In February of 1992, Lagoon Amusement Park was holding auditions for an emcee to host a live high-diving show that the park was presenting to celebrate the Summer Olympic Games being held in Barcelona, Spain.  I remember going to the audition, reading the copy and absolutely killing it (by the way, that’s a good thing).  When I finished, the audience cheered as if I has just won a hotly contested political debate. Much to my delight, the Entertainment Director contacted me and offered me the gig.

During the course of the season I had the opportunity to work with divers from France, Switzerland, Denmark, Iceland, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Together we performed more than 500 live shows that mixed together elegant classic dives, unbridled riots of mayhem we called comedy sketches, and topped each show off with a high drive from a platform suspended 85 feet above the surface of the pool. The International High Diving Spectacular was a huge success!  At the end of the season, the founder of the diving show invited all of us out to dinner.  At one point he presented me a handwritten note - the note stated that in the many years and many countries in which he had produced this event I was one of the top three emcees he had worked with.  I have that note to this day.

Please allow me to share with you my memories of the summer of '92...

Production Team:

Ron van Woerden - Show Producer
Matt Nicosia - Show Manager
Matt Rash - Show Engineer
Brian Taylor - Master of Ceremonies

Diving Team:

Stephane Hainaut (team captain) - Quebec City, Canada
Alain Lobet - Strasbourg, France
Klaus Frislund - Copenhagen, Denmark
Magnus Gardarsson - Reykjavik, Iceland
Raphael Guerrero - Mexico City, Mexico
Bill Brown - Orlando, Florida
Billy Howe - Riverton, Utah
Craig Peterson - Sandy, Utah (now living in Florida)

Front row: Alain, Raphael, and Stephane
Back row: Klaus, Brian, and Bill

Front row: Alain and Stephane
Back row: Klaus, Bill, and Raphael

Front row: Klaus, Stephane, and Raphael.
Back row: Magnus and Billy.

After each show there was usually a small crowd of audience members waiting near the theater exit in the hope of getting a photo with/autograph from the divers. I also went with the divers as they walked around the park in between diving shows. It was great meeting the park's guests! In this photo, Alain, Stephane, and I are chatting with one of the many fans of the diving show.

Sun-N-Fun Theater:

You are looking east and toward the entrance to the seating area. These seats were metal and would get very hot in the summer. If you sat anywhere near the stage, you were guaranteed to get wet!

Pool:

26 feet across by 10 feet deep and held over 40,000 gallons of water.

This is what the divers saw when they stood on the 30-foot platform.

Diving Platforms:

The twin diving boards were at 12 feet.
The large platform was at 30 feet.
The first small platform on the dive tower was at 50 feet.
The high dive platform was at 85 feet.

This photo was taken during one of our rehearsals.

This is a great "behind the scenes" photo. You can see all the scaffolding that holds the diving platform in place. You can also see the stadium seating for the audience and the control booth.

A mass dive.

Ever wonder what the divers saw from the 85 foot platform? Check out the following video clip and see for yourself (there is no sound with this clip - the original audio was of poor quality so I omitted it).

Show Times:

Daily at 2:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m., and 8:30 p.m. An additional show was performed at 12:30 p.m. on Saturdays.

Show Themes:

There were three different themes and an extra special event in the last show of the day.

Diving Contest

This is a photo from the beginning of the "Diving Contest" show. Prior to the divers coming out on stage, I would walk up to the map of the world and point to Barcelona, Spain (the host city for the 1992  Summer Olympic Games).

In this show, three members of the audience were chosen to act as judges for an impromptu Olympic-style diving contest between two divers (usually it was Alain and Raphael). Each diver would take a turn performing a dive and then the judges would rate the dive using numbered cards. Once the divers had performed their first dive, a second round of diving took place.  Alain would announce that he was going to do the  “Triple Split” dive. This dive would soak the judges (who were carefully seated right at the edge of the pool).  Everyone would run for cover, and I would ask Alain where he learned that dive. He would say, “My diving coaches!” I would the demand to speak with the coaches and this would start the comedy section of the show.

The comedy section featured all the divers in wild costumes performing ridiculous (and very dangerous!) stunt dives. The audience would go CRAZY and all the water the divers were splashing out of the pool would soak everyone in the first five rows!

The high dive portion of the show would then commence. Alain made the majority of the high dives, however, all the divers took turns doing this.  Once the diver made the dive and came up out of the pool, the other divers would gather round the pool and wave goodbye to the audience.

Photographer/The Sweeper

In this show, a “visitor to the park” would sit in the audience at the start of the show taking photos of the divers.  After the opening dives of the show, the divers would go to the 30-foot platform for a “group dive”. As they were getting ready to dive, the “visitor” would appear at the 30-foot platform and interrupt the show. The divers would then have the audience count to three and throw the “visitor” off the platform and into the pool

After the “visitor” left the stage, I would begin talking about how much time and practice the team had put in for the show, etc. One of the divers (usually Alain) would appear on one of the diving boards and tell the audience he had to “sweep!” the diving board off. He would climb out on to one of the board and hand upside down by his feet while sweeping the underside of the board.  One of the other divers would come out and strike the diving board Alain was hanging from with another broom (or, on occasion, Alain would fall from the board without assistance), which would start the comedy section of the show. This show also concluded with a high dive.

Dolly Diver/Baby Busters

In this show, four of the divers would dive from the 30-foot platform one after the other. The fourth “diver” (Dolly, an inflatable doll) would be thrown off the platform and would land in the audience.

After Dolly was rescued from the audience, one of the divers would be called back to the stage.  I would ask the diver if he would please do the “Spotter” dive, a very special and dangerous dive he had been working on.  He would agree and climb up to one of the diving boards.  Just as he was beginning to do his dive, a “mother” (usually Stephane) would run into the theater screaming that she had lost her baby. I would try to calm her down.  She would then point at the diving board where her “baby” (usually Alain) was bouncing the board so hard it looked like he would be thrown off of it. I would then ask the audience what we should do - this would cue the “Baby Busters” music (a parody of “Ghostbusters”) and the divers would come out in costumes and squirt the audience with mega-sized water guns.  This would start the comedy section of the show. This show also ended with a high dive.

Matt, Billy, Klaus, and Magnus are ready for the "Baby Busters" show.

Stephane dressed at the "mother" for the "Baby Busters" show.

Klaus dressed as the "baby" for the "Baby Busters" show.

Fire Dive

The last show of the evening was the Olympic show and featured one additional dive from the 30-foot platform.  One of the divers (usually Stephane) would put on a special suit. Part of this suit was a cape soaked in a flammable liquid.  At just the right moment, the diver would light the cape on fire, wait a moment or two, and then dive into the pool. The moment the fire diver came up out of the pool, the audience would erupt with cheers and applause!

The night time shows were the most fun of all! Starting at the back and moving clockwise we have Billy, Raphael, Klaus, Alain, Magnus, and Stephane.

Do you remember the diving show?
Were you asked to be a judge?
Did you get an autograph from one or more of the divers?
Who was your favorite diver?

Please e-mail me and share your memories of the diving shows!