Death-Defying Cliff Divers Make a Splash in Boston Harbor

The diver inched up to the edge of the platform suspended 88 feet over the Boston Harbor and placed his hands down, hardly any nerves crossing his face. As he slowly lifted his feet off the ground into a precarious handstand, a hush fell over the crowd.

He steadied himself, then leapt off, executing a series of perfect somersaults and twists while hurtling through the air. The crowd hollered as he broke the water, feet-first and pencil straight, with a splash nowhere near representative of the towering height he dove from.

This gravity-defying daredevil is Gary Hunt, a competitor in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. From Sept. 19-20, 2025, the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Seaport hosted the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series final, capping off the 2025 season of the extreme sport. Thousands of spectators watched the 24 athletes compete, and the diving conditions were ideal — sun shining and temperatures in the low 70s.

David Colturi, a Red Bull diver who began his career in 2009, said diving in Seaport is especially meaningful.

“This is where my career started and where my family always comes [to watch],” Colturi said. “It’s a really special moment.”

Many of the spectators said that although they weren’t necessarily fans of cliff diving, they were eager to witness such an awe-inspiring event.

Bryan Do, a graduate student at Northeastern’s pharmacy school, said he was drawn in by the remarkable stunts the divers can accomplish and the fact that the event was free. He paused mid-sentence to look up as a diver teetering on the edge of the platform launched into a flip through the air.

“Exhibit A,” Do said.

Tom Colturi, David Colturi’s father, said his son and the other divers are adrenaline junkies. He joked that David Colturi’s zeal for extreme sports did not come from him.

“I don’t even like heights,” Tom Colturi said. “I don’t know how he got it, but he got into this early, and we can’t take it away from him.”

Spectators crowded the bleachers under the ICA’s balcony and filled the sidewalks around the port, craning their necks to get a glimpse of the divers. Red Bull staff members strolled the grounds wearing insulated backpacks shaped like Red Bull cans and handed out free drinks. All the while, a jumbotron broadcast the dives, offering closeups of the flips and divers’ emotional reactions once they emerged from the water.

The divers competed for both the Boston title and the King Kahekili trophy, which is the award for winning the most points across the World Series. The World Series has taken place annually since 2009, and the divers travel to seven to eight different stops worldwide, culminating at the final event, this year in Boston. Along with these titles, divers win around $39,000 per event, plus bonuses for winning competitions.

American diver James Lichtenstein won the men’s Boston 2025 title by less than a point in his nail-biting final dive. Australian diver Rhiannan Iffland took home the women’s Boston title and also the women’s King Kahekili trophy, making it her ninth World Series win. Veteran diver Gary Hunt won his 11th men’s King Kahekili trophy.

Tom Colturi, David Colturi’s father, came with their extended family to support his son, clad in purple “TEAM COLTURI” shirts. David Colturi earned the bronze in Boston this year. Tom Colturi said the nerves of watching his son perform have decreased over his son’s career.

“When we started, we used to just hope he was going to be safe. Now, I hope he is not only safe, but he does a great dive,” Tom Colturi said, glancing at David’s score flashing across the jumbotron. “And he just did, so it's kind of fun to be here.”

Colturi, along with the other 23 divers, competed four dives over the two-day competition. The dives are split into three categories: required, intermediate, and optional dives. Despite the misleading names, the distinction is that required and intermediate dives have a difficulty level cap, but the optional dives can be as difficult as the divers are capable of.

The dives are scored by five rotating judges who grade them on a zero to 10 scale in half-point increments. The highest and lowest scores from the judges are discarded, and then the three remaining scores are added together and multiplied by the dive’s degree of difficulty (DD).

The female divers jump off a 21 meter platform, and the male divers jump off 27 meters. The divers create their own sequences, which involve a variety of starting positions and a combination of somersaults and twists as they fly through the air.

But since most viewers are not familiar with the nuances of Red Bull cliff diving, at the event, the commentators are broadcast over loudspeakers to keep the audience up to speed. All spectators agreed, though, that cliff diving is nerve-wracking and not for the faint of heart.

Rob Parker, a Concord, Mass. resident who came to the championships with his wife after receiving an email from their neighborhood organization, said he was inspired by the divers’ bravery.

“I don’t know how people get it in their head that, ‘Yeah, I want to be a cliff diver,’” Parker said.

Natalie Biel, Do’s friend and a fellow Northeastern pharmaceutical school graduate student, echoed Parker’s sentiment.

“It would take a lot of guts for me to do something like this,” she said, looking up at the large TV screen showing a slow motion replay of one of the dives.

Some of the most supportive fans at the event were the other divers, who cheered loudly from their hot tub after watching their friends dive. David Colturi emphasized the tight-knit community among the competitors.

“I think what you miss when you’re a spectator or you're just watching on TV is the camaraderie vibe between the athletes,” David Colturi said. “We really are each other’s biggest supporters.”

Though the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series final was a thrilling and, at times, fear-inducing, competition, the divers’ final rankings did not cloud their boundless passion for the sport. Tom Colturi said he didn’t know when, or if, his son would move on from the diving world.

“I think he’ll grow up and get a real job someday, but I’m not sure what that’ll be,” Tom Colturi said.