A cool Boston breeze swept across an athlete’s skin as he gazed roughly 27 meters down into the dark water. With a quick breath and adjustment, he leapt from the diving board, executing flips and athletic turns before narrowly splashing into the Seaport harbor.
The anticipatory silence dissolved into a roar of cheers and applause, echoing against the Institute of Contemporary Art, or ICA, where sports enthusiasts and onlookers gathered to watch the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series Sept. 19 and 20.
Boston is no stranger to the cliff diving series, having hosted preliminary rounds six times since 2011. But this was the city’s first time hosting the championship, and it welcomed the 24 competitors and hundreds of spectators with blue skies.
Visitors from around the world flocked to Boston to witness the oldest extreme sport in history. Supporters from Maine to Canada — like competitor Molly Carlson’s mother Kathleen Trivers — were ecstatic to see the large crowds cheering for the divers.
“Meeting people from Boston, they’re just so welcoming and lovely,” Trivers said. “Yesterday, there was a whole lineup to meet Molly afterwards and we got to meet so many Bravies [Molly’s fanbase] and that was just such a great moment for us.”
Cliff diving originated in Hawaii, known traditionally as “lele kawa,” which translates into “leaping feet-first from a high cliff into the water without making a splash.” What was once a way to represent power and balance is now also an extreme, competitive sport that brings people together worldwide.
The championship competition, started by Red Bull in 1997, consists of a women’s and men’s category with eight professional divers and four wildcards. Wildcard divers are newcomers who compete for a permanent spot in next year’s competition. Each dive is scored on a 10-point scale and judged on diving position, components, direction and, finally, entry into the water.
Divers not only have to be aware of their choreographed dives but have a disciplined body and astute sense of self in the air in order to safely and elegantly land in the water. Boston is a relatively tame location in comparison to the rough waves of Ireland or Spain’s expansive cliff sides, but it still requires its own technique.
“Boston’s very predictable. It’s a harbor, there’s not a lot of big waves, there’s a platform, it’s not a cliff,” Trivers said. “But you never know. Two years ago and it was pure Boston weather — raining, cold, windy — so you never know what the weather’s going to be.”
After each athlete was introduced on a live jumbotron feed, a “ding ding ding” played signifying the athlete was ready to jump. The audience quieted to allow them to concentrate. After a couple tense seconds, the diver took off before hitting the water with a cracking splash.
Watching the professionals elicited gasps from audience members, amazed by each performance.
“It’s insane,” said Lucas Short, an electrician from Maine. “They’re taking risks every single time they do it. They literally could get hurt every single time.”
USA’s James Lichtenstein dives across the Boston skyline Sept. 20. Lichtenstein took first place overall during the Championship competition, making him the first American to win on U.S. soil.
Short found out about cliff diving from Carlson’s YouTube channel and fell in love with the sport. He, like many other fans, lined up to cheer on Carlson and the other competitors. The entirety of the Seaport area was covered in spectators lining the docks from the ICA to sitting in parked boats to view the competition.
“Watching it [cliff diving] in person is so much better than watching it on video,” Short said. “Seeing how quiet it gets, all the nerves everybody has before every single dive is really incredible.”
After the final, death-defying dive, Australian Rhiannan Iffland and French Gary Hunt took home the 2025 King Kahekili trophy with a total score, across all of the series’ competitions, of 62 and 49, respectively.
Audience members, like Short and Trivers, lingered after the competition to meet their favorite divers and congratulate them. Others, like Brielle Almonte, walked away feeling a sense of community and renewed awe.
“After it all, I wanted to jump in the water,” Almonte, a software engineer who lives in Boston, said. “If someone gave me the opportunity to go jump off that right now and told me how to do it, I would do it. It was an inspiring, really cool event. I’m excited to come back next year.”
