'It's something that you can't even imagine': what it takes to dive 21m off Downpatrick Head
Jessica Macaulay of Canada dives from the 21 metre platform during the second competition day of the third stop of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina on August 27, 2021.
This weekend sees the Irish leg of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series take place on Downpatrick Head, off the coast of County Mayo, where the cream of the world's high-divers will reckon with the latest round of a series of drops that will take them around the world in pursuit of the King Kahekili trophy, the sport's premier honour, in both the men's and women's rankings.
24 athletes will jump from 21 metres, and perform incredible feats of gymnastic ability in the air, before bracing for impact with the Atlantic beneath.
One such athlete is Canada's Jessica Macaulay — currently running second in the women's competition and eager to build on a growing reputation in a sport many people have yet to reckon with, much less get into. After all, it must be a whole process to psych yourself up to dive from such heights.
"Cliff diving is a super-mental sport, so it's more than just physical, I do make sure that I feel strong, I have my dives ready. But I like to prepare my mind and do some visualisations.
"I like to imagine myself in the spot, and then when I get to the spot, I like to see the platforms, see the conditions. Then I visualise my dives, and get in the right mindset for competition."
That's, of course, to say nothing of the physical preparation required to summon the strength to leap and dive these heights — and to do so competitively, as opposed to a once-off adrenaline rush.
"Not only do we have to be really strong for the takeoff, and physically prepared to do the dive itself, but we have to be strong enough to withstand impact, because every time we hit the water, it's really hard on our bodies - we can only do so many high dives.
"So not only are we making sure we're strong enough to jump, but we have to do some pre-injury exercises to make sure that our body can stay super-tight whenever we hit the water."
In the weeks leading up to Saturday's event, we've seen the preparations, and we've seen what's asked of each of these athletes. The average human might undertake such a task once or twice in their lives at all, much less in a regular, competitive manner.
Suffice to say, keeping a clear head on the way up to the platform is crucial.
"I'm just taking the next step, I can't think about how scared I am, I just have to think about the next thing that I have to do. So I just put one hand in front of the other, to make sure I get to the end of the board.
"Once I get there, I have just one correction in my head that I need to think about. I just have to trust myself, because there's a lot of fear involved, and if I let that get in the way, then there's no way I can do the dive."
Once at the top, it's just the diver, and the sea below. A diver will jump, and while considerations are taken for the moves they'll accomplish on the way down, there must be no real way to explain to someone what it's like to abandon yourself to the drop.
"It feels amazing. There's one specific dive I do called 'flying friend', where I'm literally just soaring through the air, just flying like a bird. I have to say that that is the best feeling — you're just cruising towards the water. And then for the entry, just think 'super-tight'.
"Just the flight in the air, is something that you can't even imagine."
A lot of modern or extreme sports are difficult to relate to others, simply because of people's expectations of what an athlete does, and the way that traditional sports are presented and contested. How does someone even begin to talk with Macaulay about what she does?
"I think I have a hard time doing that. It's just my job, like anything is anybody's job. It's something that I put a lot of energy into, for almost 20 years now. I started when I was nine (as a traditional high diver), I'm 28 now.
"So yeah, I just train, I go into "work" every single day... this is my season, this is where all of my work comes into fruition. So yes, it's kind of difficult to relate it to the average person, y'know?"
- This competition will be live on September 12 from 3pm on redbullcliffdiving.com; Red Bull TV on Facebook and YouTube; and on Irish broadcast television via TG4.
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