The Extreme Sport of Cliff Diving

cliff diving. Hi, I'm Tony Armstrong. Welcome to the pool room, where we celebrate the winners, losers, and the weird stuff between. Although diving from incredible heights might sound like an actual nightmare for most people, cliff divers travel the world looking for these kinds of opportunities. These athletes are extraordinary people. The risks they take are much higher than the average

sports person, and the payoff is and are celebrated. They're unlikely to make any money, and although the sport is growing, most of them probably won't become renowned in the way that say a famous footballer is. Those who do make it to the pinnacle have gone through years of mental and physical training. They're dedicated determined and possibly a little crazy.

So when dozens of the world's best cliff divers unanimously agree that someone is the greatest cliff diver of all time, it's worth paying attention and to Gary Hunt, the man The Guardian labeled the Lenal Messi of cliff diving. Gary is the best of the best, the most successful male in the history of the sport. Over the length of his career, he's undertaken a number of impressive dives, but the one I want to focus on happened early in his career. In May of two thousand and nine, when

Gary was just twenty four years old. It was part of the first ever cliff Diving World Series. The sport was just becoming widely recognized and people from around the globe had gathered in Antalia, Turkey to watch and compete, including Gary, and he was about to make a huge impression on everyone there. In diving, there's a panel of five judges. In the lead up to every dive, the divers take the time to explain to these judges the details of what they're planning to attempt. When it was

his turn, Gary described every moment of his dive. It would involve jumping backward off the board into three summersaults with four twists. This move had a difficulty rating of six point two, which was completely off the charts. It was declared to be the most difficult dive ever performed in any form of competitive diving. It was also a dive that no one had ever attempted, not even Gary himself. We'll come back to Gary in a moment, but first, there's a few things you need to know about cliff

diving as a sport. Firstly, it differs from regular diving in many ways, the most obvious being the heights are much greater. A regular diving board is ten meters. In cliff diving, it's twenty six meters high. By the time the divers reached the water, they're traveling at an astounding

eighty five to one hundred kilometers per hour. That means that every high dive has to end feat first, because if someone were to hit the water ahead first, as sometimes happened when a diver miscalculates the fall, at best, they might face concussion, whiplash and bruising. At worst, they could suffer severe spinal injuries or even die. In Olympic diving, there are strict specifications for what's known as an Olympic sized pool, which includes details such as temperature, length, width,

and depth. But in the wild West of cliff diving, their specifications and conditions are a little less tightly regulated. Athletes are jumping off literal cliffs into whatever body of water is below, sometimes a deep river or raging ocean, other times a calm bay. When preparing for a dive, a lot of factors need to be considered, like wind direction and the size of ocean swells, details that divers

in a pool never have to think about. To make things even more challenging, there are just three training centres world wide with diving boards high enough to train on. To get around this limitation, they use a combination of swimming pools, specialist gymnast equipment, and trampolines to practice each aspect of their dive. Often the day of the competition is the first time they get to put all the

components of their dive together. This is exactly what Gary Hunt was facing with his difficult dive in two thousand and nine. But even though Gary hadn't practiced it before, it doesn't mean he wasn't prepared. In some ways, Gary had been training for this moment all his life, since he was just a kid back in England. From the beginning, Gary's determination was the thing that set him apart from

his peers. He wasn't the best diver, according to his coach, but he loved the sport and it quickly became apparent to everyone who knew him that he would dedicate his life to it. He was traveling around the country and the world, competing in events with his eye on the prize representing Great Britain in the Olympic Games, but the fact that there were other more talented divers soon began to take its toll on his Olympic aspirations. So in

an unexpected twist, Gary decided to become a pirate. Nah, just kidding. He didn't become a real pirate, but he did the next best thing. He got a summer job wearing a pirate costume at an amusement park. Alongside other pirity type activities. He had to jump eighteen meters into a pool below. Until this moment, Gary had only jumped from ten meters high. Initially terrified, Gary soon came to love it. He spent the summer perfecting crazier and more

complicated dives, which of course excited the crowds. After the summer ended, he sought out even greater heights, pushing himself to the limit and meeting like minded divers who shared his aspirations. By the time Gary began competing again, he'd found himself in a completely new sport. Gary had stumbled into the world of cliff diving, and he was about to take it by storm. So let's go back to that day in two thousand and nine, the Cliff Diving

World Series in Turkey. Gary stands alone on the edge of a diving board, jutting far out from a cliff. You know that saying cool as a cucumber. Well, Gary is often referred to as the Cucumber on account of his complete lack of fear. Watching him perform this dive, it's easy to see why he seems completely calm. The crowd below him, on the other hand, looked like they're collectively holding their breath. Some people are covering their mouths

in shock. Gary's fellow divers have their heads in their hands, unable to look away, but terrified of what might happen. According to interviews, in these moments of gathering himself before the fall. He's actually terrified, but he also said that fear is part of what makes him the best in the world because he knows how to use it to

his advantage. There's concern and skepticism from some of his rivals, bitter comments about how he's trying to win solely on difficulty alone, which to their minds, isn't in the spirit of the sport. Gary tunes all of this out and focuses on the task at hand. He stands still with his back to the ocean, his chin tucked in slightly. He remains there for a second, gathering his concentration. If he's terrified inside, you wouldn't know it by the look

on his face. Slowly, he swings his arms forwards backwards, and then suddenly he leaps into action, swinging both arms up above his head. He bends his knees and looks up at the sky before launching himself backwards off the board, headfirst towards the water below. Once in the air, Gary performs a dizzying number of twists and turns before straightening himself so he's perfectly righteously feet first when he hits the water, all with minimal splashing. It's a cliche, but

it's true. The crowd went wild. He'd done it a dive so difficult. Nearly fifteen years later, it's still being talked about to this day. It's never been repeated. Gary's gone on to win ten diving World Series in the years since, with no apparent end in sight. He's the most successful male in the history of the sport. Who can say what the greatest cliff diver in the world will do next. Perhaps one day he'll do it again. Well, that's it for another episode of The Ballroom. You've been

listening to an iHeart production. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm Tony Armstrong and I'll catch you in the next one.