We arrive in Greensboro, North Carolina on December 13 to compete 2 days later at the Greensboro Aquatic Center, I am not confident I will make it past the first round, but I am proud of myself for overcoming several fears and making the most of this 10 day training experience. Now it is show time! My fellow divers are wonderfully supportive of each other, and on Competition Day it doesn’t feel so much like we were competing against each other, but that we are striving to do our best. And do our best we do. I – well watch the show and you can see how I did. Suffice it to say that I was thrilled to be there, and it was a blast taping the show. It was “live to tape” (no reshoots) but it took 5 hours to finish, with all the stopping and starting. I know it will be really fun to watch too (only 2 hours), so I hope you tune in tomorrow, Wednesday, Jan 9 at 8p/7c on Fox! I want to thank my awesome coach, Karl Warden, for his amazing guidance, his loving patience and his diving expertise. I also want to … Continue reading →

I have a huge setback on my 8th training day.  I get a concussion from attempting an inward dive (jump off backwards, and then dive forwards- yikes).  This dive totally feeds into my childhood fear of hitting my head on the board, but what I do instead is hit the water with the side of my head, way hard.  After a visit to the ER and to a neurologist, I am pronounced non-brain damaged, but I am ordered to rest for 2 days.   Whaaaa?  I cannot stop training, I suck at all my dives and I am going to get behind and and and… Karl Warden, my coach, reassures me I will be ready for competition day at the end of the week, but I don’t believe him. Back at the pool, I am badly shaken by the concussion (or whatever it was that made me slur my words and lose my balance for half an hour), and I regress: my fear of heights comes back.  I am also tired of hurting – my shoulders, stiff from flinging my arms up; my thighs, stinging from hitting the water wrong over and over; my head, sensitive from the incident a few … Continue reading →

When Rob Bagshaw, a fantastic showrunner who had worked with me on The B Team called and asked if I would be an alternate diver on Fox’s upcoming 2 hour special jumped at the chance.  As well as I can jump, that is. Jumps, flips, turns, handstands – these are all skills needed for diving, and I have none of them. I couldn’t make the cheerleading team in 7 th grade because my cartwheel flopped over every time. But I was jazzed to get the opportunity to train with an expert dive coach for 10 days, because when does an old dog get to learn new tricks? Stars in Danger: The HIgh Dive. By the time Rob called me, the 8 selected celebs had already been practicing diving for 4 days, and already 3 of the 4 men had dropped out. I was proud to hear that BH Housewives Kim and Kyle Richards, Jenny “JWoww” Farley from Jersey Shore and the pro surfer Bethany Hamilton had not wimped out. So it seemed like I might have a pretty good chance of becoming a competing diver, if Fox was OK with a woman taking Joey, Jose’s or Romeo’s place. Turns out they weren’t, but Fox … Continue reading →