Cliff Diving
Cliff diving couple make World Series history at season's first stop
Ginni van Katwijk and Matthew Cooper become the first husband and wife to ever compete in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series.
Cliff diving can be a lonely business sometimes. Standing high up there on the platform, all alone, with only your thoughts and visualisations to comfort you ahead of the three-second, 85kph leap. This week however, at the season kick-off in France, two of the newest divers in the line-up will have the love and support of each other on hand to help them during their debut appearances.
Ginni van Katwijk of the Netherlands and American Matthew Cooper, who can both usually be found entertaining crowds with their skills on cruise ships, became the first cliff diving husband and wife to compete in World Series in Saint-Raphaël, France on Friday.
While van Katwijk, 36, has been part of the scheduled line-up for this event for months, her husband only learned of his inclusion at 10.30pm on Thursday night, following the withdrawal of Mexico’s Jonathan Paredes due to injury.
“Ginni was more nervous than me during the night,” 32-year-old Cooper said, following his first competitive dives from 27m on Friday afternoon. “She woke up in the middle of the night telling me to be careful, but I slept right through fine. I just want to get up there and have fun.”
Cooper leaps from the Cap Dramont rocks
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
As for van Katwijk, it seems that her concern for Cooper may actually be helping her own performance:
“Today that was his first 27m dive in competition, so I do get nervous,” she said. “But maybe worrying about his dives stops me worrying unnecessarily about my own dives. Maybe the distraction’s good.”
An armstand take-off for van Katwijk on the 21m platform
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
The couple spend much of their time together entertaining on cruise ships, so they’re well accustomed by now to balancing their relationship and work commitments.
“We work and live together 24/7 on the cruise ship, which can be hard sometimes,” explains Cooper. “You have this very small room, not much alone time, but that’s why we’re so good together, we make it work. It’s so long at sea by yourself, so the only way we’d be able to do it is together.”
As for this weekend, van Katwijk says the two wildcards are just happy to be a part of it: “We want to dive well on Saturday, but we’re both just so excited to be here and enjoy this amazing experience together.”
Competition resumes on Saturday and the final round will be LIVE from 12:30 GMT on Red Bull TV.
Be sure to download the free Red Bull TV app and catch unmissable action on all your devices! Get the app here.