Meet the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series Divers

Country: USA

Age: 27

With five older brothers who were all collegiate divers, it’s no wonder Tara Hyer-Tira is competing in the premier World Series women’s competition. She first dove at age 7 and began cliff diving three years ago. The acrobat and yoga teach also worked at SeaWorld San Antonio for five years.

Country: Colombia

Age: 38

Nine-time world champ. Two Guinness World Records. First World Series champion. With those titles, of course Orlando Duque didn’t let a season-ending broken ankle in 2011 stop him from coming back and finishing second in last year’s overall competition. He’s focusing on learning new dives to wow judges and audiences—and to reclaim the title.

Country: USA

Age: 24

Last year David Colturi became the youngest diver to appear in the full World Series—and made everyone take notice with two third-place finishes in the 10 events. He transitioned from traditional springboard and platform diving to the cliffs by working in a show at Indiana Beach Amusement Resort's water ski and stunt show in Monticello, IN, he told About.com.

Country: Great Britain

Age: 29

Gary Hunt finished second in the first World Series in 2009—and followed that up by winning the last three years. His triple quad, which consists of a mere three somersaults and four twists, has the highest degree of difficulty of any dive in the sport.

Country: USA

Age: 39

In the summer of 1993, Huber was hired to perform in her first dive show—and became hooked. After four years on the University of Georgia’s diving team, Ginger Huber returned to show diving and first went cliff diving in 1998 at Waimea Falls. She and fellow American diver Tara Hyer-Tira also have the same respective current and past occupations: Huber is a performer at SeaWorld San Diego.

Country: Mexico

Age: 23

The youngest of the competitors, Jonathan Paredes has only competed twice before: As the wildcard in Malcesine, Italy in 2011, and last year in Boston where he finished sixth. So you can imagine the surprise when he won this year’s February qualifying event in Australia, meaning he gets to compete at every event in the 2013 series.

Country: Great Britain

Age: 30

Having started swimming at 18 months and diving when he was 5, it’s little wonder that Blake Aldridge has a reputation as a daredevil. If he looks familiar, you probably spotted him competing on TV in synchronized diving with partner Tom Daley at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Country: Great Britain

Age: 25

Mat Cowen showed up to the Pembrokeshire, U.K., event last September to support his friends who were diving—and ended up joining them when another diver was sidelined due to an injury. His performance was good enough to make him the wild card for qualifying events in Australia in January and February 2013, where his fifth-place finish earned him a spot to compete in the World Series.

Country: Germany

Age: 29

A six-time European Champion in cliff diving, Anna Bader has a thing for handstand dives and ranked third in the men’s category in the European Championships 2012. She also enjoys climbing.

Country: Ukraine

Age: 23

Although he only competed in half the events last year, Anatoliy Shabotenko made it to the finals in all of them and placed fourth in the last two, finishing seventh overall and beating several permanent World Series divers. He’s ready to fight for the championship and working to increase the degree of difficulty of his dives.

Country: USA

Age: 28

Steven LoBue may have missed making the 2004 U.S. Olympic diving team, but he still made it to the podium last year, finishing third place overall in the World Series. He previously dove competitively at Purdue University and told the Wall Street Journal

that he splurges on craft beer.

Country: Czech Republic

Age: 28

Michal Navratil—a.k.a. “Supratil,” a nickname given to him because of his Superman-style dives in 2009 competitions—has performed in shows in China and even on Royal Caribbean cruise ships.

Country: Russia

Age: 29

While he may not have made it to the podium yet, Artem Silchenko can certainly brag about his 518.30 points earned in Ukraine last year, the highest score ever in the World Series, and and how he won the Azores, Portual and Ireland events. His wife is also a diver, so perhaps their daughter will follow in their (wet) footsteps.