7 Jawdropping pictures

From the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series

Interview with

Orlando DuqueMy mind is concentrat-ing on a good take off, because I know if I have a good take of, I know Im going to have a good dive.

Interview Orlando Duque

From the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series

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High achiever: Cliff diver Blake Aldridge drops in

World series dates

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What would you be today if not the worlds best cliff diver?I was studying to be an engineer, but I dont think I would have finished that. Later I wanted to be a cop or a firefighter, so maybe one of those two. But the choice I made, to become a cliff diver, was right. I used to be a very good pool diver, but I had that little chance and I took it. And I contin-ued preparing myself, and thats why I was able to compete later on and then gain titles.

Where do you see yourself I ten years?For sure Im not going be competing, although we have a diver in the series that is 44 years old. I want to get into event management or stuff like that. I dont think I can go back to an office. I spent 25 years of my life outdoors. So I think something that has to do with sports and outside that might be my choice.

The world`s best cliff diver Orlando Duque was in Hamburg, Germany to promote the Red Bull Cliff Diving Series 2009. FUNSPORTING chief editor Sascha Jurek met him for an interview.

Orlando DuqueInterview

Can you describe the moment just a few seconds before you jump?Im fully focussed on the dive one hundred percent Im thinking about what I am about to do. My mind is concentrating on a good take off, because I know if I have a good take of, I know Im going to have a good dive.

Do you do any mental training for that?The mental training is like the physical training, done way before. The whole year you train your body for the dive and mentally you see the dive, you visual-ize everything. But this mental preparation goes till like the last minute, and after that you fully focus on whats happening now. Everything is really calm then. All the nervousness is already gone.

What role does the feeling of fear play?I think that the feeling of fear is important for me, because it keeps me focused, it keeps me going through the right steps. I have to go through step 1, then step 2, then step 3 to have a good dive. So it helps me get focused to have a more successful dive.

What do you do the whole year to keep your body fit?The physical training is like the long part of the process. I do a lot of running, biking, I do strength exercises for my legs, stretching and of course in the pool the more specific water training to keep the diving technique.

Have you ever been injured?In 2002 I broke my tailbone. I over-rotated in one of my dives and landed almost like sitting.

Which one was the scariest dive that you ever did?When we were filming Nine Dive, my movie, I did a dive in a water-fall in the south of Austria. It was difficult, not because it was very high, the height was only about 22 metres, but the area where I had to land was very small and I had to jump very far to get there. So everything had to be calculated perfectly. That was probably one of the scariest I have done.

And then the highest that I have ever done was from a bridge in Ita-ly. It was 34 metres. There you just have to make sure you do every-thing right with the dive.

Where lies the most beautiful spot that you have ever dove? In Hawaii we have very beautiful spots. I mean, I live there and I get to see a lot of that there. But in Italy there are great places at the

Amalfi coast. In Capri, there is that beautiful cave, beautiful water, nice rocks. Ive been lucky that I can trav-el to that many places. So if I had to pick a favourite, it would probably be Hawaii and Italy.

What do you think was the greatest success in your entire life?In my sporting career I think that my greatest success is when I won my first world championship in 2000. I scored a perfect 10 from the seven judges. It was my first world championship and the ten is the highest score you can get for a single dive, so I really remember that.

What is pure luxury for you?You know Im a simple guy, I actually like simple things. A perfect day for me is to wake up, eat some good food, be able to dive at a really nice location and rest in the afternoon enjoying a drink. That would be luxury for me.

What is the best part of cliff diving? like it because its a simple sport. All we are doing is jumping into the water. We add fancy tricks and difficult twists, but its a simple thing. You can enjoy it even if you are just jumping. If you find a spot that is high enough and there is water down there you can already jump. When youre in the air, I love that feeling of falling. The speed, you see the water as you are falling down and you are really fast, I enjoy that!

The area where I had to land was very small and I had to jump very far to get there.

From the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series

The worlds best cliff divers went to Azores, Portugal, to participate in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. Photographer Romina Amato cap-tured some breathtaking pictures

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Where does winning in Cuba rank in your list of achievements?Its right up there with the best of them. I think given how high it is and how fearful you are when you jump off, all the emotions are magnified. Im a little bit older now than when I won the World Championships, thats proba-bly the fondest memory that I have, but win-ning in Cuba might have topped that.

Whats the biggest difference between Olympic diving and cliff diving?Mainly the height! Obviously its three times higher than what I was used to and the main visual difference is that we land head-first from the 10-metre and feet-first when cliff diving, purely because of the speed at which you hit the water.

What do you need to make the step-up to cliff diving?I feel quite proud having done what Ive done. I think there are many divers who are too regimented and they dont have an open mind. Its not that they wouldnt be able to progress into it, its having the open mind. Its obviously very different, but there are a lot of fundamentals you get from nor-mal diving that you use in cliff diving. Its a hard barrier to overcome to get up there

and look down 28 metres but, once you overcome that fear, very quickly your mind adapts to the length of time youre in the air.

Does landing feet-first as opposed to head-first take a lot of getting used to?Its taken me nearly three years! When you try all your life, from the age of five, and you suddenly have to change and you add in three times the height and the fear factor, its difficult. It does take time to learn. Its very easy to do a barani [the manoeuvre that combines a somersault with half a twist that is used by the diver to line up for a feet-first entry] and I thought that once Id done the

cliff dive Id pick that up really easily, but the last couple of years Ive tended

to overtwist on my entry. Its very easy to do a barani, but to do a barani and then have your arms down by your side and hit the water and stay square is extremely difficult.

You dove with Tom Daley in Beijing but had quite a public falling-out afterwards. How did that episode affect you?It wasnt a falling-out the way the media

portrayed it. Ive been working with him on Celebrity Splash and helping him learn a new dive so we dont have any problems now and, if anything the heartache of the Olympics, and not doing as well as I thought we were going to do, that really made me retire from Olympic diving and move into cliff diving and Im so thankful that thats happened. If Id still been diving with Tom, Id still be doing that now and now Ive moved onto something new. Its way more exciting and challenging for me than normal diving was.

Whats the highest youve ever dived from?Me and [US diver] Kent De Mond fre-eclimbed a cliff in the middle of the sea in Corsica and we jumped off and it absolutely smashed me and Kent said he felt the im-pact pretty hard as well. We got out and there were a lot of locals who watched us do it. The story is the top of the cliff from where we jumped was 32 metres - whether it was or not, I dont know, but it certainly felt like it!

Its a hard barrier to over-come to get up there and look down 28 metres

The one-time dive partner of Tom Daley, Aldridge competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics for Great Britain, but claimed possibly the biggest individual win of his career so far in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series first stop in Cuba earlier this month. Cause for celebration and a quick word with RedBull.com...

High achiever: Cliff diver Blake Aldridge drops in

May 17 | La Rochelle, FRANCE

April 25 | Cartagena, COLOMBIA

Colombia and Bosnia are new to the calendar of this awe-inducing series, in which once more 10 of the worlds best cliff divers and up to four wildcards per stop launch from 27 metres, reaching speeds in excess of 85kph in less than three seconds. Between April and September, the competition will also touch down in Texas, France, Portugal, Italy, with an additional stop in Europe, before the final showdown in Spain.

June 20 | Copenhagen, DENMARK

July 18 | S. Miguel, Azores, PORTUGAL

May 30 | Possum Kingdom Lake, Texas, USA

August 15 | Mostar, BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA

September 13 | Polignano a Mare, ITALY

September 26 | Bilbao, SPAIN