Kaleb Cave’s introduction to diving more than a year ago almost turned into an emergency.

Asked by UMBC dive coach Jeff Fisher to demonstrate his form, Cave dove into the pool inside the RAC Center on campus in Catonsville. While the entry went swimmingly, the Columbia resident and Hammond graduate had trouble surfacing.

Cave and Fisher laugh about the incident now, but Fisher thought he might have to rescue the newcomer.

“I was like, ‘You can’t swim?’ ” Fisher recalled. “He goes, ‘I can swim to survive.’ I was like, ‘You wouldn’t survive 30 seconds swimming like that.’ ”

Said Cave: “I was like, ‘Wow, the surface is taking a long time to get here.’ I want to say probably five seconds later, I was like, ‘OK, any day now.’ ”

That moment seems like a distant memory. On Oct. 8, Cave was named the America East Rookie of the Week after finishing second in the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events in his competitive debut at American University on Oct. 5.

Cave’s accomplishment is even more remarkable when considering that he is a widely recognized power tumbler in competitive and social media circles. He is a member of the United States trampoline and tumbling national team who finished seventh at the 2022 Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, and is the youngest person to execute a standing double backflip on grass. Over the years, his gymnastic talent has earned him more than 156,000 followers on his Instagram accounts, @lub._lub and @lub._dive.

But for now, Cave — who celebrated his 19th birthday this month — is concentrating on becoming the best diver he can be for the Retrievers.

“I feel like I’m just not there yet,” he said. “But I’m getting there.”

Cave was introduced to gymnastics when he was 7 years old by his uncle, DeAndre Cave, who taught him how to complete a backflip. After Cave somersaulted off the family sofa and cracked his head open on the corner of the coffee table, his mother Oslyn Cummings-Cave demanded her son sign up for gymnastics classes.

Cave didn’t like artistic gymnastics and moved to trampoline and power tumbling where he found his calling. “That was my thing because that was like backyard tumbling but with way more bounce,” he said. “So it was like everything clicked fast and quick.”

As a freshman at Hammond, Cave wanted to become the youngest person to pull off a standing double backflip, which he accomplished on padding on Oct. 21, 2019 — two weeks after his 14th birthday. When “SportsCenter” reposted one of his clips, Cave woke up to 20,000 new social media followers.

Then on June 20, 2020, he landed the standing double backflip on grass without the help of a small hill, springboard or a step forward or backward. His following grew from 30,000 to 60,000 followers.

In addition to his seventh-place finish at the 2022 Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships, Cave contributed to the United States earning a bronze medal in the team competition. The entire experience was uplifting.

“That was insane,” he said. “I didn’t even expect to make it to a world final. I ended up in seventh because I did mess up. But to finish seventh at my first world championship, I was ecstatic about that.”

When he enrolled at UMBC, Cave was content with concentrating on majoring in mechanical engineering. But in September 2023, Retrievers freshman diver Andy Vines reached out to Cave via Instagram and encouraged him to give diving a try.

“I feel like it was his decision to do it more than it was my leading him on,” said Vines, a former power tumbler himself who has followed Caves for more than two years. “I maybe planted the idea in his head just by being there and talking to him about the differences, but it was really his decision ultimately. The fact that diving is such a cool and unique sport is probably what drew him in.”

Cave emailed Fisher, who initially was skeptical until he saw a video of Cave’s standing double backflip. “I said, ‘Yeah, I think I can take a chance on that,’” Fisher quipped.

Cave kept Fisher’s reply, which included, “While most people make the transition to diving much earlier than in college, I think there’s a good chance you have some success.”

“That was the motivation I needed,” he said. “I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to prove his point.’”

After spending the first eight weeks improving his ability to swim, Cave began working on his diving. His power tumbling has been a plus, but Fisher said Cave has had to learn to slow down, use arm swings to his advantage, and be aware of his body positioning.

Cave said his form is a top priority.

“I can do a dive and make it look really good in the air,” he said. “But if it doesn’t look good going into the water, it’s pointless.”

Cave said he works on diving for two hours per day for six days a week and tumbling for three hours per day for two days. He admitted he isn’t quite as prolific sharing content on social media while juggling training, classes and a job as an instructor at a gymnastics training center in Elkridge.

“I’m not thinking about, ‘Am I going to post this tomorrow?’ ” he said. “It’s more, ‘I like what I did today. So I’m going to post this.’ I’m really humble about it now. I just treat it like a diary in a sense.”

At a tri-meet with William & Mary at Navy on Oct. 12, Cave finished fifth in the 1- and 3-meter events. Fisher described Cave’s potential as “limitless.”

“We’re there,” he said. “He’s super competitive, and he’s got a very high standard, and he gets frustrated when he can’t figure it out after he’s tried it three or four times. Typically, you have to try it 300 or 400 times before you can really understand it, and he’s just now starting to understand the timing of the board and how much he can stand up and how much he has to wait for the somersault to start, and that’s all happening right now.”

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