By Mike Szvetitz
Sports Editor, Opelika-Auburn News
Published: March 14, 2008

Auburn’s Dan Mazzaferro is an adrenaline junkie.

So is Kelly Marx.

And Caleb Dunnichay. And Scott Morgan.

Actually, all 93 divers competing in the NCAA Diving Zones this weekend at Auburn University’s James E. Martin Aquatics Center are addicted to “the rush.”

Them, and the hundreds upon hundreds of other athletes who jump, flip, spin, twirl and otherwise fall off boards — very fast — into glassy water that can double as concrete if you hit it the wrong way, and call it fun.

Fun?

Is that the right word to describe the sport of diving? A sport to where the room for error is the space between your ears, and one mistake — one little, itsy-bitsy mistake — can mean winning or leaving in an ambulance.

That’s fun?

Really?

How about ...

“A High-flying, spinning, twisting, exhilarating sport,” said Mazzaferro, Auburn’s SEC platform champion.

Or ...

“Insane flipping,” said Marx, an Auburn sophomore who is the reigning SEC 1-meter diving champion.

That’s better.

“People who just watch the sport think we’re crazy for doing what we do,” Marx continued.

Is he?

“Slightly,” he laughed. “It’s a rush.”

A really, really scary rush.

Is there any other kind? Not for these guys.

Imagine bouncing up and down as high as your calf and quad muscles will allow you, flipping head over feet, twisting, spinning, all while trying to get your face perpendicular to the water and your toes pointing to the sky.

Fun? How about impossible.

And that’s just on the 1- and 3-meter boards.

How about standing (or hand-standing) 10-meters above the water (that’s 33 feet!), flipping off with your noggin as close as 2 inches from a concrete platform, finding a spot in the water or on a wall that is turning over more times than a convenience store hot dog that tells you to get vertical and hitting the water faster than you can drive a car in a school zone. 

Oh, and when you hit the water, you want it to sound like a piece of paper (not your body) ripping in half.

Yeah, that’s real fun. Not.

“I love it to death,” Mazzaferro said, using a very telling choice of words.

Why?

“Because of the adrenaline rush. You’re diving off a tower that’s 33 feet in the air, flipping and twirling, with your head 6 inches from the platform and it’s over in 2.2 seconds.”

Wow.

It’s hard to explain, and even harder to understand, but Marx does perhaps the best job.

“You have love feeling nervous,” the sophomore said. “The thing about this sport is you never know what’s going to happen. It’s the rush that drives you to perform and compete. We all love it. We all feed off of it.

“You can’t lose your fear. That’s what keeps you focused.”

And that’s also what keeps them coming back.

Over and over and over again.

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