Cliff Diving
How elite cliff diving balances risk with reward
September brings a dramatic double-header to the 2025 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, as Mostar and Boston host the final stops, where even the most seasoned athletes are pushed to their limits
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September marks a decisive turning point in the 2025 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, with back-to-back stops in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Boston, USA closing out a short but uncompromising season. With four events in total, every dive carries immense weight, where a single misstep can undo months of preparation and the difference between victory and disappointment may be decided by the smallest of margins. In such a compressed and unforgiving schedule, success hinges not just on raw talent but on the depth of an athlete’s training, the professionalism behind every detail of their dive and entry, and the experience to stay composed when the pressure is at its peak.
Now, with everything on the line, the question is who has the winning strategy to push their limits in these final dives. This year’s condensed season has already delivered surprises: unexpected names have claimed podium spots in El Nido and Polignano a Mare, multi-time champion Gary Hunt has made a celebrated return, Rhiannan Iffland has come under pressure from World Series rookies, and the absence of some of the sport’s biggest forces has left the field wide open. So how will the title contenders find that sweet spot between risk and reward, right when the stakes are at their very highest?
GOAT Hunt is back in the battle for the title, but how far can he push?
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
Each dive demands total mental focus under pressure and flawless execution
© Romina Amato/Red Bull Content Pool
01
What’s at stake
Success demands calculated risk, and the greatest rewards may only be gained when athletes push themselves to the limit, dialilng up the Degree of Difficulty while relying on precision, strength and control to protect their bodies. One misjudged manoeuvre can set a competitor back or, in extreme cases, result in injury, while a perfectly executed dive can vault them straight into contention for the podium.
The sport is a constant negotiation between risk and reward, where managing the physical demands and adapting to the environment is as much part of the challenge as chasing victory.
All season, the divers have been pushed to adapt quickly, relying on experience and preparation to navigate a schedule that allows no room for error. And now, with two back-to-back stops in September and the 2025 King Kahekili trophy up for grabs, the season barrels into a gruelling end to the second half, leaving little time for recovery or experimentation.
Composure, confidence and control – only the best are invited to compete
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
It’s all on the line; the divers will be looking for a perfect balance between strategy and skill, where every dive is part of a carefully considered game plan, performed with optimum mental focus under pressure, and flawless execution.
02
The season so far
From one stop to the next, a lot can change in the standings, but it’s the experienced frontrunners who've held the line so far. In the men’s competition, it is returning GOAT Hunt who is currently maintaining the lead at the top of the standings. In his 16th season of the competition, with 102 starts under his belt and no less than 10 champion titles, Hunt’s extensive track record has come into play as he conquered the challenges of the rugged paradise of El Nido, Philippines in April, and the curveball of unpredictable, gusty conditions faced by the divers in Polignano a Mare in Italy in June.
And in the women’s competition, eight-time World Series champion, Australia’s Rhiannan Iffland, continues to set the pace, holding a commanding lead at the halfway mark of the season. Chasing hard are rising names like Canada’s Simone Leathead, US diver Kaylea Arnett and Ukraine’s Neili Chukanivska, making waves in her rookie year as a Permanent Diver.
Nelli Chukanivska is one of the next gen of divers levelling up the game
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
But Canadian star Molly Carlson – Iffland’s fiercest challenger in recent seasons – has yet to hit her rhythm in 2025’s compressed and unforgiving calendar. A run of injuries since last year, and one costly misstep in Italy, have underlined a hard truth of the sport: even the very best can’t escape cliff diving’s razor-thin margins.
The pressure is palpable this season; even athletes with years of podium success have felt the strain, as a handful of minor – and the occasional major – errors have already shaken the standings. 2025 has been a case in point that in a sport as extreme as cliff diving, only through relentless preparation, balancing risk and reward, can divers bounce back. Especially when things don’t go to plan…
03
Why preparation is key
No one understands that delicate balance better than Carlson, whose current standing in the mid-section of the World Series standings is a testament to the trials of two punishing stops in the season so far.
Earlier this summer, following a training session during the Italian stop, the Canadian diver shared footage of what she called “one of my nightmares come true” – a slip following a running take-off from the 21-metre platform, which sent her tumbling towards the choppy Adriatic Sea below.
While Carlson walked away without serious injury, it was a stark reminder of just how much precision, skill and experience the invitation-only World Series demands. Red Bull Cliff Diving competitors can enter the water feet-first at speeds of up to 85kph, absorbing impacts as high as 10G – forces that would overwhelm anyone without finely tuned reflexes from years of conditioning.
