Cliff Diving
How Aidan Heslop’s ambitions are pushing the limits of cliff diving
The British cliff diver's rise to the top at the age of 22 is just an opening chapter in his story, where the end game is ultimate dominance in the sport
When you grow up closely following the careers of sporting giants like Tom Daley and Gary Hunt, it follows that you’ll develop your own unwavering sense of ambition. For Aidan Heslop, his cliff diving career has set him on a path to his ultimate goal: being the living benchmark for success.
Considered as one of the athletes leading the charge at the forefront of the “new generation” of cliff diving Heslop was always primed for greatness.
An ecstatic Aidan Heslop celebrates his title with the King Kahekili trophy
© Dean Treml / Red Bull Content Pool
The new King Kahekili trophy winner has been one of the first “pure cliff divers” to come into the sport on a single track geared towards cliff diving – he has lived and breathed cliff diving since his childhood, followed in the tracks of cliff diving legends before him, and now stands amongst them as a champion.
01
Pure cliff diving, pure ambition
“I think my ambition is to show some dominance in the sport. Not just to win a world championship, but to be fairly untouchable by other divers… be the person that everyone wants to beat,” Heslop said last season, when the British diver was in the running for the Red Bull Cliff Diving champion title.
Now, with this season wrapped, it’s a goal that Heslop is well on his way to achieving. Not only has he earned the title of 2024 World Aquatics World Champion this year, but the newly crowned World Series champion and diving prodigy also became only the sixth diver ever in the World Series’ men's category to hold the coveted King Kahekili trophy.
Heslop is no longer just the face of a new generation of divers; he’s now the number one cliff diver in the world. He is the new benchmark.
The sky's the limit for Aidan Heslop
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
Focus, ambition and determination have long been hardwired into the 22-year-old’s psyche. Heslop’s early journey from young diving protege to cliff diving icon has been well-documented. From a BMX-mad seven-year-old inspired by Tom Daley, the young adrenaline-seeking Heslop locked in on a new level when at age 10, he discovered cliff diving via the undeniable GOAT of the sport, Gary Hunt.
Heslop’s friend and fellow diver Owen Weymouth had shared a recent video of Hunt throwing down the then-most difficult dive in the world, his signature back triple quad. “I just thought, ‘That can’t be real. No way,’” Heslop remembers. “I’ve always been a bit of a crazy kid, never sitting still, jumping off walls and climbing trees. So the thought of throwing myself from 27m immediately hooked me in.” The young diver took every opportunity to connect with the fledgling World Series.
Young Aidan gets a pic with Orlando Duque and Jonathan Paredes
© Aidan Heslop/Red Bull Content Pool
The cliff diving enthusiast is now the benchmark for success
© Aidan Heslop/Red Bull Content Pool
For a pre-teen Heslop in the throes of building his own successful diving career, following Hunt’s career and witnessing the history-maker and record-breaker push the boundaries of the sport and athletic capability hit different. The cliff diving legend personified everything that the young Brit wanted to become: a fearless thrill-seeker, an ultra-talented trailblazer and an almost invincible champion to boot. Hunt was the diver to beat.
These were traits that, deep down to his very bones, Heslop believed he could one day emulate.
Gary Hunt was my main idol, as I could relate to him so much more than Daley
"Gary and I are similar divers, technically, in the way we twist and somersault. Obviously I'm not trying to be exactly like Gary, but it was a good starting point – to feel like you have the same traits as a world champion is not a bad feeling when you're 14 years old.”
A young Heslop with idol Gary Hunt and the gang in Bilbao, 2019
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
In 2018, Heslop made his Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series debut at 16 years old. In 2019, he had already made history by becoming the youngest podium finisher and the youngest competition winner. By 2022, he was on the top of the podium after his first-ever appearance as a permanent diver, at the season opener in Boston. This feat was made all the sweeter by sharing his winning success with fellow World Series permanent diver rookie – and girlfriend – Molly Carlson.
Two seasons later, at only 22 years old, Heslop’s ambition still knows no bounds. Already considered a titan of cliff diving, he has also earned a reputation as one of its great pioneers who continues to push the boundaries of the world’s oldest extreme sport. And as the freshly crowned youngest-ever champion of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, Heslop has pretty much already earned his legendary status.
02
How Duque saw a champion in the making
Heslop’s rise to champion status has not come as a great surprise to those who know him well, especially Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series legend Orlando Duque.
Well before the Brit was throwing down some of the biggest Degree of Difficulty (DD) dives ever seen in the sport, or soaring his way to the top of the rankings, Duque – who can be seen overseeing all the incredible aerial action as the World Series’ current Sports Director – predicted long ago that the young diver would one day level up to champion status, with the potential to shake up the sport and become a dominating force.
