BY PATRICK BREEN
SPECIAL TO PASCACK PRESS
TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON—Ariya Suwan is one of the top junior divers in the country, competing with Team USA in Sweden, and traveling to AAU competitions all over the United States.
At just 10 years old — the Old Tappan resident is looking forward to fifth grade at Charles DeWolf Middle School — Ariya already has won multiple national competitions.
In July she took home first place in the 1-meter and 3-meter high dives, and second on platform, at the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) National Championships in Riverside, Calif., and followed that up with top-five finishes across multiple categories in the USA Diving Junior National Championships.
Ariya’s mom, Kokoe Tanaka-Suwan, tells us “She was the youngest female diver to represent AAU’s diving Team USA (at age 9), at international competitions in Sweden last fall. Based on her results this season, she will be invited to compete in international competitions this fall.”
Ariya told Pascack Press on Aug. 15, “I really liked gymnastics, but it was too hard on my body. I loved swimming too, and my grandma suggested diving instead. I love jumping on the springboard and feeling like I’m flying.”
Ariya said she learned everything at Pike Dive Academy (pikediveacademy.com) in the Township of Washington, and trains regularly at New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark and at Montclair State University.
Over the past two years she went from beginner to rising star, and is continuing to learn more difficult dives for each competition.
Kokoe Tanaka-Suwan said “Two years ago we found Pike Dive Academy [via Google] and Ariya fell in love with it right away. Her coach, Dora Fyfe, is the head coach and owner of the academy, and she really took to it. She trains six days a week with what they call the elite team at Pike Dive Academy.”
Tanaka-Suwan explained that Ariya tried a number of sports growing up, but none really called to her the way that diving has. During the pandemic Ariya was looking to try something new, and they found it at Pike Dive Academy, which offers year-round recreational and competitive team programs, and a supportive community.
“Diving is kind of like a combination of gymnastics and swimming,” she said, “They do a lot of trampoline training, dry land training, and of course pool training.”
According to Ariya, learning to dive is far from easy, and takes many hours of training.
“I do this dive that is a back one-and-a-half, like one-semi flip and then turning back the other way into a dive,” Ariya says. “I had a lot of trouble with it a year ago and stopped doing it for a while. But this year I did it in a competition and it was really good,” she said.
Ariya competes in the under-11 age category at all of her dive meets, as well as the national championships, but as she gets older she’ll certainly feel the increased pressure — and challenge — of competition.
“I have to get more new dives because I’m going into a higher age category,” Ariya said. “Instead of six dives I have to do eight dives, so that’s going to be a lot harder.”
She said, “I met a lot of people when I was in Sweden, because they picked a group of us to come. All the girls in my age category were very nice. I met people from Texas, California, and Chicago, so it was a lot of fun.”
Her mom adds, “The Sweden trip opened Ariya’s eyes to the world of diving. Her coach Dora has been integral in creating a positive pathway for her moving forward. She’s very nurturing but sets high goals. She caters to Ariya’s needs and leads her in a way that she can really blossom.”
Dora Fyfe, Ariya’s primary coach, and owner of Pike Dive Academy, has helped train competitive divers for more than 30 years.
In 2019 she was hired as a diving coach at NJIT, and in her first season was CCSA 2020 Men’s Diving Coach of the Year. Fyfe was head referee at the 2022 Ivy League Diving Championships, hosted at Harvard University. She also was Ecuadorian National Team dive coach and judge for the 2020 South American Games.
When asked about working with Fyfe, Ariya told Pascack Press, “My coach has very interesting strategies sometimes, but they always work. She uses letters to explain our body shape during dives: like, you have to jump up and tuck into a C and then kick out.”
As for next steps, training several times a week and entering middle school will certainly keep Ariya busy — but she says she’s determined to learn new dives and continue honing her skills.