For Carlson, her intensive training regime and thousands of hours at the pool meant that within the three seconds of aerial time between the platform and the waves below, the 26-year-old’s muscle memory and instinct kicked in without a second thought.
It was also a textbook, intuitive recovery that showcased why relentless training matters. She instinctively adjusted to the mis-measured take-off instantly, manoeuvring safely and minimising the impact on her body on entry. Carlson’s return to the platform was marked by measured steps, rehearsed routines and the support of an experienced team, ensuring the Brave Gang founder could rebuild her confidence following the heart-in-the-mouth moment.
After experiencing the fallout of a momentary miscalculation that can knock both body and confidence, many athletes lean on sports psychologists to reset mentally, restoring resilience, regaining composure and the self-assurance to step back up and compete at the very highest level.
In cliff diving, a competitor’s focus always has to be dialled in – divers will relentlessly work on staying mentally sharp and physically prepared to massively reduce the chances of injury before it ever occurs.
04
One step ahead of the game
“As professional cliff divers we definitely put in the work and hours to avoid as much injury as possible, we’re very very calculated in what we do,” Carlson explains. “We’re training easily over 20 hours a week, putting in the work of physical preparation in the weight room and off the platform. We’re working on lots of lead-up skills, so that when we do go up onto the platform, we’re 100 percent physically and mentally ready.”
“I’m super-proud of myself for knowing what to do off that crazy mis-measurement in Italy – or ‘slip’ as some people call it – and knowing that I could adjust my body in intense situations is really exciting to me,” Carlson states, recalling the incident, and following her Instagram posts on behind-the-scenes relentless preparations for competing in the world’s oldest extreme sport.
During severe, scary moments, our bodies are actually prepared for those difficult situations
“During severe, scary moments, our bodies are actually prepared for those difficult situations, but at the end of the day, things can, and do, still go wrong, but we’re doing the most we possibly can to avoid that, because of all of our training.”
In a sport that tests even the most elite of athletes, Carlson’s experience is a perfect example of how preparation, and its resulting intuition, is one important part of a wider safety net in the World Series.
While fans enjoy the adrenaline-fuelled aerial action, behind the scenes, every dive happens in a tightly controlled environment. Though significant injury from the world-class diving action is rare, a wider team of medical staff are always on site, including doctors and paramedics equipped to treat spinal, head, or trauma-related injuries.
First responders are on hand at any moment
© Mauro Puccini/Red Bull Content Pool
Large teams work for weeks to get platforms and launch spots event-ready
© Romina Amato/Red Bull Content Pool
Sturdy purpose-built platforms are constructed to strict specs, water depths are constantly checked and conditions are monitored at every moment. Safety teams teams are locked in from the first warm-up leap from the platform through to the final dive of the day, with safety divers and boats ready in the otherwise obstacle-free landing zone.
Strategically positioned across the water, the safety divers will move instantly the moment a diver breaks the water’s surface. And when you’re slicing through water with forces up to 10G, even the tiniest miscalculation can wreak havoc, so every athlete is immediately visually assessed the moment they enter the water to ensure they’re safe and injury-free. This leaves athletes free to fully focus on their performance, knowing that every possible safety precaution has been taken.
05
Invitation-only
Launching from a platform the equivalent of an eight-storey building, divers hit the water with brutal force, equivalent to those experienced during a car crash. In colder water, that impact bites even harder. Years of strength work, conditioning and lightning-fast reflexes allow the divers to continually contend with these forces throughout the regime of training and a demanding competition schedule.
That resilience and edge is why the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series is strictly invitation-only. Every diver on the tour, whether permanent or wildcard, has earned their spot through years of training, progression and competition. To get that call-up is to join an elite circle trusted to perform at the highest level of risk and reward.
And the challenges don’t stop with height and speeds endured in the sport. Unlike the controlled world of pool diving, cliff divers face the elements head-on. One moment conditions are calm, the next a gust whips across the platform or swells churn the landing zone. Whether leaping from a jagged cliff in El Nido or a purpose-built platform in Boston, the athletes have to adjust to environmental conditions in real time – sometimes even mid-air. That ability to adapt under pressure is what separates the very best from the rest.
