’re here to help. Knowledge of the product is something you can always count on from a local swim shop.

Can’t get the goggle nose-piece to cooperate? Hand it over, we’ve done this a thousand times. Fallen behind in the polyester vs. Lycra debate? We’re your own personal Ask.com. We do this for a living, and stay versed on the changing product line so you don’t have to. You don’t need to dig through anonymous product reviews online, just ask us, our kids swim too!

Let’s look back at the opening scenario: Little Susie’s last-minute crisis. Buying locally is always the quickest solution. This is where the rubber hits the road, and you walk away with what you need that same day. UPS and FedEx can do some amazing things, but I’ve never seen them put a cap on someone’s head within minutes of buying it.

Aside from knowledge and immediacy, local shops allow you to be a hand-on shopper. “I don’t like the feel of this material”, “These goggles are a little darker than I thought.” Get in there and get handsy!

We know all of our local teams, and we’ve got your best interest at heart. We can either help keep your team on budget, or glitz up your swimmers with custom spiritwear and banners. We always give team discounts, coach discounts, and quantity discounts. We’ll even bring the gear to you and host your equipment night.

So let’s hear it for the local swim shop – the store whose brick and mortar will outlast the faceless competition. Let’s hear it for Kast-A-Way Swimwear, Kiefer, D&J Sports, All American Aquatics, NorCal and CAS Swim Shop – thank you for supporting the great sport of swimming in your local community!

Diving is a subjective sport, but with that said, David Boudia’s accomplishment this weekend is one for the record books. At the AT&T National Diving Championships on Saturday, Boudia shattered his own American Record of 551.20 with an astounding 605.40 points in a 6-dive format on the 10-meter platform. With this record, he also became the first American to break the 600 mark, averaging more than 100 points per dive (source).

Boudia showed that consistency pays: during the event, he never scored below a 9, and scored perfect (net score 30) on his last two dives. Judges flashed 19 perfect 10′s, 8 of which counted towards his score. Full judges marks from DiveMeets.com.

The combined DD of David’s list was 21.1, meaning that a perfect score (maximum possible) would have been 633 points. His score of 605.40 puts him at 95.6% of theoretical perfection. “I hit all six dives,” said Boudia. “I couldn’t be happier. This is the breaking moment in my career. This is even better than the 2008 Olympics” (source).

The AT&T National Diving Championships will air on Versus, Saturday, August 21st from 3-5pm EST.

If you thought you and your friends could do some pretty gnarly tricks at the local water hole, check out these show divers (including Purdue diving alumni Steven LoBue) messing around on a rope swing and 5-meter springboard.

Apparently, Steven LoBue has been doing stunts with Mirage Entertainment since September 2009. Here’s another demo clip of his show diving stunts from Shenzhen, China.

Listed among other manly articles, like “5 Best Dunkers In NBA History,” and “10 Best Middleweight MMA Fighters of All Time,” you’ll find a MadeMan article about the Most Entertaining Olympic Sporting Events. On the top of that list: Artistic gymnastics, figure skating, and diving.

Author, Lisa Devoto, provides some support: “While swimming is also an amazing Olympic sporting event to watch, diving really demonstrates the grace of the human body. Where swimming shows pure athleticism, diving shows pure grace” (source).

I’m glad the readers of MadeMan can enjoy artistic gymnastics, figure skating, and diving along with articles on the Bentley Supersports Convertible GTC, Pro Platinum Blondes on Chickipedia, and How To Bar Fight Like An MMA Fighter.

Infographics are all the rage! Check out the blog Information Is Beautiful for some examples of other types of infographics. I felt inspired so I decided to create my own on the topic of NCAA Aquatic Sport Participation (download source statistics).

Not to play the blame game, but when you visualize the stats as a graphic, you can really see how few NCAA athletes are playing aquatic sports. I wish I could make a similar graphic with budget distribution but I don’t have the data. Remember, because it’s an infographic, everything is perfectly to scale – enjoy!

The third stop for the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series is Kragerø, Norway. The series continues this weekend after more than a month off since the last stop in Mexico.

“Renowned for its incredible natural beauty, the Kragerø archipelago, one of Scandinavia’s most popular summer destinations, is a region that takes its high diving very seriously” (source). Read more about the Norway stop here.

I saw this dive well in a photo from DayLife.com about the XXI Central American and Caribbean Games in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. It’s not the easiest thing to track down on the web, but I did notice a 3D rendering of the aquatic complex on WaterpoloShots.com.

The platforms look amazing, it’s a really creative, clutter-free, elegant design – unfortunately it’s not very convenient for the divers who have to walk behind a wall before climbing up to the boards. It will probably be a dramatic pool for the competition, as divers emerge from openings in the blank face of the wall. But as a practice facility, what a nightmare when you want to just hop onto the board quickly.

Have you ever thought about putting a mini tramp on the diving towers? Check out this cool video of Danish gymnasts Carsten Houlborg and Jimmi Andersen. They don’t have the best form, but they certainly have the huevos rancheros to attempt some pretty incredible stunts.

Smithy won Sports Personality Coach of the Year at the 2010 BBC Sport Relief Night. Here is a clip from his coaching montage where he shows his frustration with Tom Daley by dunking him.

You can view the full montage (from the official BBC YouTube channel) here.

The 2010 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series is this summer’s premier cliff diving showcase! Red Bull proves that you don’t need a traditional cliff to host a cliff diving competition – because past stops have led divers to jump from castles, cranes, and ships.

For the next stop, divers will jump into the Earth itself! Specifically, on June 6th, the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series stops in Chichen Itza (which translates: At the mouth of the well of the Itza) in Mexico. The area is known for its sacred sunken wells, including the Cenote Ik Kil which will serve as the venue for the competition.