FEATURE

Afraid, not Scared - why Fear is a Vital Part of Cliff Diving

By quattro media

How cliff divers are able to harness the fear associated with a 27m dive.

What is the regular office worker afraid of? Being late for the jour-fixe? Messing up the next presentation? Not getting promoted? Well, they are a completely different type of fear compared to those of an elite group of professionals, whose regular business-outfit are swimming trunks and whose office lies eight storeys above the water. Cliff divers are strong – mentally and physically – but they know the feeling of fear much better than most of us. When do they experience fear and how do they deal with it?

Let’s get straight to the point – you cannot not be afraid. You’re on top of a platform and you’ve got 27m between you and the water. You’ll soon take the leap, do a series of complex tricks and hit the water at speeds of more than 85kph. And you’re not protected at all. It’s all you. You had better not lose control in the air, you need to find that straight entry. The blood is pumping, your heart is beating… get that fear under control and do your job.

When do you feel anxiety the most?

The answers to this question are as varied as the athletes. They range from “once I tell myself that I’m going to dive” (Andy Jones, USA) to “when I take the steps on to the platform” (Jonathan Paredes, MEX) to “the night before a competition. Laying down in bed and mentally rehearsing, my hands get sweaty and my heart speeds up” (Steven LoBue, USA). For Gary Hunt (UK), the reigning four-time World Series winner, it’s definitely the point just before a dive: “Because it's the point of no return. Part of your body is saying "don't jump" but you have to try and overcome that and believe in yourself and jump, but those few seconds before you take off is definitely when it's the most scary point.”

Find the right level

Fear definitely keeps you on your toes, you need to be concentrated 100 percent on the dive and if you're distracted, then that's when accidents can happen. It's not the nicest feeling to have, but it definitely helps to keep you alive and keep you safe. “The more you understand the sport, the more you realise how necessary fear is. If your fear is completely absent, than you might take it for granted and do something stupid, but if your fear is also at a level that's too high, you might make some mistakes as well, if you're not thinking as clearly; so, it's really important to have fear, but you also have to keep it at a certain level,” states Steven LoBue, who recently managed to find his way down to the water safely after hitting his head on the platform during the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series competition in La Rochelle, France.

Manage your fear

A difficult task! The 29-year-old American LoBue concentrates on one or two positive cues before a dive to maintain focus. Next step, you kind of turn your brain off a little bit and go into auto-pilot and – as these athletes have been diving for so long and a lot of these manoeuvres are programmed – the result is usually a successful dive. But, again, everyone handles the nerves and the fear in their own way. And so 2015’s back-to-back winner Gary Hunt tries to distract himself from the competition. He often takes a set of juggling balls and just tries to completely take his mind off the competition and forget the fact that he has to get up there and throw himself off the 27-metre board. Others can even play the experience-card; such as Orlando Duque (COL), the winner of 13 cliff diving world titles in the last 18 years: “Experience helps and it comes only with age. It does help because I’ve been in more situations than the newer guys, who might not have been confronted with the cold, the wind, the huge crowd or a lot of attention. Having to deal with a lot of interviews, a lot of meetings, a lot of things to do, maybe that gets you a bit tired and some of the guys are not used to that. For me, it’s just another day at the office. I know what I need to do; I know what the steps are.”

Cliff diving is complete body and mind

You can be the strongest mentally, but that’s not going to handle the impact. You can have the most focused person come here and try to jump; they’re not going to make it. So it’s about finding the right balance, a good combination – you have to be strong, you have to be fast and you have to be able to control that fear on the platform. You cannot simply put a percentage on how much is physical and how much is mental. All your physical prep is part of you being 100 percent mentally ready. The major challenge is to believe in yourself, in your training and having the confidence to throw yourself off the top of this platform. That is the key to success in this sport. “This is our job and we have good days and bad days. And that is when the mental part becomes so much more important. You have to be able to focus in that specific moment. It’s not such a long period that we have to concentrate. You have to put all your energy into this moment,” explains Colombia’s cliff diving legend, Orlando Duque, “the only problem with us is: a bad day in the office and you end up in the hospital. That’s your bad day. You can’t have too many of those.”

What do we learn from it? Being scared is nothing to be afraid of it, rather it helps you to do your day’s work successfully and without trouble. You have to feel fear and you have to get ready for that feeling, but when you are on the platform, you are here to work.











Video: Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2015 – The Fear – La Rochelle, France