06
Anticipate, adapt, adjust
For Gary Hunt, cliff diving’s most decorated competitor and an early pioneer who raised the ceiling of the sport, that adaptability comes from control and self-confidence. “I have to admit that I don’t consider myself as a thrill seeker,” he explains. “From my perspective I’m not taking risks. As long as I’m fully focused, I’m confident that I am fully in control.”
As long as I’m fully focused, I’m confident that I am fully in control
That outlook has guided his career, and to some extent, his notoriously relaxed vibe out on the diving platform. For the French diver, preparation and informed, smart decision-making go hand in hand. Hunt consciously selects dives that play to his strengths, building difficulty gradually, and only attempting the most challenging manoeuvres once every factor has been assessed.
“When it comes to cliff diving I'm rarely in a position where I feel any danger,” he admits. “For example after crashing doing a front quad with two and a half twists in 2010, I decided to stick to dives with triple somersaults, and gradually increase the amount of twists rather than going for dives with four somersaults, knowing that in tough conditions I would still be able to consistently dive well.”
But even the most adventure-seeking elite divers can feel the strain from the constant intensity and focus that cliff diving demands, especially when exploring new, uncharted diving spots.
“Cliff diving projects that are a bit more sketchy, like the one I did with David Colturi in Ibiza, are few and far between. We were basically threading a needle diving into a small hole between two jagged cliffs. It took a long time to assess the location and decide whether or not it was possible. I left that project on a high, but not in a rush to do it again,” Hunt confesses.
5 min
Daring cliff diving delights at Ibiza’s Cave of Light
Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series athletes take a leap of faith into the stunning Cave of Light in Ibiza.
That same philosophy around gradual, safe levelling-up runs through the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series as a whole. Hassan Mouti, Competition Director for Red Bull Cliff Diving, explains that only the best-prepared, most highly-trained athletes make the cut to compete in the World Series: “Each additional metre increases a diver’s impact speed and the forces on the body, significantly raising the risk of injury… The competition committee keeps tabs on every step of a divers’ progression – from lower heights up to the full 21m and 27m platforms,” he states.
Each extra metre increases a diver’s impact speed and forces on the body
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
Like King Kahekili trophy winner turned Sports Director Orlando Duque, Mouti is a former World Series competitor who now brings his expertise to managing the competitions and overseeing the athletes in the world’s oldest extreme sport. The two veteran divers are part of a large team of experts who spend weeks and months planning every spec, detail and element of the world-class events across the globe. It’s a well-oiled operation of epic proportions, where every crew member plays a key role in keeping the World Series running smoothly and safely.
“Red Bull Cliff Diving events are managed through rigorous athlete selection, controlled environments, strict safety standards, emergency protocols and continuous medical preparation. New dives must be proven safe in training before they’re performed in competition, and medical monitoring ensures all athletes are in peak condition when they step up,” he clarifies. This system not only safeguards the divers, but also keeps pushing the sport forward at the very highest level.
07
Second nature
For those just starting out, or looking to level up to the dizzying heights of cliff diving, Gary Hunt shares some final words of wisdom:
“There’s no way to avoid making mistakes in diving, it’s going to happen if you're pushing the bar,” he states. “Finding your own way to prepare physically and mentally is all part of the cliff diving journey. However, choosing the time and place to perform your new and potentially dangerous dives is a factor that you can easily control.”
… choosing the time and place to perform your new and potentially dangerous dives is a factor that you can easily control
Hunt explains that in recent years the slowly increasing number of specialist, purpose-built 27m platforms around the world, in places like Area 47, Fort Lauderdale and Zhaoqing, have provided much safer arenas to train for the demands of cliff diving. “They're the perfect places to learn new dives before heading into the wild if that’s what you want to do,” Hunt adds, especially considering the rising tide of newcomers to the world of cliff diving.
Success: relentless prep, respect for the elements, reading the conditions
© Romina Amato/Red Bull Content Pool
“But to have experienced people in the water is essential,” he comments. “Being extra careful in places where there's a current. Ensuring that the take-off spot is secure… going through the list of dangers is making my palms sweaty so I’m going to leave it at that,” he muses.
Even in a sport where the most experienced, confident and successful athletes are constantly breaking barriers, the basic approach never really changes. Whether chasing a trophy or exploring a new diving spot, relentless prep, respect for the elements, reading the conditions, and a game plan that keeps the diver in control.
“Once all of these factors become second nature, you can start to put the risks and dangers to the back of your mind and just go for it,” Hunt concludes.
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