Translator: Amy Huey Ying Reviewer: Emma Gon
Imagine you're accelerating
from 0 to 85 km/h
in just three seconds.
In that time,
you'll travel the full length
of a basketball court, about 30 meters.
Now, we're going to decelerate.
We're going to go from 85 to 0.
But this time, we only have four meters to stop.
Sounds like a pretty fast car,
and one with, actually, very good braking system.
Now, to make things more complicated,
let's imagine there is nothing to protect us.
No seat belt,
no airbag,
no steering wheel,
nothing.
Just your body and mind.
It has to make all of that happen.
And what's going to stop you is the water.
(Water splash)
That's the sound a human body makes
when he hits the water at 85 km/h.
You see, what I do,
I'm a professional cliff diver.
I jump from very high places into water.
If you've seen the highest platform in a diving pool,
that's 10 meters high.
I jump about three times that high, and sometimes higher.
(Music)
(Music ends)
(Applause) Thank you very much.
Of course this is not where it all started.
When I was a little kid,
I remember my mom taking me to the pool.
The first thing I wanted to do,
put my bathing suit on, run in the water.
I just wanted to run and jump in.
I had no idea what I was doing,
but that feeling,
I loved that!
I just loved feeling that I was flying.
Most times I probably landed flat on my back
or on my stomach.
But I loved it.
You know, I love that!
I mean I'm sure
a few of you have jumped in the water,
enjoyed that feeling too,
and also felt the pain of not landing right.
But a few years later, while I was in high school,
I joined the diving club.
Now I'm starting to learn the right technique.
What is it that you need to do to do a proper dive.
I felt in love with the sport.
I wanted to be at the pool every afternoon and every free time that I had.
I represented my country, my city, the state.
I won national, international competitions.
But after a while,
diving in a pool becomes repetitive.
You see, everything in the pool is the same.
Every pool around the world,
it looks exactly the same.
Same height, same depth,
everything is controlled.
I love the sport,
but everything becomes the same.
I wanted to try something different.
And that's why I wanted to try cliff diving.
You see, with cliff diving, to me, it's a more natural way of diving.
What I need to do is find a high place,
as long as there is deep water,
I'm ready to dive.
For example, when I walk around the street,
and I see a bridge,
I don't see a way to cross the river;
I don't see a way to go from one side to the other.
I go to the middle of the bridge, look down,
and start seeing if it's deep water,
maybe it's high enough,
maybe I can jump.
When I'm with my wife on vacation and we're at a nice beach,
and there is some nice cliffs around, I start looking around,
swim away,
climb up, and then all of the sudden I'm diving.
It's a new challenge every time I find a different place.
And that makes it that much more exciting.
Now, in a dive, there is three main parts.
Before the dive -
that's when I'm standing, preparing.
The moment of flying,
when I'm falling and going through all the motions.
And the final moment, which is the water entry.
The main element of the dive,
it comes in the first part,
when I'm getting ready to jump,
and that is fear.
You see, I'm sure it happens to all of us
that when you step to a high place and you look down,
there's is a voice inside your head telling you,
"Step back."
"Get away from there."
Call it whatever it is,
survival instinct,
it's a defense mechanism,
anything you want to call it,
it's just protecting you.
It's just making sure you're not going to do anything crazy
and you're going to hurt yourself.
You see, I step to the edge many times.
I get that voice in my head,
and I have to work through that.
That natural fear,
I have to walk and pass that to be able to jump.
Also there is a second type of fear that comes to me
and that's a little bit more rational.
Because it comes from the knowledge I have of the dive.
I know what I'm about to do.
You see, I'm not just jumping straight down,
arms on the side and then hoping for the best.
I'm doing flips and twists,
and I'm flipping all the way to the water.
So I know that if something goes wrong, I need to make sure that I can solve it,
so there comes a second type of fear.
With my training,
all the physical training I've done,
all my career,
and all the mental training,
I manage to overcome that fear.
You see, most people, what they will do is take two steps back,
climb down,
go home,
and enjoy the afternoon with the family.
