Côme Girardot sets new death diving record at 44.3 meters

Côme Girardot set a new death diving world record after jumping from a height of 44.3 meters (145.34 feet) at the La Cimbarra waterfall in central Spain.

The 22-year-old Frenchman jumped from the 44-meter-high cliff of the La Cimbarrilla waterfall near the central Spanish town of Aldeaquemada in heavy wind conditions.

After a three-second "flight," Girardot dove into the water with both hands and feet at a speed of 106 kilometers per hour.

"The hardest thing is always overcoming the mental barrier at the start," said Girardot.

"In the jump, the airtime was way bigger than I expected, and I experienced my biggest adrenaline rush ever!"

The new death diving world record holder from Bordeaux got help from a dozen of his fellow competitors on the Døds Diving World Tour.

They took care of the preparation stages and made sure the attempt was performed in a safe manner.

"We are a big group of friends," said Ken Stornes from Norway and Lucien Charlon from Switzerland, who were on duty as lifeguards.

Stornes set the world record at 40.5 meters (132.87 feet) in December 2023, and Charlon improved it to 41.7 meters (136.81 feet) in August 2024.

Døds Diving Was Born in Norway

Døds diving, meaning "death" in Norwegian, was invented in Norway by Erling Bruno Hovden in 1969 and is a high diving discipline.

It differs from the high diving variant in which the feet usually hit the water surface first because hands and feet are immersed simultaneously.

Death diving has two main divisions: classic and freestyle.

In classic døds diving, competitors jump off a platform and spread their arms and legs wide, flying horizontally toward the water without doing any flips or rotations.

Right before hitting the water, they tuck into a curled position (like a fetal position) to reduce the impact and avoid injury.

They usually land with their feet and hands or knees and elbows hitting the water first.

The dive is judged based on factors like speed, time spent in the air, how complex the dive is, how long they stay in the extended pose before tucking, how well they close their dive, and the size of the splash they make when hitting the water.

In freestyle, during the jump, the maneuvers in døds diving are more similar to tricks performed in snowboarding or skateboarding, in contrast to high diving, whose difficulties are more comparable to those in gymnastics.

Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com