Oahu Cliff Jumpers

High diving is the act of diving into water from relatively great heights. High diving can be performed as an adventure sport (as with cliff diving), as a performance stunt (as with many records attempts), or competitively during sporting events. It debuted as a sport at the 2013 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona. In the world championships, men jump from a 27-metre-high (89 ft) platform while women jump from a 20-metre-high (66 ft) platform. In other official competitions, males generally dive from a height of 22–27 metres (72–89 ft) while women dive from a height of 18–23 metres (59–75 ft). The sport is unique in that athletes are often unable to practice in an authentic environment until the days leading up to a competition. High diving has been designated a sport separate from regular diving by FINA. High divers have achieved speeds of descent of 96 kilometres per hour (60 mph). Cliff divers practice the different components of their dives in isolation and only execute the complete dive during championship competitions. Cliff dives are considered extremely difficult and dangerous, a challenge to every competitor; in addition to the physical challenges, they can be mentally challenging to perform. Divers must push out 26 feet to clear the rocks below. Both men and women participate in the High Diving World Championships, but the diving height for women is limited to 20 metres (66 ft). The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series is held annually and draws crowds of up to 70,000 people. Participants dive from a variety of locations including castles, cliffs, towers, bridges, and the Copenhagen Opera House. Three well-known divers – Gary Hunt, Blake Aldridge and Tom Daley – the last who were champions at the 2008 Olympic synchro, were set to dive on a 27-metre-high (89 ft) platform at the Moll de la Fusta, Barcelona's port; this dive was to be achieved in 3 seconds at a speed of 60 kilometres per hour (37 mph). Huge Hunt of the United Kingdom won the August 2015 FINA world championships. The average age of the participants in this event was 30. Efforts are being made by gymnasts to make this sport an Olympic event for the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan. If not for 2020 than for the 2024 Summer Olympics which its host city will either be Los Angeles, California, United States, Rome, Italy, Paris, France, Budapest, Hungary, or Hamburg, Germany. There is considerable debate surrounding record claims for the highest dive, which largely revolves around criteria for what constitutes a valid dive. ABC's Wide World of Sports produced world record high dives for its Emmy award winning sports anthology show for more than a decade. They required contestants to dive or execute at least one somersault and exit the water without the assistance of others. In 1983 Wide World of Sports produced its last World Record High Dive at Sea World in San Diego. Five divers ( Rick Charls, Rick Winters, Dana Kunze, Bruce Boccie and Mike Foley) successfully executed dives from 172 ft. In 1985 Randy Dickison dove from 172 ft at Ocean Park in Hong Kong but sustained a broken femur and could not exit the water on his own. In 1987 Olivier Fave attempted a double back somersault from 177ft but broke his back upon impact and had to be rescued. Laso Schaller's 2015 jump from a 193 ft cliff in Switzerland is not considered a dive.