Sometimes it’s enough to only look up to the 27m platform to make your stomach churn, let alone looking down. No way of staying calm in this very moment or focusing on a complex sequence of tricks at whose end a landing in concrete-like water waits for the unprotected human body. This is what also happens to the pros even after many years of practice and thousands of dives. You look in their eyes and you can see that there is a definite respect factor and sometimes even fear, which is a good thing in a way because it’ll help them to be safe, knows Niki Stajkovic, a former Olympic diver and sports director of the World Series. Unlike other human beings, the cliff divers make use of a combination of their extraordinary ability to focus and concentrate, confidence in their actions and a special mind-set. Walking to the edge of the platform is the most important part of the dive. If you’re not focused a hundred percent; right there at that moment, that’s where things can go wrong. So you really need to be in the right state of mind and knowing exactly what you have to do, is reigning champion Gary Hunt’s reason for deciding against his running take-off ever since he did it once in competition and landed hard on his chest.

Thoughts, voices and doubts the divers heads are full of them when they take the last couple of steps to the edge of the platform. Russia’s Artem Silchenko describes that as a very special moment. I think about nothing and I think about everything. Before you come to the edge, you think about your dive, you concentrate. You try to relax and not think about your dive too much, because that’s difficult; you look down, you look around and try to push out all the things in your head. Hitting the platform in itself is an act of mental commitment, as Steven LoBue puts it, and once you’re up there, there’s no turning back for the likes of Gary Hunt and Orlando Duque, who enjoys these moments the most: When you know you’re about to dive, especially in the optional dives, everything is going really quick; you’re breathing faster, your heart’s going faster, there are many thoughts in your head, you try to calm yourself down, but it’s just a lot of stuff happening. I think that’s what I personally like the most. That level of excitement, those few moments before the dive.

These really intense final few seconds before the take-off still leave room for doubts and the athletes have developed their own unique ways of overcoming them. I have to psych myself up a little bit. I go through my dive and jump up and down; I really need to get a feel for my body, if I’m flexible enough, if I’ve got enough power; so I’m just kind of checking my body to make sure I am prepared; a few deep breaths and a bit of self-encouragement. Visualizing the dive, feeling it and breathing exercises are also part of the usual routine nine-time world champion Orlando Duque follows, but at the same time, he does not adhere to rituals or habits, for the simple reason that at some locations they would simply not be possible to pursue. I like to trust my training and preparation and not that I just touch that thing and then I put my right foot first no, none of that, I’d rather trust my technique and mental preparation. Doubts or not unless there’s no official stop from the sports director’s side for safety reasons, the athletes want to get off the platform in the direction of the water and not go back down the steps, to use Gary Hunt’s words.

It’s not only the doubts and fear factor to overcome that put these athletes into an outstanding mental position, but also the ability to find a lot of enjoyment and satisfaction during the moments on the very edge of a 27m platform, knowing that after three seconds of freefall only a perfectly vertical landing will keep the pain at a bearable level. The biggest thing is that it’s really just you up there; there’s no crowd, it’s just that form of diving that I love very much; it’s very Zen-like for me to get up there and do a dive in the sport that I love, explains American Steven LoBue. And Gary Hunt, England’s three-time winner of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series takes the same line when he says: The feeling as soon as you’ve left the board is such a big relief. Really, once your feet leave the platform you have no choice; it’s really a big relief knowing that you have no choice but to think about the dive and to do what you have to do.

Whatever it takes to make the last few steps to the very edge of the platform high above the landing point, it asks for an out-of-the-ordinary mind-set and a mental readiness and confidence only a few can count on. Enjoying this moment of truth, above all, is something hard to beat in its intensity and reserved only for those who took it step by step.

 

RED BULL CLIFF DIVING WORLD SERIES 2013
85kph, aesthetic gravity-defying freefall cliff diving is the purest extreme sport on earth. Ten of the world’s best cliff divers launch from 27 metres with no protection at all, except their concentration, skill and physical control. They add flips and twists to their freefall and hit the water three seconds later. As the pinnacle of cliff diving competitions, the 2013 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series is once again the platform for breathtaking action and beyond-belief complexity, spotlighting the sport’s top athletes as well as young talent. In its fifth season, the World Series title is decided during eight competitions across Europe, Asia, North and South America between May and October.