Author: Liam Dickson
Interested in taking up diving in the Dubai? Then you’d best head down to DuDive, the UAE’s only Springboard and Platform Diving Club.
Operating out of the Olympic-standard Hamdan Sports Complex, DuDive has been running for 6 years, and in that period it has grown from humble beginnings to a world-renowned diving club.
Founded in early 2012 following the success of the FINA Diving World Series in Dubai, DuDive began by offering a few hours of lessons a week. It wasn’t until September 2013 that they even employed their first full-time member of staff to help oversee diving development.
But now, Managing Director Tom Roberts explains, DuDive has developed into something much greater:
“DuDive currently has around 250 children attending diving lessons every week, and runs heavily attended holiday camps during the school breaks.
“Classes run six days a week; from beginner lessons all the way to elite level diving – where we have competitive divers representing DuDive and their home nations all over the world.”
With a British coaching team consisting of Olympians, competitive gymnasts and former national champion divers, it’s little surprise that the quality of diving is so high.
And Roberts describes how DuDive have now become a force to be reckoned with on the international diving scene.
“In the time that DuDive has been running we have sent athletes to almost all corners of the globe to compete and showcase their talents.
“In the last 6 months alone DuDive has competed in Australia, Norway, Ireland, and the United Kingdom with great success.”
Most recently, DuDive sent four competitors to Melbourne to compete in the Australian National Age Group Championships 2018, and they returned with the over-all Team Championship gold medal, as well as three individual golds, three silvers and two bronzes.
It is DuDive’s mission to provide divers in the UAE the opportunities to maximise their potential within diving, and if their track record is anything to go by, then they are proving successful at it.
Roberts mentions 11-year-old Charlie Pollard, who came up through the DuDive Talent Identification Project, where DuDive coaches run PE lessons in primary schools and hand-pick the most talented children in a variety of categories, including gymnastics, agility and coordination.
He said: “Charlie travelled to the UK to compete at the ASA British Elite Diving Championships.
“This is the highest level of competitive diving that a junior diver can attend before competing at senior or international level.”
For more information on DuDive, click here to visit their website.