Countdown is on for first Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series event in NI
There’s just one month to go until Ballycastle hosts a leg of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2024 – a first for Northern Ireland!
With the event free to the public, the beautiful Causeway Coast will be the backdrop as the world’s best cliff divers battle it out on July 19 and 20 on the fourth stop of the series.
The choppy Atlantic waters of Ballycastle will prove both a danger and a delight for those competing. This stop comes at the mid-season point of the series and divers will be expected to contend with challenging conditions that will push them to their absolute limit.
Free to the public, tens of thousands of people will be expected in Ballycastle to witness a spectacle like no other, with the competition getting underway at 4pm on both days. A roster of 24 male and female divers will have to face down fearsome winds, before diving and twisting through the air from heights of up to 27 meters, plunging into the cold Atlantic at over 85 kmph.
In the opening rounds, dives will launch directly off the cliffs. The competitors will then wrap up the final two rounds by diving from the purpose-built platforms constructed in Ballycastle Harbour.
With coastal conditions prone to throwing challenging conditions into the mix at any given time, expect the mid-season stop to serve up plenty of twists and turns and dramatic battles, as the divers fight for cliff diving supremacy. All eyes will be on reigning champions Rhiannan Iffland (Australia) and Constantin Popovici (Romania).
Cliff Diving fans will fondly remember previous stops of Red Bull’s iconic World Series on these shores. The famous Serpent’s Lair in Inis Mór was the venue when the 2017 series visited. Two years later, Dublin hosted the event for the first time with a record breaking attendance in Dún Laoghaire. Most recently, the series headed back West to the cliffs of Downpatrick Head on its last stop in Ireland in 2021.
Further details on spectator attendance, live broadcast and participating divers will be announced in due course. To keep up to date with announcements, visit www.redbull.ie/cliffdiving or follow @redbullire on Instagram and TikTok.