A picturesque coastal town in Northern Ireland was taken over by none other than Red Bull this weekend and transformed into an extreme cliff diving venue.
The picturesque harbour of Ballycastle became the home of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series.
Thrill-seeking divers performed incredible stunts after launching themselves from boards 88ft above the Irish Sea.
Ballycastle Harbour was the athletes’ fourth stop as part of the Red Bull Cliff Diving Series. The coastal town followed Athens, Greece; Boston, USA; and Polignano a Mare, Italy.
Your next stop? Oslo, Norway.
A picturesque coastal town in Northern Ireland was taken over by none other than Red Bull this weekend and transformed into an extreme cliff diving venue.
Thrill-seeking divers performed incredible stunts after launching themselves from boards 88ft above the Irish Sea.
Athletes, including Constantin Popovici of Romania (pictured), jump from heights of more than 88 feet above the Irish Sea.
Women jump from a height of 68 feet, while men jump from a platform 88 feet above the sea.
But the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty did not disappoint.
A spokesman for the Northern Ireland event said: “Set in the Glens of Antrim, an area of outstanding natural beauty, the choppy Atlantic waters of Ballycastle will prove both a danger and a delight for competitors and spectators.”
Despite grey skies, crowds gathered on Causeway Coast to watch the extreme sport.
Twelve men and 12 women compete in each event to earn maximum points for the championship.
Women jump from a height of 68 feet, while men jump from a platform 88 feet above the sea.
The fall lasts only three seconds and, unlike Olympic divers, cliff divers have no choice but to enter the water feet first.
Each diver is judged by a panel for their acrobatics and artistic movements during the dive.
The UK’s own Aidan Heslop waves to the crowd from the 88ft platform during the final day of competition.
Heslop dives from the 88ft platform in Ballycastle Harbour
American James Lichtenstein huddles as he jumps from a platform in Northern Ireland
Australia’s Rhiannan Iffland hugs her arms as she prepares for the dive.
Archie Biggin of the UK spins upside down as spectators look on from the harbour.
Ginni Van Katwijk of the Netherlands dives from the 68ft platform during the second day of competition at Causeway Coast
Independent athlete Nikita Fedotov performs an acrobatic trick in the air while jumping from the platform.
Aidan Heslop (left) from the United Kingdom and Rhiannan Iffland from Australia pose for a portrait with the 2024 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series winners’ trophies in Ballycastle Harbour
At the end of each season, a champion is crowned in each category and awarded the coveted King Kahekili trophy.
The trophy is named after the founder of this extreme sport: King Kahekili.
He was a Hawaiian chief who jumped from the sacred cliffs of Kaunolo in the 18th century.
At Ballycastle Harbour, it was the UK’s own Aidan Heslop who outran his rivals to lift the winner’s trophy.
He excelled in the cold, wet and windy conditions to take victory by an impressive margin of 46 points.
