The Cliff Diving World Series delivers a 92-foot drop that dwarfs Olympic diving.
One by one, the divers perched on a platform stationed at the edge of the Copenhagen Opera House roof, nearly 92 feet above the water. Then they dove, somersaulting and twisting, into the harbor.
Welcome to the Cliff Diving World Series, a vertiginous international competition with a drop about three times as high as the Olympic platform dive.
Conditions in Copenhagen were not ideal. The 2016 Cliff Diving World Series had kicked off in Texas earlier this month before stopping in Denmark's capital city on June 18. The air was cold, the skies were overcast, and the wind was gusting at 34 mph when the men took to the platform, according to series organizer Red Bull.
Over the course of two days, 14 men performed different dives for the judges. "It was tough conditions. It was cold," Englishman Gary Hunt told Red Bull. "But that's part of being a cliff diver -- you have to be ready to adapt." Hunt dominated in Copenhagen and is currently ranked second behind Jonathan Paredes of Mexico for the series.
Hunt is actually scared of heights. But he previously won five Cliff Diving World Series championships, proving that he's been able to overcome those pesky fears.
Already synonymous with high-flying spectacles, Red Bull first created the annual series in 2009. The competition has a traditional high dive format that uses a combination of rules. A women's competition was added in 2014 that has the same height but a slightly different format from the men. Wildcard Rhiannan Iffland from Australia currently holds the number one rank over permanent divers Cesilie Carlton from the U.S. and fellow Australian Helena Merten.
On July 9, the series heads to São Miguel Island in the Azores archipelago. After that, the cliff divers continue their world tour with stops in France, Italy, Wales, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Japan. This year's champions will get crowned following a final showdown in the Dubai Marina at the end of October.
See the top three dizzying dives from Copenhagen here:
One by one, the divers perched on a platform stationed at the edge of the Copenhagen Opera House roof, nearly 92 feet above the water. Then they dove, somersaulting and twisting, into the harbor.
Welcome to the Cliff Diving World Series, a vertiginous international competition with a drop about three times as high as the Olympic platform dive.
Conditions in Copenhagen were not ideal. The 2016 Cliff Diving World Series had kicked off in Texas earlier this month before stopping in Denmark's capital city on June 18. The air was cold, the skies were overcast, and the wind was gusting at 34 mph when the men took to the platform, according to series organizer Red Bull.
Over the course of two days, 14 men performed different dives for the judges. "It was tough conditions. It was cold," Englishman Gary Hunt told Red Bull. "But that's part of being a cliff diver -- you have to be ready to adapt." Hunt dominated in Copenhagen and is currently ranked second behind Jonathan Paredes of Mexico for the series.
Hunt is actually scared of heights. But he previously won five Cliff Diving World Series championships, proving that he's been able to overcome those pesky fears.
Already synonymous with high-flying spectacles, Red Bull first created the annual series in 2009. The competition has a traditional high dive format that uses a combination of rules. A women's competition was added in 2014 that has the same height but a slightly different format from the men. Wildcard Rhiannan Iffland from Australia currently holds the number one rank over permanent divers Cesilie Carlton from the U.S. and fellow Australian Helena Merten.
On July 9, the series heads to São Miguel Island in the Azores archipelago. After that, the cliff divers continue their world tour with stops in France, Italy, Wales, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Japan. This year's champions will get crowned following a final showdown in the Dubai Marina at the end of October.
See the top three dizzying dives from Copenhagen here:
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