Henry again flips through the brown photo album, and shows me pictures of his swim teams, and a set of three pictures showing him going off the high dive. He is remarkably fit, dare I say buff? Let’s just say I was impressed at this athleticism. This man has truly been an athlete his entire life.
I look up from the photos to see this smiling, still-athletic 85-year-old European gentleman I have come to know so well. It takes a certain fearlessness to dive off that high platform – for fun. He just smiles with a ‘Yeah-sure that’s-nothing’ attitude and keeps on talking.
Were you a diver too?? What kind of dives did you do?
We had a one- meter diving board, three- meter diving board, and a tall diving tower – 40 foot platform diving. From the board I could do at least four or six backwards flips off the 1 or 3-meter. That was my favorite dive – the forward one and a half. It was a good feeling when you fly off the board.I had a fun jump or skit I’d do for fun. I would jump off the platform like I was riding a horse. I’d jump first and go high; then the next diver would jump after me and dive under me, and we landed in the water like I was riding a horse, with my legs over him. It was a fun skit for people to watch. I did other kinds of humorous dives. – Henry Zguda
Photos from Henry’s personal photo album.