One of the world’s most spectacularly brave sporting events is coming to Auckland in November.
The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series is coming to New Zealand this year, for the first time in its 14-year history.
The Auckland harbourfront will feature as the backdrop for the series finale and 7th stop in the tournament.
Details of the location are yet to be announced but competitors will compete for the King Kahekili Trophy later this year, with the men’s competition diving from a 27 metre platform, and a 21m in the women’s competition.
Auckland joins the tour among two other new locations, Takachiho in Japan and Stockholm in Sweden.
Takachiho Gorge Japan is a new stop on the Red Bull Cliff Dive competition. Photo / Jason Halayko; Red Bull Content Pool
The 24 competitors will arrive in New Zealand later this year after the semifinals held at the Mostar Bridge in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Although the competition has never been held in New Zealand, this isn’t the first time that athletes in the world series have made a splash in Aotearoa.
In 2021 a Red Bull cliff diver was asked to delete footage of herself diving from the Omanawa Falls, near Tauranga.
Iris Schmidbauer was asked by Tauranga City Council to remove social media footage of her diving from the cliffs where there have been several drowning incidents in recent years.
The athlete made New Zealand her temporary home during the Covid-19 pandemic, after becoming stranded on holiday.
She spent over a year in the country, applying for a sporting talent visa, after the 2020 series was cancelled.
“It’s just a chilled vibe. I feel connected to nature, I can find some cliffs to dive off as well,” she told 1News.
“It’s just a great country.”
Schmidbauer is scheduled to compete for Germany in Auckland, as one of the Red Bull-sponsored permanent divers.
