When Saskatoon Diving Club member Jonah Cey plunges into the tank below, he usually knows right when he hits the water if he’s nailed the entry.
“We call it a rip when there’s no splash and it makes a big noise, but it feels like you glide through the water and you go right to the bottom,” says Cey, 17, who is representing Team Saskatchewan at the Canada Games in Winnipeg this week.
“It’s the best feeling in the world when you can hear the crowd cheering from out of the water.”
But three weeks ago, he experienced a completely different type of rip when he hit the water.
“I was doing a newer dive of mine — it’s called a ‘back arm stand triple.’ I don’t remember doing the dive. But … seeing the video afterwards, I either slipped out or came out too early,” he said.
Cey landed on the back of his neck and suffered a concussion. He also lacerated his shoulders, as the extreme impact of the water broke his skin.
“I was lying on the side of the pool and my teammates were actually icing my back where I was bleeding and bruising,” Cey recalled.
He was taken to hospital for monitoring after the incident, but made a fast recovery. Less than two weeks later, he passed a concussion test, clearing him for competition, and was back in the pool. However, he’s still proceeding with caution.
The accident shook up the whole Saskatoon Diving Club, whose members regard Cey as an unofficial captain.
“When he was gone, there was a week there where it just didn’t seem as fun at practice — there wasn’t that big hype-up,” said Rylan Wiens, who will be the flag bearer for Team Saskatchewan at the Canada Summer Games.
Cey is also like a brother to Wiens, who captured a silver medal on the 3-metre platform at the Canadian Junior Elite National Championships last week.
“If I didn’t see the right way to do things, I would probably not be as brave as I am. I probably wouldn’t do all the dives. But with him being a leader, it really helps,” Wiens said, noting Cey’s fearless attitude on the boards.
The two help mentor each other, pushing one another to dive their best.
“My coach likes to call it ‘positive peer pressure’ — we like to build off each other’s successes,” Cey said.
“If he does this, I want to go a little higher — then he wants to go a little higher and it’s great.”
With Cey’s concussion behind them, the two Saskatoon divers now prepare to compete against each other at the Canada Games. They usually compete in different age categories, but the national event in Winnipeg is an open category.
“No matter what we’re doing, we always try and push each other to be the best we can, so I’m really excited to do that on a higher scale,” Cey said.
Diving events at the Canada Games begin on July 31 at the Pan Am Pool in Winnipeg.
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