This week in 1916 the inventor of the modern diving board, Ray Rude, was born on a small farm near Stanley, North Dakota. The diving board invented by Ray Rude allows divers to spring higher, arc farther, and do so with more consistency then was ever before dreamed possible. His designs have been the staple of Olympic divers since 1960, and are found at community, high school, college and university swimming pools across the world. And it all originated from a young engineer-turned-businessman from North Dakota.

Although Ray Rude would make multiple donations to UND he never graduated from the university, in fact he failed to even graduate from high school. After working in the fields from the age of 5, Rude hitchhiked his way to California in 1932 at the age of sixteen. There he found engineering work at Lockheed. In 1947 Rude started his own tool shop, and it was there that a friend came to him with a rather pressing problem. The varnish on the friend’s new diving board was wet, and wouldn’t be ready for a pool party he was throwing in his backyard. The friend was hoping that Ray would be able to think of a quick solution. Unfortunately, Mr. Rude was a mechanic and as such wasn’t in the habit of keeping around the large planks of lumber generally used for diving boards. However, he did have spare airplane parts lying about, and found a discarded wing section that was just about the correct size. Rude simply drilled two holes into his makeshift diving board and sent it over to his friend.

This would have been the end of the story, had the board’s spring not been so effective that the guests at the party were nearly hitting the far side of the pool. Rude thought that the board might be something which could be sold. And after spending the next five years of his “off time” developing the new metal board, Ray Rude patented his new invention and established the Duraflex diving board company in 1953.

His boards were immediately popular among the surrounding colleges, but real success came after the 1960 Olympics. The two gold medals in the springboard diving events went to athletes using Ray Rude’s board. With the Olympic Gold’s, Mr. Rude’s boards were eagerly bought by colleges and universities around the world, and have since been instrumental in increasing the height and challenge of diving competition. The increased lift from Mr. Rude’s Duraflex boards has led to some problems however, as some schools have been forced to raise the ceiling in their swimming complexes to keep divers from hitting their head.

In 2002, after achieving world-wide success with his Duraflex board company, Ray Rude, along with his wife Ina Mae, retired to Stanley, North Dakota. Both have since contributed millions of dollars to schools and hospitals. Ray Rude, inventor, entrepreneur, and North Dakota philanthropist, was born 91 years ago this week in North Dakota.

Written by Lane Sunwall

Sources
www.dakotastudent.com
www.ishof.org
Center for Innovation - https://learn.aero.und.edu

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