Of course the world’s most decorated Cliff Diver Rhiannan Iffland has jumped out of a hot air balloon – and she clearly lived to tell the tale.
“That was the most invigorating experience. It was very challenging. I had set this idea in my head with the team at Red Bull Australia that I wanted to dive out of a hot air balloon not really knowing what to expect,” Rhiannan tells Missing Perspectives. “The first time we attempted the project, we couldn’t go ahead because of the weather and then eventually we ended up having a second chance to successfully pull off the dive. It was a very different experience.
“The hot air balloon pilot asked me, ‘Have you ever jumped out of a hot air balloon?’ and my response was, ‘Have you ever had anyone ever jump of your hot air balloon?’ and we laughed. It was challenging but super enjoyable and rewarding. Usually, we are diving off solid platforms or solid surfaces and the hot air balloon was like a pendulum effect so the bottom kind of swung so that was another thing that surprised. There were so many things that happened but it was an amazing experience.”
ICYMI: Rhiannan’s 8th World Series title win made her an 11 x World Champion. She’s next competing in Sydney on 10 November.
Her most memorable achievement was the 2022 Cliff Diving World Final. “The most memorable was the 2022 world final and bringing home a title in front of my friends and family on home soil in Sydney,” she says.
“That was a very memorable experience. Although with the nerves and adrenaline it is a bit of a blue, it was super special. I think I am proud of every dive I have done. I have been diving for 22 years now, I feel just as proud from the first dive I’ve done until now. It’s not an easy sport and to know that I have gotten to a point as a diver to be confident and overcome all the challenges and to be here still diving is a great accomplishment.”
So how does one end up as a cliff diver? Rhiannan tells me it’s the “rock and roll” of the diving world that drew her to this unconventional career path. “I finished diving 3m and 10m competitively and I really wanted something more from the sport. I was still so passionate about diving, and I wanted to relight the fire and everything that came with the sport drew me,” she says.
“The travel, the adventure. The fact that I was able to keep diving and learn new skills and take a different avenue and continue pushing myself in a different way. I had always followed the world of Red Bull Cliff Diving and when women were introduced, I thought ok now is my chance, so I started training for it. My first dive was around 2015 in the middle of the year and my first competition was the end of that year and I joined the Red Bull Cliff Diving series in 2015 in Texas.”
When Rhiannan first started out in cliff diving, it was very much male-dominated. “In the beginning of my career when I just started on the world series, women weren’t involved in all the events, we only went to a couple of the events in the world series, the prize money wasn’t equal, and it was very male dominated,” she says. “As we, as females in the sport progressed, all those things have changed, and it is now completely equally with equal opportunities for males and females and it’s a very nice feeling to know that I was a part of that movement in our sport and super proud of that.”
Rihannan says that there’s “very little” that goes through her mind before she jumps. “It’s like a game of cat and mouse with your brain before you test yourself and you know you are about to put yourself through something stressful and scary. There are so many emotions involved,” she says. “Something I have learnt over the years is to calm those thoughts and go to the end of the platform with barely anything in my mind so that I can focus purely on the technical aspect of the dive and what I am about to do. I try and keep my thoughts as minimal as possible.”
The most challenging part of cliff diving is the fact that it’s outdoors, and performed in all the elements – rain or shine, wavy or calm.
“It’s the most challenging but also the most rewarding. Every country and location is always different,” Rhiannan says. “In Ireland it may be cold, in Turkey for instance it was really hot, wavy and windy. I think the weather is the most challenging thing. I think mitigating the risk is simple. I do everything I can to avoid things happening. I do all the work behind the scenes. I do enough training, I make sure my body is prepared to take the impact and checking the surroundings always, and the competition has safety teams so if the weather doesn’t permit, it will be postponed or won’t go ahead.”
Ahead of the Red Bull Cliff Diving final taking place in Sydney on 10 November, Rhiannan has just launched a new swimwear collaboration in partnership with Aussie artist Karina Jambrak: a bespoke Budgy Smuggler swimsuit inspired by the flight of a bird representing Rhiannan’s diving and a deep connection to family.
“I met Karina at a dinner and approached her about designing a piece together for the final. The partnership felt very natural and Karina immediately understood my vision. I wanted my swimwear to not only represent my cliff diving but to have a personal connection to me, and to feel good, and I cant wait to wear this at the final,” she says.
We can’t wait to watch her in the final too – though will undoubtedly be more nervous watching than she will be jumping.