
8 jaw-dropping cliff diving destinations
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Cliff diving isn’t for anyone to endeavor, but it guaranteed is enjoyable to watch the execs do it. The death-defying leaps, flips, and twists from towering clifftops and rock ledges belong to a single of the oldest severe sporting activities in the earth. In point, cliff divers are showcased in Greek and Etruscan paintings dating again to the 5th and 6th generations B.C.
Rapid forward to the 21st century: Cliff-diving daredevils, usually competent locals skilled in carrying on this athletic legacy, can be identified undertaking for travelers in spots all-around the environment. If you’d like to see it for your self, below are a number of destinations where you can witness these brave or crazy (acquire your select) athletes dive from excellent heights that are usually quadruple the peak of the Olympic games’ tallest diving system, which is 10 meters large.
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Optimum peak: 135 feet (41 meters)
Elvis helped to make the La Quebrada Cliff Divers well known. The jumpers ended up highlighted in his 1963 musical, “Fun in Acapulco,” and travellers have been flocking to see them ever considering the fact that. They accomplish several occasions every day, scaling the steep rocks of the La Quebrada cliffs with their bare fingers ahead of leaping into a mere 12 ft of ocean water below at a speeds of up to 55 miles per hour. There’s an observation deck to witness this must-see spectacle, and divers usually appear to greet people afterward and obtain guidelines. For the finest vantage place, on the other hand, head to La Perla restaurant at the Resort Mirador Acapulco, which boasts impressive sights.
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Optimum top: 92 ft (28 meters)
The fjord in this town on the Amalfi Coastline delivers a natural springboard for cliff-diving athletes. Every July, it hosts a Mediterranean superior-diving championship—an occasion most effective seen by employing a boat or joining a water-dependent excursion. Afterward, you can recount the insane acrobatics above an Italian feast and plenty of neighborhood limoncello.
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Maximum top: 89 feet (27 meters)
Leaping off the Outdated Bridge (Stari Most) in Mostar dates back to at least 1664. Which is when 16-yr-outdated boys have been inspired to leap from the bridge as a appropriate of passage into manhood. If you didn’t leap, your life was predicted to be a failure. (How’s that for determination?) Nowadays, customers of the Mostar Diving Club on a regular basis bounce from the bridge into the freezing waters down below. People who are feeling brave can signal up with the dive faculty, which is run by dive specialists who are thought of the guardians of the bridge. They will educate you how to make the leap securely, at incrementally higher and greater heights. These who total the optimum dive wander absent with a certification and a outrageous story.
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Highest top: 85 feet (26 meters)
This Medieval village is regarded for a lot more than its gorgeous alpine landscapes and attractive hikes. It’s dwelling to the Globe Substantial Diving Federation (WHDF), and its cliffs host the WHDF Cliff Diving World Tour every single July. You are going to locate some of the very best cliff divers in the entire world schooling right here.
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Highest peak: 50 toes (15 meters)
La Quebrada isn’t the only location in Mexico to uncover skilled cliff divers. Mazatlan is property to a cliff at an oceanside park, also recognized as El Clavadista (translation: “the diver”). The park is an very easily obtainable space to look at expert locals leap elegantly into the waters underneath. It’s been a tradition given that the mid-1950s, and strategies from spectators are appreciated. While the height of the Mazatlan cliff is nowhere in the vicinity of as intimidating as La Quebrada, the shallowness of the drinking water absolutely is: It’s only 6 toes. Divers require to execute with extraordinary precision to make the leaps right here.
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Best height: 35 toes (10.5 meters)
With a minor little bit of liquid courage, you might be encouraged to make the leap with locals. Rick’s Cafe in Negril is a will have to-check out location at sunset for a couple drinks and an acrobatic show. Although most sun-burned vacationers (pretty hilariously) cannonball dive off the 35-foot cliff upon which this legendary bar is perched, the locals will wow you with a lot more spectacular acrobatic dives into the Caribbean waters beneath.
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Optimum peak: 30 feet (9 meters)
The Sheraton Maui Vacation resort & Spa has preserved a custom considering that its opening in 1963: the ceremonial cliff dive from Pu’u Keka’a, also regarded as Black Rock. The ritual can take location every night at sunset, accompanied by reside new music and guided historic narration. The extraordinary lele kawa (cliff diving) honors the legend of the last chief of Maui, who leapt from sacred Pu’u Keka’a into the Pacific. With Hawaiian chanting and torches lighting the way, a young diver retraces the chief’s footsteps to the summit in advance of making a breath-getting dive into the ocean down below.
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Maximum top: 60 toes (18 meters)

Cliff diving in Dubrovnik, Croatia
In the walled town of Dubrovnik, spotting Sport of Thrones filming destinations isn’t the only thrill visitors will uncover. Just outside the city’s 13th century partitions on the sea facet, you are going to find Buza Bar, a well-liked out of doors drinking institution constructed into the side of extraordinary cliffs. Below the bar is Buza Beach front, which isn’t considerably of a beach at all but relatively a established of cliffs and small platforms exactly where locals and tourists alike test their might by leaping about 60 ft into the Adriatic Sea beneath.
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Depart it to power-drink brand Crimson Bull to sponsor the globe sequence for this superior-chance, superior-adrenaline excessive activity that makes the Olympic diving system glimpse like child’s participate in. Competitions are held at cities, towns and villages close to the entire world each individual year, dazzling spectators who can only visualize what it’s like to dive from these kinds of crazy heights. Strategy to be a person of them—one of the spectators, that is—by checking Crimson Bull’s Cliff Diving World Collection internet site for updates on exactly where competitions will be held. Ireland, France, Norway, Azerbaijan—these are just some of the international locations that have hosted competitions that ordinarily run from June to October.
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