When the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series takes place this weekend in St. Pete, it will be a unique spectacle for the waters of Tampa Bay. For curious crowds and local diving fans alike, it’s going to be a huge draw over two days of action. Competition takes place from 12-2:15 pm on Friday and 12:30-3 pm on Saturday.
By now, most people know that the event is happening. The part many of us don’t know is, what is actually happening?
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The gist is simple: men dive from 90 feet, women dive from 70 feet, and these professional athletes hit the water at speeds faster than a Toyota Corolla crossing the Howard Frankland Bridge. But beyond that basic information, there is a ton happening that judges will be watching closely.
After all, the whole point of this isn’t just to earn a round of applause or see who can make the biggest splash (quite the opposite, of course). This is a competition, where each dive gets rated by the judges, and the diver with the highest score after four dives takes home the title.
On Thursday, the Red Bull team explained to local media how the judging works. So now, in addition to oohs and ahhs, we can also judge hand placement, splash zone and even the wow factor.
There are three key things judges are watching on every dive, and they score each dive from 0-10 on a half-point system.
Takeoff: The judges are very specific about how a diver should exit the platform. They’re looking for a strong takeoff – a real jump – as opposed to just sort of falling off the diving platform. Additionally, they’re looking to see how far from the platform the diver’s descent begins. Jumping too far out is a loss in points, as is being too close. The sweet spot keeps you close to the platform but without any danger of catching a body part mid-flip.
Execution in the air: This is the complicated part. Several factors are at play in the 90 feet between the platform and the water. Degree of difficulty is part of it, where flips and turns come into play. However, the biggest focus isn’t how impressive the dive is. It’s about clean lines. Divers want elbows straight, fingers open, toes pointed, and knees straight throughout the dive.
Landing: This is the one we all know. The smaller the splash, the better, of course. However, that’s only one factor. Judges also want a 90-degree entry into the water. The diver should enter the water as straight as possible, starting with pointed toes. In the demo on Thursday, the diver had points deducted because her torso was leaning a bit forward. If you remember doing “the pencil” in the deep end, you’re ready to start judging the entry.
A perfect 10 is extremely difficult to achieve. If all of that is completely perfect, it can happen. Any miscue, no matter how small, and judges start deducting points. In the mock judging on Thursday, media awarded the diver 8.5 across the board, and that was after being told how extremely difficult it is to earn a 10. I actually gave her a 9. The actual cliff diving judge in attendance gave it a 6.5, while even the diver said afterward that she knew as soon as she was off the platform that it was going to be in the six range.
The athletes will perform four dives over the course of the weekend, with most of them saving their most difficult dive for last. Of the four dives, three focus on the form, while one is meant to impress with degree of difficulty. At the end, the diver with the highest total wins. And then, with six stops on the World Series tour, the divers in each category with the highest season long totals are crowned world champion.
The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series St. Pete takes place this Friday and Saturday at the St. Pete Pier. It is free to attend and will also be streamed live on Red Bull YouTube and Red Bull TV. Find full information here.
