Experienced Dive Mom here -- At 13 you are a little late to start unless you daughter has gymnastics experience so I would follow PP above advice.

I'm the PP - oops - I realize now you said your DD, and I referred to "him." Hopefully you'll still get the main points!

Hi - Mom of experienced diver here. My DC really loves it.

There are two aspects to diving: summer dive leagues and then year round indoor diving.

Most kids start with summer (and may only ever do summer). These are laid back teams at local pools. Generally any and all are welcome, even if they have not dived before. You have to be a member of the pool to be on the team. They're great socially too.

Then, if kids really like it, some choose to do indoor diving year round. In MoCo, your only choice is really through Montgomery Dive Club (MDC), which uses the county pools. For beginners, it will be classes called "Human Springs." Your child would just do Level 1. These are one night a week at either the Kennedy Shriver pool or Germantown pool.

You can certainly start with indoor diving, but typically kids do a summer or two, really like it and then move on to indoor diving. But, if the interest is now, perhaps sign up for a spring Human Springs class.

It's in the Montgomery County Recreation Catalog. I think cost is about $300 per session.

I will say this: if your child tries indoor but doesn't like it, I'd encourage him to still try summer/outdoor, because they are different experiences. I have two kids. Both do diving in the summer, but one just doesn't like indoor.

Good luck!

When we first moved here 7 years ago, the kids took year-round diving lessons through MoCo's recreation department at the KSAC pool (and at least then there was a dry land facility right there for practice as well):

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/rec/activitiesandprograms/aquatics/diving.html

http://www.mcdiving.org/content/results/2019

These are all the summer pools with dive teams

Dive clubs practices out of KSAC and I think Germantown too so check with them about beginner classes. You can start now instead of waiting for summer. Also, the instructors are professional instructors where as some of the summer pools coaches are divers, but maybe not as experienced as instructors. Also, more individual instruction at the dive club level than summer pool because a lot of the focus is on keeping the little kids in order.

Thank you so much!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you have a neighborhood swim club? Check their website and find out who coaches their dive team. Ask them about joining at that age. Typically all are welcome. My kid dove for a year or two at that age with no prior experience and it was fine. The coaches probably also offer some one-on-one as well if she expressed more interest, but if she just wants to try it out, these neighborhood swim clubs are perfect. Where in MoCo? I know some of the clubs.

Thank you! Potomac/Rockville border (but I’m willing to drive a bit further).

Westleigh or Stonebridge

Anonymous wrote:Do you have a neighborhood swim club? Check their website and find out who coaches their dive team. Ask them about joining at that age. Typically all are welcome. My kid dove for a year or two at that age with no prior experience and it was fine. The coaches probably also offer some one-on-one as well if she expressed more interest, but if she just wants to try it out, these neighborhood swim clubs are perfect. Where in MoCo? I know some of the clubs.

Thank you! Potomac/Rockville border (but I’m willing to drive a bit further).

Do you have a neighborhood swim club? Check their website and find out who coaches their dive team. Ask them about joining at that age. Typically all are welcome. My kid dove for a year or two at that age with no prior experience and it was fine. The coaches probably also offer some one-on-one as well if she expressed more interest, but if she just wants to try it out, these neighborhood swim clubs are perfect. Where in MoCo? I know some of the clubs.

My 13 DD has begun expressing an interest in diving (as in swim & dive). She’s never done it before and I’m not sure where to start.
Should I look for classes or summer camps? Are private lessons best?

This is totally new to me to any feedback and suggestions are greatly appreciated. We’re in MoCo if that helps.

Thanks!!