What does it feel like to dive from 28m? ‘It’s scary’
Rhiannan Iffland's place of work is almost certainly very different to yours.
But your office building may well afford you a small insight in to what it feels like, should you be able to ride a lift to the eighth floor, open a window and look down.
That is roughly the height she takes a leap of faith from on each of her dives across nine stages of the Red Bull Cliff Diving championship. A competition the Australian won for a third time last month.
"It's scary," she admits. "Every time I look down I go: 'Wow, that looks high.'"
Anywhere between 23 and 28 metres, depending on the host venue.
Each dive takes little more than three seconds to complete. In that time she executes a series of physically and mentally demanding twists and turns and flips, all while making sure she is perfectly set to enter the water safely at the end of it.
She is travelling at 85 kilometres per hour by the time she breaks the water with a force three times that of gravity. Before coming to a complete halt in less than a second. And therein lies the real danger. Not the falling, but the landing.
"I know the risks of the sport, and to be honest with you the impact on the water is the one thing I'm most scared about," she says.
"Putting the height aside — you get used to that — but the impact is something that is quite unpredictable.
"My first dive of my first ever competition I landed just over 90 degrees in the water and took quite a hard hit … I learned from that very quickly not to do it again."
Because of the speed the divers reach on contact with the water, all dives are finished in an upright standing position. Head first would risk serious neck injury. Or worse.
Anything other than a clean feet-first entry and the impact still carries grave danger.
"It is a dangerous sport and injuries are, unfortunately, very common," she says. "You can even hit perfectly straight and still end up injured."
With such little margin for error, how does she silence the voice in her head telling her to do anything other than launch herself off the edge?
"I think the fear and knowing those things is actually a really good thing," she says.
"It keeps me safe, in a way, to have that fear and the knowledge of what could happen weighing on your shoulder.
"You play the game a little smarter, respect the height — you can't go up there and throw something you're not capable of because the consequences won't be too forgiving."
"Divers have different techniques to manage the adrenaline, mine is just to go with it. It's not a bad thing to have so much adrenaline, I just turn it in to positive energy.
"Sometimes we wonder why we're so tired at the end of the day when we've only done six dives. But there are a lot of emotions that go in to it. It's draining, but also super exciting."
Training plays a part in settling nerves. The hours spent perfecting dives translate to an element of confidence on the day. Though it does not chase anxiety away completely. Not least because dives are usually performed in their entirety for the first time in competition.
There aren't many 28m training facilities at local pools in Australia. Or anywhere.
"And on top of that it's not something that you can train on a daily basis anyway," says Iffland. "There would be too many injuries involved."
Instead, she breaks each dive in to a number of moving parts and learns them to her satisfaction, arriving at events with the elements ready to be assembled.
"So, you train the take-off, you train the rotations, you drill in to your muscle memory the rotations that you have to do, and the entry from 10 meters as well. Once you get up there you put it all together."
For all the preparation, there is always a first time for every dive.
In Portugal in July she attempted a dive of complexity beyond anything attempted on the women's tour to that point.
"I stepped back from the platform a couple of times that day," she says. "I think I went on my third attempt. Because in my head I wasn't completely convinced that I knew what I was going to do."
Absolute certainty in any dive is unattainable, even for the most experienced. Trying something new causes sleepless nights.
"A few days prior to performing a new dive is really stressful. I'll be walking down the street or having a coffee and be thinking about it, about what I was going to do. Kind of visualising a little bit.
"Every time I step up there I'm scared. I'm only human. I wouldn't say it becomes a routine, but it does get easier to deal with.
"Once you step out there you just have to change your mindset. You have no choice. You don't want to get up there with a negative thought in your head. You learn to change the way you think about it."
The event she has dominated for three years stops in some of the most picturesque places on the planet. Thousands of revellers turn out to watch. There is a party atmosphere down below.
Iffland loves the passion they bring. But has to put that out of her mind to "get the job done".
"As soon as I step out there and put my arms up, it's focussing on the initial part of the dive: the take-off and the rotations. I always have a few key points in my head for each dive that I'm going to remind myself of.
"It's a combination of focusing on correct technique and clearing the mind of competing thoughts, because if you do step out to the platform and you're thinking about every last detail — I've got to do this many twists, I've got to jump like that, I've got to see the water there, do another twist, and then land perfectly straight — it's just not possible.
"It's important to just remind yourself of a few key things, keep your mind clear and be clear about what you're going to do.
"It's really strange [once you jump], everything happens so quickly
"Sometimes I'll finish the dive and remember saying to myself: one somersault, two somersaults, okay there's the water. But you're not conscious of those things until you think about it afterwards.
"When I surface the water after a dive there is euphoria, but the first emotion is a big sigh of relief. Then after that I usually think: 'Oh, that was awesome … I want to do it again.'"
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