For Steve Logan, diving from a 10-metre platform is nothing compared to the challenges life has thrown at him.
The Liverpool-born former Great Britain national diving representative will return to competition at the 2024 Pan Pacific Masters Games, despite not having dived in 24 years.
And if it all goes down in flames for him, he knows the feeling well.
But that was over two decades ago, and life has since delivered a few twists and turns of its own.
“I haven’t dived since then, and I’ve only had four weeks of training for this competition,” he admits. “But I reckon I’m up for it.”
Steve will attempt five dives in the 10-metre platform event, and it’s not just his time away from the sport that makes it a huge undertaking.
Now 46, he is also four years into a battle with stage 5 terminal kidney disease, for which there is no cure.
“Kidney disease is a silent killer. Most people don’t even know they have it until it’s too late,” Steve said.
“But for those of us living with chronic illness, life doesn’t have to be over.”
He undergoes dialysis for five hours a day, three days a week, but he doesn’t let it stop him planning his next moves.
“Dialysis gives me plenty of time to think about how best to live life and look for the next challenge, and, right now, that’s where diving comes in,” he said.
Steve’s diving career was always a balancing act.
Back in the day, he had to travel three hours each way from his home to the pool to train, which put competing at the Commonwealth Games or Olympics just out of reach, even though he was a top 10 diver at European championships.
But his diving ambitions came to a complete halt in 2020 when a botched operation left him in a wheelchair, with doctors telling him he might never walk again.
“So, in a way, returning to the sport now feels like unfinished business,” he said.
Adopted at a young age, Steve moved to Australia in 2006 after finding his birth family.
Before his kidney disease diagnosis, he worked developing and marketing innovative training programs to help people re-enter the workforce.
He now works closely with Kidney Health Australia, raising awareness and inspiring others battling chronic conditions.
Incredibly, over the past two years, Steve has dropped 31 kilograms in his quest to reclaim his health.
And while he no longer has an ACL in his left leg, making springboard diving out of the question, he’s cautiously progressing on the platform.
He started by diving from the 5-metre platform, relearning old twists and turns, before moving up to 7.5 metres. Recently, he was cleared to take on the full 10-metre height.
That said, Steve is under no illusions about how he’ll look on competition day.
“Watching a 97-kilo, middle-aged man with a surgically scarred belly squeezed into a pair of budgy smugglers plummet from 10 metres might not be all that pretty,” he laughed.
Fortunately, he has plenty of support, with sponsorships from Kidney Health Australia, Aussie Home Loans, and Australian swimwear brand Budgy Smuggler, which is even designing a special Back on Board pair of togs for him.
As for the fear factor of diving from the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre’s highest height?
“I would have been s*it scared as a kid,” he admits. “But after everything I’ve been through these past four years, this is easy.
“Besides, it’s only two seconds from the platform to the water, so how hard can it be?”
Outside of diving, Steve is also a budding singer, performing with a band and pursuing a solo music career.
His message is simple: life is still full of possibilities, even for those living with chronic conditions.
“I want to show people that life isn’t over if you’re open to challenges,” he said.
People wanting more information on how to support Steve and his kidney health causes can visit his Instagram site originalbackonboard.
The 2024 Pan Pacific Masters Games diving competition will be held at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre from on Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 November.
Entries are still open in most individual and team sports and details can be found at www.mastersgames.com.au
The Pan Pacific Masters Games will officially kick off from 1-10 November with an opening ceremony on Saturday 2 November at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre followed by entertainment from the Australian Rock Collective.