“Aidan has been around us since he was a little kid – I remember him as a little kid, and he’s always been tied to us at Red Bull Cliff Diving. I think that’s great - you could see from the beginning that he wanted to do this, but of course he was so young so he had to wait until he was allowed to do it. And when he came in, he came in with a bang. He was NOT playing. He really wanted this.”
Soaring from the famous Polignano a Mare balcony
© Romina Amato/Red Bull Content Pool
He's prepared himself so well that nothing phases him now
From Duque’s perspective, Heslop’s rise to the top was simply inevitable, given his talent, passion and determination.
“I think he was destined to do this thing, and I’m really happy to see his confidence,” Duque commented. “He’s done this for so long and he’s prepared himself so well that nothing phases him now. It’s good to see somebody compete like that.”
03
When the dream becomes the mission
The Brit’s early days as a junior saw him training 1m springboard, 3m springboard and 10m platform in his native town of Plymouth, in the United Kingdom. Even then, his natural talent and phenomenal aerial awareness was making the teen diver stand out from the crowd.
This talent, coupled with an insatiable taste for adventure and adrenaline meant that from the get-go Heslop was building a reputation for being all-in on the biggest, hardest dives.
But with no gymnastic background to lean on, the young adrenaline-junkie had to work hard on training away the “scruffy” edges of his immense dives, honing the finishes and technique that would ultimately pick up points from judges.
By 15, with three gold medals under his belt junior nationals, Heslop had found his winning form, and as the son of a Welsh-born parent, he had the opportunity to represent Wales at the Commonwealth Games. But despite his catalogue of successes in the pool, cliff diving was still firmly in Heslop’s field of vision, his dream of becoming unbeatable in the sport still retaining an irresistible pull. The young Brit just needed a foot in the door, and patiently waited for the opportunity to fling it wide open.
He didn’t have to hang tight for long. In 2018, Heslop was invited to make his debut at the spiritual home of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, Polignano a Mare, Italy. Officially competing at the stunning Puglia location as a Red Bull cliff diver was a watershed moment for the then-16-year-old.
1 min
Meet the event's youngest ever diver
Watch as the youngest ever Red Bull Cliff Diving competitor makes his debut in Polignano a Mare.
Bolstered by the epic nature of throwing down jaw-dropping dives from 27m, and competing alongside the best in the world, Heslop’s road to success started to look a little different, with cliff diving a brand new, accessible destination on the map.
Heslop finished in 11th place in his World Series debut, and returned in 2019 in Bilbao to stand on the podium in 3rd place, the youngest diver to achieve this feat. Now finding himself at the forefront of a new generation of cliff divers, the self-assured teenager’s top three finish sent shockwaves throughout the World Series, offering a heavy hint of what was to come.
For Heslop, it was also around this time that cliff diving was no longer just a fun event on the diving competition calendar – the dream had become the mission, and he began forming very real aspirations to become a multiple King Kahekili trophy winner.
04
The Molly factor
In 2021, the Brit was again invited back to compete at several stops in the World Series as a wildcard, and at the beginning of the new season he met fellow cliff diver, Molly Carlson.
“I met Molly through cliff diving at the Red Bull Cliff Diving stop at Downpatrick Head in Ireland in 2021. We knew each other before through social media, but we instantly clicked and became friends from the moment we met,” he explains.
Throwing it down in Downpatrick, where Aidan finally met Molly
© Romina Amato/Red Bull Content Pool
It was another defining moment in Heslop’s story, as the pair hit it off and began a relationship. The two ultra-talented young divers were both leading the charge as a new wave of cliff divers, and their solid relationship was a major factor in Heslop’s monumental move across the Atlantic from the UK to Montreal, in Carlson’s native Canada.
Under the wing of Carlson’s coach Stephane Lapointe, Heslop joined his girlfriend and four other athletes to train multiple times a week in the city’s world-class indoor Olympic diving centre, the only indoor facility in the world with a 20m platform. And while their plans may vary – competitions, weight training, dryland training, video analysis sessions, Red Bull projects and everything else in between – Heslop says that inevitably he and Carlson trained together in the pool pretty much on a daily basis.
The packed schedule and nature of the sport means that mental wellbeing is a priority for both coach Lapointe and the diving duo. Despite his supreme self-confidence on the platform – and ability to embrace fear – Heslop is not immune to the pressures of competing at the highest level on the world stage, or handling the occasional super dose of intimidation that comes with breaking boundaries in an already-extreme sport.
“Mentally preparing for this sport is definitely harder than physically preparing for it,” Heslop comments. But with mutual unwavering support for each other, the young Brit and popular Canadian cliff diver make a formidable team.
Aidan and Molly celebrate Aidan's win in Polignano a Mare, in 2023
© Romina Amato/Red Bull Content Poo
“Being able to understand the hard times we go through as athletes is so helpful in our relationship,” Heslop adds. As a mental health advocate, Carlson has spent years building her Brave Gang movement by speaking openly about her fails, fears and anxieties to her online community. But on a personal level for Heslop, he feels blessed that he has someone by his side who simply just gets it.
