2 Awesome Dives at Red Bull Cliff Diving Series 2012 at Wadi Shab, Oman

Red Bull Cliff Diving at Wadi Shab (Part 1) – Welcome & Warmup

The Red Bull Cliff Diving 2012 Final was held at Wadi Shab, September 27th, and it was a fabulous excuse to head back to this beautiful oasis in the middle of the desert. (As if one needs an excuse to return here! 🙂 )

A lot of people were curious as to how they would get everyone across the water filled wadi. Normally locals ferry you across in small boats for a small fee.  Here was the solution!

Gates opened at 9:30am this morning.  This was the scene approaching the dive area after 9:45am.  It was a 10-15 minute walk from the bridge for most spectators or a 5 minute drive for friends/media.  Look at all the people up high in the cliffs.  Some of the people there must have mountain goat climbing skills!

This was the site.  Notice the stairs that lead up to the VIP section on the left and the diving board WAY up on the right cliff. 27 meters up to be exact.

Looking back towards the wadi entrance

How did they get up there!?

It’s not that clear in this photo but the VIP section is directly across the wadi and water. Notice the typical chairs laid out for special dignitaries.

A better look at the VIP/media area.  Notice the white tent from which there was a constant stream of free Red Bull and water (and some kind of appetizers).

They had 5 or 6 Omani girls (of which you see 4 here) dressed up for photo opps with tourists, I guess.  This was an official tourism event, so nice touch!

We mustn’t forget the cute Omani boys! 🙂

And of course wherever there is a Red Bull event, you can expect to see Red Bull ladies.

The warm-up dives started shortly after 11:30am.

Orlando Duque from Columbia in mid-air

And the crowd goes wild! Well, at least the ones on this rock…

Does this pic look like an optical illusion to you? It does to me even though it hasn’t been manipulated in any way (as if I’d know how to do that anyway, ha!).

This was pretty cool when they were introducing the divers one by one and they were all dressed up as local Omanis! 🙂

Would you dive from such a height?!

Be sure to check in later this week for pics and videos from the actual competition.  If you missed out on the event, no worries. Come on by and enjoy the event through my lense! You’ll feel like you were there with me in the VIP area and didn’t miss a thing!  🙂

In the meantime, enjoy this 50 second video of 2 separate dives I captured on my Blackberry Bold 9790 and put together using Youtube Editor:

1 More Day! Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series Final @ Wadi Shab

Don’t miss out on the Red Bull event of the year!

Some incredible world athletes risking it all for the championship!

Whether you intend on attending this incredible event or not, you should pick up a copy of this week’s Y-Magazine which came out yesterday, Tuesday, September 25th.  On pages 38-39 of this 48 page pdf file in a section titled “Meet the Divers“, you can find info on these cliff-diving world champions written by Clint Derric Egbert (Eggybones), one of the editors of Mediate, Oman and sports writer/photographer (0bvious from this report!).

A careful read of the divers involved will make you realize just how much the judges have their work cut out for them!

If you suffer from FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), you definitely don’t want to miss this event.  I like what the brochure says here: “Be a part of Cliff Diving history“!

Some have asked about parking and worried about the logistics of it all.  There will be plenty of parking and I hear that engineers have even designed bridges to enable the crowds to reach the sites more easily.  Probably not ideal for very young kids though as it requires a good 10-15 minutes of walking and it will be quite hot!

One cool thing to know is that there will be tubes for sale for around 2 rials and guests will be able to float out and watch the diving from these tubes.  You will be able to buy food provided by Left Bank and I’m sure there will be plenty of water available as Tunuff is one of the sponsors.

For those of you wondering who won the 2 VIP tickets from the draw, it was Christie Swart! Congratulations, Christie! 🙂  I’ll send you an email and text you the details tomorrow on how to get the tickets.  29 people participated and 19 had the correct answer.  The correct response was 85-90 kms/kph.

The divers at Wadi Shab on September 26th. (Red Bull pic)

Photo of Kent De Mond in action on Sep 25, 2012 at Wadi Shab. Taken with permission for the sake of promotion from the Red Bull content pool.