Nine-time cliff diving world champion Orlando Duque brought the thrill and excitement of his sport to the Aran Islands at the weekend when he dived 26m into a geological feature known locally as The Serpent’s Lair (Poll na bPéist).
The 34-year-old Colombian completed the dive on Inis Mór on Saturday afternoon having previously postponed due to poor weather conditions.
Also known as ’The Duke of Dive’, Orlando completed a double somersault during his two-second dive.
The Serpent’s Lair is a blowhole or a shoreline window to subterranean caverns which spurts out water each day as high tide approaches. According to myth a sea serpent lived beneath the entrance of the blowhole and the sound of screeching winds is said to be the great serpent making its presence felt.
What sets Poll na bPéist apart is that it is a near-perfect rectangle and according to Mr Duque, is rated highly in the cliff diving community. Depending on tides, the water at the foot of the blowhole can vary in depth from two metres to five and a half metres.
“The Serpent’s Lair is one of those places that you only hear stories about," said Mr Duque. “Finding the place and being able to dive there was one of the highlights of my career. Hopefully in the future we can bring a cliff diving competition to Ireland.”
As with indoor pool diving, cliff divers are scored according to their success in perfecting forms and movements before they hit the surface of the water.
The sport originated during the 1700s in Hawaii when Kahekili, the last independent king of Maui used cliff diving as an initiation tactic for his warriors. In its modern-day form, divers plunge into the water from heights ranging between 23 to 28 metres for men and 18 to 23 metres for women and can hit the water at speeds of up to 100 kilometeres per hour.
Mr Duque, who travels the world as cliff-diving "ambassador", has become the world's best known high diver and features in the Guinness Book of World Recordsas having the highest scored dive ever recorded. He started diving at the age of 10 and went on to win twelve national championships.
He completed the Inis Mór dive as part of his training for the Red Bull Cliff Diving Series which begins on May 8th in La Rochelle, France.
According to Mr Duque, the only thing he’ll get used to is fear. “Every time I stand up there and look down, my heart jumps into my throat.”
