'Life, Magic, and Love' - The fascination of cliff diving

“Some people don’t understand why we go up 27m and jump off, go back up there and do it again,” says Gary Hunt (UK), four-time Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series champion, expanding he goes on, “it’s fun, it’s extreme, and it’s work – but doesn’t feel like work.” Jumping off great heights with no protection other than concentration, skill, and physical control; in less than three seconds reaching speeds in excess of 85kph, and punctuated by awe-inspiring tricks – that’s cliff diving and what makes up the main attraction.

If you ask cliff divers to describe their sport in three words, you’ll always get ‘fun’, then some combination of ‘adrenaline, extreme, surreal, magic, and love’. A platform as high as an eight-storey building is what they call ‘playground’, where they can challenge and push themselves, and where they take off on an adventurous ride down to the water. But what is it that drives them to make the climb up, and the subsequent long drop down, in the first place? Even though everybody’s story is slightly different, American David Colturi’s sums it up pretty well: “For me cliff diving was originally just a way to prolong diving. Traditional springboard and platform diving for me was my biggest passion and my greatest joy in life from the age of 5 to about 21. And once I finished traditional springboard and platform diving in university I started high diving just to make a small wage and to continue doing what I love. But then one thing led to another. Steve [LoBue] and Kyle [Mitrione] kind of pushed me into the more competitive side of things when we watched a few Red Bull Cliff Diving videos: Hey, maybe we can do this!? Next thing I knew, I found this new love and passion in pretty much the same sport, with a couple of obvious differences, and it’s just opened all these doors for me, all these opportunities. It’s crazy to think that this is my fourth year now on the series and every day just gets better than the last. We get to go to the most beautiful locations. Meet some awesome people, experience these new cultures and cuisines. It’s crazy to think that cliff diving has brought about all these opportunities, just from jumping off stuff and flipping and twisting on my way down to the water. It’s really, really cool.”

It’s the ‘couple of obvious differences’ the 26-year-old talks about that make the sport of cliff diving so fascinating for both the athletes as well as the spectators. “Once you step out of the pool, the possibilities are endless,” describes the sport’s legendary Orlando Duque, “Every time I get a chance to jump off a rock, it’s probably the best part of my sport to be honest. It’s the place that is there, you know nature created it and we’re using it in the way that we can, we’re making it work to do what we do, we’re changing the angle of the take-off, we’re trying to change positions in the air, trying to avoid rocks and that makes it that much more interesting. We are taking our technique, which we learned for so many years, and adapting it to that one specific situation. And then the spot next to it might be completely different, so we have to change again.” A willingness to break barriers? Yes, says Gary Hunt, as a cliff diver you need to be a rule-breaker: “In the sport of competitive diving it’s very regulated, and you’re told what you have to do; but most of the cliff divers kind of find their own way and do what they want.”


Photo © Red Bull Media House

When the men and women of elite cliff diving met on the Portuguese Azores archipelago for another competition of the World Series, it was ‘back to the basics’, a return to the roots of the sport: pure diving off a rock face. There’s a feeling: it’s a magical dream location, with so many spots to dive off the epic old volcanic rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Being able to stand with your feet on the edge of the rock, looking out over the sea and feeling the wind, seeing birds flying in front of you, and then to jump off and fly through the air in this natural environment. This is that reason, the feeling those people who love cliff diving chase. “Why we do this, is that freedom, that liberating experience of jumping from that rock, flying through the air, nothing attached to you, no mechanisms and no joysticks, you are flying, your own body mastering gravity on the way down, flipping and twisting. It’s such an existential experience that you get to have with yourself and connect with the environment around you”, David Colturi talks wonders about his sport in its purest form.

Cliff diving is unique with or without a platform and – at the level the Red Bull Cliff DivingWorld Series has built up to in the past years – is reserved for a select group of smart and brave people, where everyone has his or her very own ‘thrill factor’. It might be the speed one gets when falling to the water – as for Orlando Duque, or being in full control of oneself – as for Gary Hunt, or simply the flight as soon as you’re done with your tricks and you guide your body into the water as vertically as possible – as what American Andy Jones describes as his favourite moment. For the first ever winner of the Women’s World Series, Texan Rachelle Simpson, the adrenaline rush is very empowering: “I am afraid every time before a dive and when I overcome that I’m proud of myself and amazed; when I watch my videos I’m like ‘wow I can convince myself to do that and other girls, too.’”

Common phrases like: ‘a change from the stress and doubts you have in your mind, which instantly dissolve into nothingness as soon as you take off’, ‘this battle inside, trying to stay confident, thinking of simple things to help you do this crazy act, safely and successfully’ or ‘I’m always nervous at the beginning, but as soon as I lift off the platform for the most part I feel really confident, it feels natural’ express the sport’s best parts. It’s all about passion, challenge, and intense experiences – and gives us, the regular people, an idea of the magical moments cliff divers go through in every single dive. And although this don’t sound like a job, it can even be that – a very cool job, says Andy Jones: “I never expected cliff diving to take me where I am today. It’s really cool that I get to do this, I really enjoy it and it’s pretty badass, that that’s what I get to do for my income.”


Photo © Red Bull Media House

Besides working hard in the gym, in the pool, eating right, taking good care of the body, and always facing the risk of injury, it sounds cliché, but it’s just so very true – cliff diving is amazing, it makes you appreciate life and feel alive!