Sometimes it can be hard to explain what you’re going through to people who aren’t around the sport, but with Molly it is very simple
05
Synchronising the highs and lows
As one half of the ‘power couple of cliff diving’, Heslop now finds himself in the unique position of sharing the rollercoaster ride of each and every stop on the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series calendar with his partner. These days, the pair even share a pre-competition ritual: "Molly and I play a specific song at max volume on our speaker in the hotel room, jump on the beds and throw Molly’s teddies to each other,” Heslop explains. “It gets pretty tiring, but it seems to work!”
Their tenure together as permanent divers began in fairytale fashion at the 2022 season opener in Boston. The pair burst onto the scene, coming in “red hot” to shake up the old guard and steal the winner’s trophies out from under the noses of cliff diving giants Rhiannan Iffland and Gary Hunt.
2 min
Red Bull Cliff Diving Boston's best moments
Check out the best of the action from Boston as the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series gets underway.
With Carlson picking up the first perfect 10 of the season and Heslop’s Forward 4 Somersaults 3 1/2 Twists Pike breaking the then-record for the highest scoring single dive in cliff diving history, the young talents had set a new baseline for awesome, simultaneously living the dream on top of the winners’ podium.
The pair synced their wins once more, earlier this season in Carlson's hometown of Montreal. The joint win helped to guarantee the Canadian’s second place finish in the overall rankings, and propelled Heslop to the top of the men’ rankings, where he would stay and fight for ultimate victory all the way through to the final in Sydney.
Montreal winners Aidan and Molly are all smiles
© Romina Amato/Red Bull Content Pool
“It was a very special moment in so many ways. Winning in front of my family, winning alongside Molly, and achieving my personal best really made for a memorable event,” Heslop comments.
But although the shared World Series successes bring an extra element of joy to the competition, the twists and turns of competing at the highest level together can also mean a double dose of disappointment, dejection and anxiety, too. For the new champion, the price of chasing victory is worth it.
Watching the other person dive and being stressed for them is often a very difficult thing to do
06
Finding balance
Having spent three seasons fighting for the champion title he always believed he could win, the 22-year-old is still very much in the early chapters of his story. There’s every chance that 2024 will mark the start of the sporting dominance Heslop has strived for since those early days of diving.
However, with the standard of diving continually rising and evolving, staying at the front of the pack and bringing new levels of difficulty and complexity to the platform naturally brings with it an element of risk. The physical and mental training never stops, right up until those last seconds before he commits.
“I use music, juggling and games to keep my mind occupied and stimulated before a dive. But the last thing I’m thinking about before a dive can vary a lot,” he says. “Sometimes I’m fully focused on the dive, sometimes it’s some fear, and sometimes I’m really not focused at all,” he says.
Even with all of his experience in breaking boundaries, Heslop confesses that even he’s not always completely sure where the limits of his abilities lie, and occasionally, has to take a step back and recalibrate.
“At the start of 2023, I was trying a new dive, the ‘back quad quad' - four backflips with four twists. I’d been doing the dive with a flip less the previous year and knew this upgrade would be hard but I didn’t realise just how hard,” he recalls. “My first dive ended with a bad landing, hurting my neck and stopping me from trying another. When I came back for the World Aquatics World Cup it definitely improved but was still, by far, the hardest dive I have ever done,” he confesses.
Heslop shelved his attempts to bring the dive to the 2023 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series season, but it could make an appearance sometime in the future. And despite his wild confidence and apparent taste for adrenaline, Heslop considers himself pretty level headed – perhaps why he has only had a few close calls so far in his career.
The adrenaline pumping... diving from the Rumkale Fortress in Gaziantep
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
Whilst filming a project in Rumkale, Turkey, I also came within a metre from the cliff face from 26.5m high. It definitely made my heart skip a beat
“At Adrenalin Quarry near my home in the UK, I was trying a new dive and got lost half way through the dive. Having no idea where I was in the air, I somehow managed to correct myself and land safely,” he remembers. “Luckily I haven’t had any major injuries in cliff diving yet, but definitely some close calls with rocks and cliffs. Always a bit of a reality check when you almost hit a rock at 80kmph,” he admits.
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Achievement unlocked… but no time to rest
It’s unlikely that the new King Kahekili trophy winner will be getting much downtime in the near future. Heslop is the first to concede that being driven by a fierce ambition to not only win but redefine the sport is hard work – it means turning up every day and being all in.
For the new champion, the price of chasing victory is worth it. The grind never stops, because Heslop is carving a legacy, determined to become the most dominant name in cliff diving. And so this latest win isn’t the peak – it’s the springboard to a future that promises even greater heights.