Cliff jumping

Forward double somersault with half a twist 15 m Gunnar Bull-Berg, Ponte Brolla (Switzerland)

Cliff jumping on Lake Garda near Torbole (Italy). Jump heights: 5–30 m

Cliff jumping is a sport in which athletes jump from cliffs into bodies of water from a height of over ten meters. It combines techniques of high diving with the requirements set by the great outdoors to the athletes.

Competitions

International competitions in this sport have been held since 1997. Here it is important to show figures that are as difficult as possible in the air, as is the case with jumping in the water, before diving in with as little splash as possible. As in diving, the figures are made up of twists and somersaults (forwards and backwards). In contrast to diving, however, immersion is almost exclusively done with feet first and arms folded, as immersing in head first puts too much strain on the muscles in the neck and shoulders with several jumps per day. In addition, the barani, a forward somersault with half a twist, is used as a termination for most jump combinations, as it enables the targeting of the water surface during the entire execution.

In order to ensure safe conditions for the jumpers, rescue divers are constantly in the vicinity of the immersion area during the competitions.

The sport has little in common with the cliff jumping known from Acapulco : Safe, overhanging jump platforms and sufficient water depth are prerequisites for being able to attempt the many somersaults and twists.

Years of training in diving is a basic requirement for being able to practice this sport with a minimized risk of injury. At European competition level, the jump heights range between 13 and 22 meters. At World Cup events, jumps from up to 28 meters are made, with five judges awarding marks from 0 (jump not or completely incorrectly executed) to 10 (perfect jump). One of the most successful cliff divers in recent years is the former Colombian art and high diver Orlando Duque , who was able to jump nine world championship titles.

In folk cliff jumping , brave, mostly young men try their hand at jumping into water. Safety often falls by the wayside here: You jump into risky shallows, from slippery jumps and uncontrolled far forward.

World Championship

Cliff jumping has only been a discipline of the Swimming World Championships since 2013, organized by the World Swimming Association FINA. In Barcelona, 29.-31. July 2013 men 27 m, women 20 m down into the water. Cesilie Carlton (USA) won the world title out of six women , while Orlando Duque from Colombia was High Dive World Champion out of 14 men .

On August 4, 2015, the extreme athlete Lazaro Schaller performed a world record cliff jump from a height of 58.8 meters at the Cascada del Salto waterfall north of Maggia in Switzerland.

Cliff jumping Acapulco

The sport became famous for the La Quebrada rocks in Acapulco , Mexico . The men and women who originally worked as pearl divers now show head jumps into the Pacific as a tourist attraction. There are many legends about the height from which people jump there: 36 meters are written on the top, but many talk about 41 meters. In fact, the highest level is at 85 feet or 25.90 meters. Since the rocks are not overhanging, the main danger is not jumping forward far enough (about 8 m). The water depth is only reasonably safe during high tide.

Gump jumping in Bavaria

In Bavaria , especially in the Allgäu , the term " pool jumping " or "pool itching" has firmly established itself as a synonym for cliff jumping. This extreme sport is so popular there that the Bayerischer Rundfunk broadcast a program about it: "We in Bavaria - Gumpenspringen at the Buchenegger waterfalls ". The highest jump point there is a good 30 meters above the water. Other popular jumping spots are the Ammerbruch (Scheibum) near Saulgrub and the Gumpen at Sylvensteinspeicher .

Known places

Cliff jump 24 m, cliff southeast of Andipaxos

La Jolla (San Diego)

Well-known cliffs for practicing the sport are:

place	country	Jump height	map
Acapulco	Mexico	35 m	(Map)16.8459 -99.9153
Ponte Brolla	Ticino , Switzerland	7, 10, 13, 15, 19, 20 m	(Map)46,187 8,755
Andipaxos	Greece	24 m	(Map)39.13 20.248
Lovrijenac	Croatia	25 m (castle rock in Dubrovnik)	(Map)42.640694444444 18.104027777778
Verudela	Croatia	14, 15, 20 m
Sidari	Greece	3, 5.8 m	(Map)39,797 19.7
Sisikon	Switzerland	26 m
Falkenstein wall	Austria	28 m
Klöntalersee south bank	Switzerland	9 m
Menorca	Spain	7, 9, 13, 17, 18 m
Buchenegger waterfalls	Germany	12-30 m
Garda lake	Italy	5-30 m
Mazatlan	Mexico	not clear
Barcelona , port Moll de la Fusta (scaffolding)	Spain	5, 10, (...?), 20, 27 m (Swimming WM BCN2013)
Horseshoe Lake	Canada	3–24 m
La Jolla Cove	United States	not clear
Stari Most , Mostar	Bosnia and Herzegovina	approx. 20 m, since 1664

physics

After jumping from a height of 10 meters, a cliff diver dives into the water at almost 50 km / h due to the acceleration of gravity . Within a few tenths of a second, its speed is reduced to zero due to impact, flow resistance, buoyancy and finally swimming movement. This deceleration occurs with about three times the acceleration due to gravity. Together with the compensation of the body weight, forces of four times the body weight act on the human being from the surrounding water via the skin surface.

The jump duration, calculated as an ideal free fall without the effect of air resistance, is for h = 10 m height according to the formula

{\ displaystyle t = {\ sqrt {\ frac {2h} {g}}} = 1 {,} 414s}

.

The immersion speed, calculated as an ideal free fall without the effect of air resistance, is

{\ displaystyle v = {\ sqrt {2gh}}}

.

A jump from a height of 20 m takes about 2 seconds for the toes to penetrate the water. At a jump height of 27.5 m, a maximum of 84 km / h is reached within 2.5 s according to the above formula. With free fall and assuming a stable position perpendicular to the fall with arms and legs spread, the limit speed of the human body would reach approx. 55 m / s (approx. 198 km / h) after approx. 7 seconds, see closer to the earth Case .

bridges

Kornhausbrücke in Zurich , 10 meters

For reasons of topology, the location of the traffic artery, flood safety, the tidal range or the free passage height for ship traffic, bridges are located a certain height above the water level of the body of water.

Danube (Austria)

Clearance heights of at least 7.50 m are typical of the Danube in Austria. If you jump from the Nibelungen Bridge (Linz) , the total height of the structure to the upper edge of the sidewalk (estimated 4.5-5 m) plus the headroom (7.52 m at standard level according to DoRIS) falls more than 12 m and thus a dangerous cliff jump height. Foreign bodies cannot be made out in the murky water, the water depth is rarely known, and not only on the Danube is there still a risk of being pulled by the current under standing (docked, anchored) or moving ships - with propellers.

Limmat (Switzerland)

The Kornhausbrücke in Zurich is used each year in the Limmat swimming as a stage for a jump demonstration. Like the facilities of the nearby Letten power station, it is used as an object for “urban cliff jumping”. Height 10 meters.

Web links

Commons : Cliff Jumping - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Cliff-Diving World Series. Red Bull
Current cliff diving news. In: funsporting.de
World Cliff Diving Association. World High Diving Federation (WHDF), (English)
Video 22 m Auerbach ( MPG ; 2.0 MB)
Video 20 m triple v., Half screw. In: cliff-diving.de ( WMV ; 1.9 MB)
Pied à la lune - Switzerland's beach and cliff guide
BR film contribution: Wir in Bayern - Gumpenspringen at the Buchenegger waterfalls ( Memento from October 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

↑ High diving as a world championship spectacle - premiere for high diving. In: orf.at , August 1, 2013

↑ BCN2013, Swimming World Cup Barcelona, Search High Diving. ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: bcn2013.com , July 2013, accessed August 1, 2013 @1@ 2