Cliff diving

We had this Red Bull cliff diving competition… a modern incarnation of the traveling circus… come through Auckland a few weeks ago. I happened to be downtown when they were setting it up.

Over the weekend, many spectacular jumps were made. Then it was gone.

The hype around the event dresses it up as a sport rather than a show. There’s a season, and points, and judges, and so on. Certainly the divers are athletic and you can tell they work to perfect their craft. But I think I’m in the curmudgeon camp on this one… that’s not a sport! There was a time during my youth when I could have said something about the Olympics to bolster that argument, but no more… now most of the Olympic events seem to be Freestyle Something. Makes for great TikTok clips, I guess.