JUST STANDING 70 feet (21m) above the Atlantic ocean is not for the faint-hearted.
Diving into it from that height — in a place called The Serpent’s Lair (Poll Na Péist) — takes an altogether different level of bravery.
But that’s exactly what Germany’s Anna Bader will do on 24 June when the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series returns to Inis Mór with women taking part for the first time.
So how do you discover you’re good at jumping off cliffs?
“I was a normal platform diver and gymnast and I was always partial to a bit of danger, whatever it was — so jumping off rocks, out of trees, came naturally to me,” Bader told The42 this week.
“In 2005, I did my first competition at the European Championships when I just went with friends and that’s when I got hooked with the sport of diving.
“It’s definitely helpful to have a gymnastics or diving background but there are people coming from other sports like trampoline and that works as well, but you definitely need something as a background to build on.”
With divers reaching speeds of 85kph, there must be a certain element of fear when standing on the cliff edge getting ready to dive.
“We visualise a lot because you can’t do a million training dives as it’s just too hard on the body,” Bader says.
“We tend to divide the dives into parts. So we practise the start a lot on the 10m board because you can have a lot of repetition. At the competition then we put it all together for the full dive off the 21m height.
“So (when you’re about to dive in competition) you try to see the dive, visualise what it’s going to be like. But then you kind of forget everything and just do the dive. You need a very strong focus.
“It’s amazing when you nail a dive. It’s hard to compare it to anything else.
“Beforehand you feel fear and respect but then there’s the process of overcoming that and doing the dive and, once that works out, the feeling is just crazy.”
Bader’s first-ever cliff dive couldn’t have been further from the wild Atlantic waves.
“The very first dive I did was in Jamaica while on holidays.
“I went off this cliff platform but I was already a platform diver at this stage and that was just 7 metres high.
“And then the locals came over and said ‘you’re a professional, you must come and dive with us on our side of the island’, which was a nice experience.
“Those cliffs weren’t super, super high, but it was definitely a unique experience just diving outside a normal pool.”
Luckily, outside of a “tail-bone fracture”, Bader hasn’t had a bad experience diving and she’s looking forward to the challenges posed on Inis Mór.
“It’s the first time for women competing and I think it’s the ultimate challenge.
“It’s a rough setting and I don’t think we’ve faced anything like that before given the difficult conditions — depending on what the weather is like — so it will be a good way to see how your season might go.
“I have some ideas for dives this season but, since I’m just back off an eight-month break after having a daughter, over the course of the season I’ll try bring it up in intensity a little bit each time.”
The west of Ireland will go some way to beating Bader’s favourite diving venue, however.
“There are so many nice locations but I really like Red Bull Italy because of the setting and there is a huge crowd.
“You kind of feel like a rock star because everyone wants to take selfies and you have a bodyguard going back through the crowd so that’s exciting.
“But it’s hard to say because there are so many different dives around the world and they’re all unique.”
The 2017 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series Calendar begins on 24 June on Inis Mór. Find out more at www.redbullcliffdiving.com
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