Jumping Off Cliffs: The Extreme Sport of Cliff Diving
The sport of cliff diving is very interesting; it basically involves people leaping off cliffs located at different parts of the world and diving into the water below. The sport can trace its history back to 1770 to the Kingdom of Maui. It is one of the
simplest extreme sports that a person can take part in as it requires no special equipment, no service provider to hire and no special clothing to wear. The form of cliff diving that takes place today is a derivation of the sport of High Diving that is featured
in the Olympic Games. Over the years the sport evolved and changed until the form we see today and there is now even a Cliff Diving World Championships that takes place every year.
To find out exactly where this interesting sport comes from we have to travel back to 1770 to the Kingdom of Maui on an obscure island in Hawaii. The last king of Maui, King Kahekili, would go to the edge of Kaunolu, which is a 63 foot cliff and before surprised
onlookers would then proceed to leap off it into the water below. He did the feat so regularly and was so proficient at doing it, his subjects started to refer to him as the ‘birdman’. He would later use cliff diving to test the courage and loyalty of his
warriors.
The sport lingered in semi obscurity until the late 1950s when it was used in an advertisement to show the strength of a watch. A diver jumped off a cliff in Acapulco and landed fist first showing the toughness of the watch. In 1968 a television show broadcast
footage of the first International Cliff Diving Championship that took place in Mexico. This led to an increase in the sport’s popularity and started to become widely featured in the media then onwards. Today, the sport brings together numerous thrill seekers
from all around the world who want to find the most beautiful locations and the most exhilarating cliffs to dive off of.
The sport of cliff diving, although simple to do, is also very dangerous. It is labelled as an extreme sport because it can potentially be life threatening if done incorrectly. There is a very specific way that divers have to enter the water; feet first.
If they entered any other way, there is a chance of serious head and neck injuries that they can sustain. Landing in a wrong position is similar to landing on a concrete floor after falling from a four storey building. The divers minimise their point of entry
into the water and so they do not get injured. The average cliff diver can reach speeds of 60 miles per hour in less than three seconds. Now a days daredevils who take part in the sport try to do tricks and stunts while diving but they only have about two
seconds to pull them off.
Over the years many people have been seriously injured and some have even died while attempting tricks during a cliff dive. This has not deterred divers though and every year people gather together to take part in the annual Cliff Diving World Championships.
During the competition a diver is given three dives to register a high score with the judges. Tricks and creativity are awarded and immense skill and body control are required to perform summersaults and twists in 2 seconds before hitting the water. Recently
the sponsor of all things extreme, Red Bull, has set up its own cliff diving championship called the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. It takes place in exotic locations all around the world and gives divers a chance to showcase their skills and talent in
completing extremely tough dives in beautiful settings. With Red Bull pumping money into the sport it looks all set to grow in the future.
With increased media attention and big companies like Red Bull behind the sport now it looks like the extreme sport will get a big boost in the years to come. At the moment the sport is slowly growing but the extreme nature of it is proven in the fact that
there are only about 150 cliff divers in the world at the moment. This number will grow as more people decide to throw themselves off cliffs in the next few years.
Tags: