The desire to fly is a strong one among us gravity-bound humans. Within the laws of physics, we are always looking to find ways to get that thrill of flight. Diving from great heights is one way that those brave enough and talented enough can get that thrill. I am more of a dive off the side of the pool kind of person, but watching world renowned divers soar through the air is how I fly vicariously. I cannot wait to witness (from the ground) what diving off the Institute of Contemporary Art building is like.
Red Bull Cliff Diving by the numbers includes:
- free-falling from up to 27m
- 85km/h fast
- forces of roughly 10G
- only 3 seconds to perform up to 5 somersaults
- Take-off jump – Up to 0.8m
- Rotation speed – 2.4 per second
- Vertical velocity – 22.5m per second
- the sport originated hundreds of years ago in Hawaii. King Kahekili, after whom the champion’s trophy is now named, was a Hawaiian chief who first leaped from the holy cliffs of Kaunolo in the 1700s
Tickets to see the Red Bull Cliff diving live on June 4th in Boston are sold out, but you can keep cool and watch divers from Canada, Australia, Belarus, Colombia, Italy, United Kingdom, France, Mexico, Romania, Germany, Ukraine, United States, Spain, Brazil, Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic on a live stream here.