No, me, I do the opposite.
I actually jump in the water.
That's the best part of the dives.
Because at that moment,
I'm not worried about anything anymore.
I don't even realize what's around me.
I don't see anybody,
I don't hear anything,
I'm just fully focused on what I'm about to do.
During the dive, the second part is
when I'm falling, I'm flying through the air.
It's the nicest part of the dive.
Why?
I don't know if you've ever been in a car, and you roll down the window,
and your dog sticks the head out,
and he's just smiling.
That's how I feel.
(Laughter)
It feels so good to feel the wind in your face.
You're falling really fast.
But those three seconds that I spend in the air,
in your head,
they take so much longer.
The brain works so fast
that I feel like I'm falling for 20 seconds, 30 seconds.
If I make a small mistake,
I have time to think about it and try to fix it.
And if everything is going right, I'm just enjoying the ride.
The final part
is when it comes - the water entry.
When you're entering the water,
this is the moment when the dive can really go wrong.
This is the only moment when things can go bad.
Deceleration is so hard
that I'm sustaining about 5 Gs for an instant.
I weigh about 72kg, that's about 360kg that I have to support
for an instant, on impact.
So I have to make sure that the body is in completely vertical position.
Any part of the body that sticks out of that vertical,
it can be very dangerous.
Now, why am I telling you all of this?
You see, fear sometimes stops us from doing what we want to do.
If I let that fear stop me from jumping and not trusting what I learn,
what I know I can do,
I wouldn't be able to enjoy this.
People think because I jump from very high places
that I'm not afraid of anything.
Of course, the obvious question is like,
"You may not be afraid of heights."
I'm like: "Well, technically, I'm not afraid of heights,
I'm afraid of the water.
I'm afraid of what's going to happen
if I make a mistake and hit the water really hard.
But I'm not afraid of heights."
Then I keep thinking
because I want to try to make sense of this fear.
And what is it that I might be afraid of?
Maybe some small insects,
you know, some little spiders or something.
But it's not that I'm afraid of them.
I don't like them.
I don't want to be around them.
But I don't mind them.
If they're far enough, I don't mind if they're around.
So I kept thinking.
And as I was a little kid, I was afraid of the dark.
You know, my brother used to tell me there's a monster under the bed.
You know, there's a monster in the closet.
So you don't want to turn the light off,
you don't want mom to leave the room,
you want them to be with you.
Also I grew up in a very bad neighborhood in my city, in Cali, in Columbia.
And there were some dark streets where you wouldn't walk through, you know.
And then I started thinking,
I'm not afraid of the dark, you know?
What I'm afraid of is walking through that street,
and maybe some bad things are going to happen.
What I want you guys to know is that sometimes
what we think we're afraid of,
maybe we just don't have enough information about it,
or we may not have gone deep enough to understand
that we are not afraid of it.
(Video) I convince myself that I can do it.
(Single tone music)
I want to have that feeling of falling again.
(Music)
"Johnny, look at this area over here."
"Wow, yeah that's perfect."
"This is my first time in Africa.
The idea is [to] jump from Victoria Falls."
(Music)
"Let's do it man!"
"You started with the bad news first, that's good."
"I know I will be scared on the next one,
and in the next one, and in the next one."
"It's the longest shower he's ever taken in his life."
(Laughter) (Whistling)
"Just to be there; it's just the best feeling on Earth."
(Laughter)
"You just started and you're dead."
"There's a chance that you can get caught in that whirlpool and pulled down."
"I've never been in a river with that much current."
"Nobody has come out alive
who dared to do what you want to do."
"Take your time, Jono. Take your time."
"They might end up falling off the ladder."
"He's telling me that he can do it."
"In that moment probably was the worst decision of my life."
"Please don't leave me too long here!"
(Video ends)
I - (Laughs)
(Applause)
Thank you.
I promised that I'd survived the dive.
(Laughter)
I want to tell you -
I don't want you to go and do crazy things.
But I want to tell you is that there is joy to be found in our fears.
Find it.
Challenge it.
But for sure, enjoy it.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)