Cliff Diving World Series

Today was the 2013 Cliff Diving World Series competition in Copenhagen. A group of individuals travel around the world to compete in cliff diving, and today they would be diving off the opera house in Copenhagen. In the Olympics, athletes have a 10 meter jump. From the top of the opera house to the water is 27 meters.

Hannah and I sat across the water from the opera looking out over the boats and the rest of the crowd. We were able to watch the divers from a distance or on a big screen above the water. It was incredible to watch the them approach the ledge with no sense of fear detected on their faces. As they were introduced, each diver stepped up to the ledge and waved, smiled, bowed, and looked out over thousands of people gathering to watch them jump. As far as I could tell they didn't even have a second thought before preparing to jump. In Burlington there is a park along Lake Champlain called Red Rocks where you can go cliff jumping, but there is nothing as high as the opera. I thought a 30 foot jump was scary let alone 27 meters! Every time I go to Red Rocks and look down over the lake, I get an adrenaline rush. I may be free falling for only half a second, but it is still quite a thrill. Not to mention, when I jump in the water it is the most awkward and ridiculous looking movement. I'm usually holding my noes, covering my eyes, or flailing my arms around. These professional divers are generally in the air for a few seconds and have such poise and grace. I had not realized until watching the competition that there really is an art to diving, especially from that height. Watching the Olympics, I knew there was a certain form to strive for and a level of precision required to constitute a good dive, but watching from this height has given me a new perspective on diving in general.

It was starting to sprinkle, the wind picked up, and our stomachs were making embarrassing noises, so Hannah and I went to find lunch. After just one day I was addicted, so we went back to the glass markets to the same store as yesterday. In my defense, I didn't get the same exact salad and at least tried something new.

For the rest of the day I did laundry relugiously. After camping out in the laundry room for a few hours I took a quick break to grab dinner with Natalie and sit in the park to eat, but after that it was back to laundry. I had absolutely no clean clothes, sheets, or towels. Hannah asked if I wanted to go out again tonight, but laundry was more important considering I had to be at the airport at 9:30am the next morning and I still hadn't packed. Besides, it wasn't like I had any clothes to wear out anyway. You know you need to do laundry when you have zero pairs of clean underwear.