Cliff Diving
How to rip a perfect entry in cliff diving
The pros explain the precision and technique needed to slice the water and take maximum points.
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In aviation, they say that taking off and landing are the most critical stages of flight. They are the crucial moments when pilots really earn their money, and for cliff divers it's a similar story.
Spreading their wings from heights of up to 27m, they must then guide their bodies through three seconds of acrobatic flight, before safely touching down in the water at speeds of up to 80kph. Just one small mistake upon entry can result in a huge hit, both to the body and the scores.
Find out more about the power, precision and technique needed to rip the perfect entry…
01
The importance of the entry
For those who follow the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, the sound of expert commentator Joey Zuber excitedly proclaiming, "And that is what you call a rip entry!" is familiar.
It means a diver has successfully completed their mid-air manoeuvres and immersed themselves into the water with barely a bit of splash.
But what exactly is a rip entry, and why is it an important part of the dive?
Aidan Heslop
© Ricardo Nascimento/Red Bull Content Pool
The word 'rip' comes from the sound the body makes as it slices perfectly into the lake, river or ocean below. It's similar to the sound of paper being torn, and it is music to the ears of the divers, the commentators and, most importantly, the judges.
“The ultimate goal for a cliff diver is to have a rip entry. That generally means that they'll enter the water feet first straight up and down, and they'll make a sound that sounds like tearing paper,” says Red Bull Cliff Diving judge Simon Latimer.
It’s very rare that a dive would get a 10 if it didn’t have a rip entry
In competition, every part of the dive counts. Unlike Olympic diving, where divers enter the water head-first, the height and speed of the dive in the World Series means that the divers must enter the water feet-first.
Orlando Duque tenses his body as he slices through the water
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
Before impacting the water, the divers must engage their core muscles and keep the body tight and streamlined so that the shoulders, arms, core and legs are all aligned, reducing impact as much as possible.
"So everything already happened in the air and now it's the final moment. Ideally very little splash, hopefully in a very vertical position and that means it's a successful dive," says cliff diving legend and Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series sports director Orlando Duque.
If the entry into the water is wrong, the diving score and the diver’s body can suffer. A slight under or over-rotation at 80kph can pull the diver off balance, increasing the risk of injury.
Molly Carlson exits her dive in a barani
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
It sounds simple enough, but with the amount of complexity that athletes pack into those three seconds of freefall these days, it's nothing less than stunning how they straighten up their bodies in the final few milliseconds for a perfectly perpendicular entry.
And, in most cases, it wouldn't be possible without a secret little weapon they have in their pocket – the barani.
02
Mastering the barani
Oleksiy Prygorov spots the water and moves into the barani position
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
For divers, the barani manoeuvre is undoubtedly the most important part of the dive besides the take-off. It is essentially one forward somersault with half a twist and is used in cliff diving as opposed to regular 10m diving, where the athletes hit the water head-first.
It’s a move also seen in gymnastics, trampolining, snowboarding and other sports where the athlete lands feet-first from a speedy manoeuvre.
Catalin Preda's epic dive... but did it rip?!
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
The barani performs as a perfect control mechanism that allows the divers to spot the water below, line-up, and hit the water safely feet-first.
"The barani is really where you control the dive," says England's Blake Aldridge, who made the move from the 10m platform to cliff diving following the 2008 Olympics.
"Obviously, from the platform we initiate all our somersaults and twists, which is what you see at the start of the dives. Then there comes a point when you finish all your tricks and you've got so much momentum, you have to come out and fly and control the barani.
"For me, this has been the hardest transition of learning from Olympic diving to cliff diving. Being able to come out and land on your feet as opposed to 25 years of landing on my head. It's a massive part of the dive, and it's the only real way to control things. It's where you get your points. It's what is being judged. And if you can't control the barani, you can't control the entry. So to become consistent, you need a good barani."
So, they've nailed the take-off, packed in a few elegant twists and spins and lined up for entry with a perfect barani. Now for the moment of impact. How does it feel to really rip the water?
03
The feeling of the perfect entry
"Most of the time, when it is a good entry, it hurts," says Australia's Rhiannan Iffland. "You are that tight in it and so tense going through. Usually, you have a sense underwater of how the entry has gone, but you don't actually know."
"Because you can do a perfect entry, and it still pulls you around under the water, and it still hurts a lot. It's nice to have all those feelings, and then everything just goes silent as you slice through the water."
That feeling when you've just ripped the perfect entry
© Romina Amato/Red Bull Content Pool
It's such a cool feeling to do a proper vertically deep entry
"It's such an amazing feeling! It's so difficult to compare with something else, especially in cliff diving, with the adrenaline and the difficult dives we do," adds Oleksiy Prygorov. Ripping the entry is such a relief!
"The physical feeling depends a bit on the water, the temperature. Even though an entry is perfect, it can be a bit painful," he explains "But actually, that‘s a pain you only realise afterwards, because you're so focused on your dive and every element of it."
Jonathan Paredes: when you know you've nailed your take off, dive & entry
© Predrag Vuckovic/Red Bull Content Pool
If anyone knows how to rip a dive, it's Mexico's Jonathan Paredes. His immaculate entries into the water over the years have earned him the nickname 'ripmaster', and he somewhat echoes Iffland's thoughts on the subject:
"Even if you have a good entry, it's going to hurt a little bit," says the 34-year-old. "But the feeling is totally different. It's a relief somehow, once you get into the water it's a huge relief. To me, the best feeling comes right after the entry when I see the judges and good scores. That's the best feeling."
Beyond the perfect entry
The three basic elements of a dive - take off, aerial and entry - have their own specific set of challenges, skills and training requirements. Given the forces of impact, training the body to handle entry involves a lot of strength work outside of the water.
1 min
How to Learn a Cliff Dive
Even top professionals start off practicing fundamentals before putting it all together on the cliffs.
Core strength is especially important, as a strong core allows the diver to maintain the correct vertical alignment from top to bottom, streamlining the body for a safe entry that slices into the water and massively reduces splash.
"Training for a rip entry takes practice, practice, practice," says Prygorov. The only World Series diver to have won an Olympic medal, Prygorov took his first long-awaited first podium finish in Paris in 2023.
He continues to dedicate hours of training and practice each week in a bid to secure a perfect dive and a first-place finish. "For me personally, physical fitness plays a big role. The fitter I am, the easier it feels," he says.
You need to be confident - you can‘t think too much, you need to be convinced that you can nail a rip entry even if you are a little scared
During training and competition days, a team of safety divers are also in the water for every dive.
Meili Carpenter launches... spot the safety divers carefully watching below
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
“The safety divers go down underwater with us as we land, to make sure we’re okay and in the event of a bad landing, they will help rescue us and get us back to safety,” explains US diver Meili Carpenter.
"When I’m doing the rip entry, it feels like so much tension going through my body as I brace for the entry," says Australian Xantheia Pennisi. "As soon as I hit the water, there's a strong impact from the water, but then I can relax, and I have so much joy from completing the dive!"
As nervous flyers will often admit, nothing beats that sense of joy and relief when their plane touches down safely on the runway. For cliff divers, it's clear that the perfect entry stirs up the same emotions.
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