Jake is 6 years old. Seemingly, the perfect age for an Easter egg hunt.

And yet, I think we can color Jake — whose parents declined to provide his last name — completely unimpressed.

Why? This particular Easter egg hunt is held in a few feet of water. And Jake doesn’t swim.

On Good Friday, April 14, Weber State University held what it bills as an “underwater Easter egg hunt” — although the official name is WSU Campus Recreation’s sixth annual Egg Dive. In the interest of full disclosure, only some of the colorful plastic eggs involved were underwater and required diving. The vast majority were floating lazily on the surface of the pool.

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Jake’s parents had hoped the Egg Dive would be a fun, non-threatening way to introduce their son to swimming. So much for hope.

Asked whether he preferred an egg dive or the traditional Easter egg hunt in a park or field, Jake doesn’t hesitate choosing the terrestrial kind.

“You don’t have to wear a life jacket,” he explains.

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As unpopular as the event was with Jake, the other children couldn’t get enough of it. Friday’s Egg Dive attracted 120 children — up from last year’s 105 participants — whose parents paid the $5 registration fee. The event sold out, and organizers say they had to turn away 10 to 15 children.

However, the lucky ones between 6 months and 17 years old competed in various age divisions for prizes like Campus Rec towels, pool toys, and gift certificates for ice cream, bowling, etc. All participants received a goodie bag.

An underwater Easter egg hunt featuring a hundred-plus children, four lifeguards, 500 plastic eggs and 150,000 gallons of chlorinated water? What could possibly go wrong?

“Nerve-wracking,” one WSU lifeguard, standing poolside, described the event.

“I’m worried somebody’s going to get hurt,” she said. “They’re swimming over each other to get the eggs.”

It was easy to spot event organizer Rebecca Mabile at the WSU Swenson Building pool. She was the anxious one, running all over the place — explaining the Egg Dive rules to families, putting life vests on small children, answering questions from parents.

“For me, it’s extremely stressful,” said Mabile, aquatics and safety coordinator for WSU Campus Rec. “But it’s also gratifying, because you get to see all these kids having fun in the pool. Seeing the joy it brings them is worth the stress it brings me.”

For Mabile, her No. 1 concern is the safety of the children. And her No. 2 concern?

“Parents becoming overly competitive,” she says.

Last year, Mabile had to remind a couple of “overzealous parents” that the Egg Dive was supposed to be fun.

“They’d point and yell, ‘Go get this egg before that kid gets it!” Mabile recalls.

She needn’t have worried. This year’s event went — dare we say it? — swimmingly.

Taylor Jensen, a freshman at Weber State, was a volunteer “egg-counter” at the event. Children would come up to her with their bucket full of wet, plastic eggs, and she’d count them.

So then, any under-the-table bribes offered to artificially boost a child’s egg count?

“Not yet, but I have heard parents can get competitive here,” Jensen said.

Her fellow egg-counter, Sage Bingham, is a head lifeguard at the pool.

“Some of the moms are competitive,” Bingham confirmed. “I got done counting one basket, and the mom said, ‘I counted something different. Will you recount?’ “

Bingham recounted.

“And the mom was right,” she said.

After the 119 kids (we subtracted the aforementioned Jake, for obvious reasons) had their Easter fun, WSU Campus Rec offered a special Egg Dive division for college students. Seven students signed up, five actually showed.

And one of those five didn’t even get into the pool.

Alyssa Arnold, a freshman from Blairsville, Georgia, simply walked along the edge of the pool in her street clothes, stooping to scoop up eggs that had floated to the sides.

“I wanted to swim, but I got all dressed up today, so I didn’t want to change,” Arnold said.

Besides, she added, “I’m not the best swimmer.”

Maybe so, but doesn’t participating in an underwater Easter egg hunt without actually, you know, even getting wet seem like cheating?

“It does,” Arnold admitted. “But it seems to be working.”

Indeed, Arnold was there with her boyfriend of five months, sophomore Tyler Nancollas of Ogden. And between them, the couple collected 211 eggs, besting the second- and third-place finishers, who harvested 167 and 135 eggs, respectively.

So Arnold helps win the WSU Egg Dive, and she doesn’t even have to get in the water to do it?

Somebody probably should have mentioned this to Jake.

Contact Mark Saal at 801-625-4272, or msaal@standard.net. Follow him on Twitter at @Saalman. Friend him on Facebook at facebook.com/MarkSaal.