Diving board

The diving board is a build mode object in The Sims, The Sims 2, and The Sims 3: Seasons. It must be placed on the side of a swimming pool, and must stick out over the water. In general, how well Sims dive, and how likely they are to change their minds about diving once on the board, depends on their body or athletic skill. However, a Sim with high Body/Athletic skill may still do a poor dive, and may still get nervous and decide not to dive. Players can put the diving board on a higher floor in The Sims 2 and The Sims 3, but Sims will not jump properly, as in The Sims 2, Sims will chicken out of the board or teleport to a nearby area on the upper floor, whereas in The Sims 3, Sims will teleport to an area nearby on the upper level.

Sims will use a diving board autonomously. This could cause a minor problem in The Sims, as a Sim who wanted to dive would not get out of the way of a Sim who was trying to walk off the board. The Sim who wanted to leave the board would be stuck until the Sim who wanted to dive changed his or her mind and walked away.

The Sims
Sims who have low Body skill or are shy may chicken out on the diving board.

The Sims 2
Sims who have low Body skill or are rather shy may tremble on the diving board, and may even chicken out and back off the board rather than jump. A visibly pregnant Sim cannot use a diving board.

The Sims 3
The diving board returns in The Sims 3 in Patch 42, which is relevant to The Sims 3: Seasons. It is similar to the diving board in The Sims 2 but costs more and has some more interactions.

Sims can drench nearby Sims who are not swimming when diving into the pool, making them soaked. The larger a Sim is, the bigger the splash the Sim will make in the pool. Stunt moves such as "cannon balls" or "swan dives" may be possible. Sims will not chicken out of the diving board or tremble on it.

Diving can help a Sim to increase the hidden Diving skill. The Diving skill was originally available in World Adventures, which can be only gained by using the dive wells. The patch enabled it to base game as well as children to gain the skill. The patch also changed the maximum skill level, from 5 to 2. This caused Sims who try to use the diving board to reset if they already have Diving skills more than 2. This glitch has been fixed in patch 50.