Cliff Diving Leaps into 2014

Seven stops confirmed for the 2014 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series calendar. From visual feasts to natural wonders, from historic sites to those of more modern origin – in its sixth season, the World Series will bridge natural venues and urban surroundings as much as it will push boundaries. The purest and rapidly evolving extreme sport will hit new as well as proven ground in the Caribbean, North and South America and Europe to determine a new champion during seven tough and testing competitions. Havana, Texas and Bilbao are new to the calendar of the 2014 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, in which 10 of the world’s best cliff divers and up to four wildcards per stop launch from 27 metres, hitting the water at speeds of 85kph just three seconds later. Between May and October, the competition will continue in Ireland, Norway and Ukraine, until the final showdown, in Brazil – another first for the athletes. On the second weekend of May, the sixth season kicks off with aesthetic leaps from the picturesque Morro Castle fortress at the entrance of Havana Bay in the Caribbean island country of Cuba. From the environment where modernity and colonial constructions go hand-in-hand, this prestigious series of competitions comes next to the USA’s Lone Star State. At the Possum Kingdom Lake in Texas, two towering cliffs mark the entrance to a small cove and are surrounded by flat terrain. Back in Europe, the cliff diving elite returns to Ireland’s Aran Islands and the mysterious blowhole known as the Serpent’s Lair. Mid-July, and the midway point of the 2014 World Series, takes the divers back to Norway’s Kragerø, the site of 495 islands and – recalling 2010 – just as many boats! After a short break, the country of the 2011 grand finale – Ukraine – hosts the fifth stop at the quaint Swallow’s Nest castle at the end of August. The second to last stop is in Bilbao, Spain for the business end of the World Series before the divers leap over the ocean to South America’s biggest country, Brazil, where the coronation of the 2014 World Series champion will be held in Niterói at the end of October. While Christ the Redeemer watches from above, off a unique 27-metre platform structure, inspired by the architecture of Oscar Niemeyer, the new champion will dive to glory. It’s pure. It’s fast and it’s jaw dropping. Cliff divers leap aesthetically from almost three times the Olympic height and hit the water protected only by their concentration, skill and physical control. Since 2009, the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series features the biggest talents, the most promising newcomers, and since 2013 has also provided a platform for women. After Colombia’s Orlando Duque in 2009 and the three-time champion, Gary Hunt, from England, it was 29-year-old Artem Silchenko who took the 2013 crown in a red-hot final competition in Thailand last October. This coming season, the Russian and nine other top athletes will fight for the World Series title together with up to four wildcards at each stop, showcasing more gravity-defying freefall all across the globe.   CALENDAR & LOCATIONS May 10 | Havana, CUBA June 07 | Possum Kingdom Lake, TX, USA June 29 | Inis Mór, IRELAND July 12 | Kragerø, NORWAY August 30 | Yalta, UKRAINE September 20 | Bilbao, SPAIN October 19 | Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL  ]]>