When Flynn Chisholm leapt from a scenic cliff top in Majorca last week, it took him less than three seconds to achieve what no other Kiwi had.
The 40m “death dive” sent him face down into the Balearic Sea and headfirst into the high diving record books.
“I’m the highest classic, like no tricks - just straight staple [called a døds dive], the highest in New Zealand and Oceania,” Chisholm said.
The 2.9 seconds it took to ride gravity from ledge to ocean belies the length of time the thrill seeker had put into his preparation.
“I didn’t know it was going to be exactly that cliff, but I’ve been prepping this whole year and specifically the last month. I’ve been doing many high jumps to prepare for the impact of 40m.”
Forty metres is roughly the height of a 12-storey building. Chisholm estimates his speed at impact was “three figures” or upward of 100km/h.
“I don’t even know how to describe hitting the water at that speed. You’re closing with your arms above your head and usually they just get shot back because the impact is just so big it throws your arms back, but this time I managed to punch right through the water,” Chisholm said, struggling to do justice to the physical pressures death divers’ experience.
How exactly do you prepare for that sort of collision with nature?
“I kind of apply like other sports’ science. Just like MMA, I try to condition my body through impacts. I think I’ve done maybe six or seven 30m jumps, and close to 35 20m-30m jumps. That’s just getting my body ready for the impact and used to airtime - ‘air awareness’. I believe to get better you’ve just got to do it a lot, like any other sport.”
He describes the impact from his record-breaking jump as “a little bit softer than I thought” and estimates an entry depth of just 2m.
“Last year I broke the record, jumping 35m in New Zealand. That impact was huge. I trained a lot for it, but I wasn’t used to it. I had done 34m two days prior [to Majorca], and that was a lot heavier.”
The 20-year-old from Tauranga has several important rituals before hurling himself into the big blue.
“I am a Christian first and foremost, so I’ll say a prayer with the group, wishing safety over the jump and everything.”
His crew captures every angle of the jump for social media, and provides support in the water.
“I have about 10 or 12 people there.”
The mental preparation begins an hour before jumping, according to Chisholm. There are many emotions at play in his sport.
“The pure fear of just walking up the cliff is probably the worst part because you’re walking up all these steps. You’re like, ‘oh, we’re still going higher’. Right before the jump, you just feel the fear again. The unknown of what’s going to happen when you land.”
In between the pangs of fear is the calm – trying to clear his mind.
“I throw rocks to visualise how long I’m going to be in the air. I usually have three rocks, and once those three rocks are thrown, I’m going behind the last one. And everyone knows that.
“As soon as I start counting down from three, I’m totally focused and there’s no backing out. Once I say ‘send it’, I just push out as far as I can, and usually the ‘flow state’ takes over. I’m not thinking about anything at all while I’m the air, just the flight.
“You’re purely focused on just flying through the air and you’re surviving. I love that about the sport. It makes you feel really grateful for where you are.”
This ritual was repeated in Majorca – only in this instance, the pre-jump rocks weren’t hitting the water.
“My safety in the water said ‘dead’, which meant my rocks were hitting the cliff. When that was happening, I was quite nervous because I knew I had to jump really far to make the gap.”
The “gap” he refers to is the distance he had to clear to ensure he hits the water and not the steep rock face.
“This was probably ... I don’t want to like claim it – but, one of the gnarliest 40m jumps ever because it was like a 5m to 6m gap,” he said with a giggle.
There is an emotional transition, when the adrenaline that helped him jump from a 40m cliff into the waiting waters becomes euphoria.
“As soon as I hit the water, I come out of the flow state, come up and just celebrate. It all happens so fast. When you land and you’re pain-free, you get to celebrate. It’s just, I think, just the greatest feeling. It’s truly, truly amazing.”
Waiting for him at the bottom of that Majorca cliff was his support crew.
“My girlfriend was on the side, so I got to give her a hug straight away.”
Those who shared the moment with him, other cliff jumpers, understood what Chisholm had just achieved. Among the support crew of half a dozen in the water was the current world record holder, German jumper Florian “Chucko”.
The title holder recently jumped 48.7m from the top of a waterfall. The world record is not something that has been on Chisholm’s radar – until his latest achievement. Now it’s under consideration.
“I’ve been telling people the only way I would go for it is if I had funding to only train. I think I could do it if I could get a sponsor to help me. Pay to train and search spots to be able to do it, I think I could do it like that,” the Tauranga product said.
Chisholm is relatively new to death diving, picking it up around the time Norway’s Ken Stornes made global headlines for plunging 40.5m into icy water in 2023.
“Probably two New Zealand summers ago. I liked jumping off cliffs, I guess. Not like I am now, but just for fun. And I was never good at flips - so I found this new style on YouTube and I started doing it. Now, like, I just love it.”
Chisholm has jumped from countless spots around the North Island.
“Taupō, Rotorua, Hamilton, the Waikato River ... I’ll scroll on Google Maps and that’s how I find a lot of my spots
The death diver – who has qualified to dive at the World Championships in Tobago - is also a world-class speed climber. Currently in Valencia, he’s heading to a World Games speed climbing event in China before he returns home to continue diving.
“I’m holding a New Zealand tour in September. I’m gonna film a døds movie. It’s called Døds Unplugged and that’s hopefully gonna showcase a lot of New Zealand spots and how we go about jumping.”
The “how” is important to Chisholm – and his family. Watching your son leap from the equivalent of a 12-story building at speeds usually seen on a motorway isn’t every parent’s dream.
“My dad, he doesn’t mind it. He likes that I’m trying to be different and take a different approach. I’m not being reckless, I’m trying to promote this in a safe way, and I’m doing it in a safe way by training a lot.”
Still, he says his dad “can’t watch”.
“My mum hates it, which I can understand.”
His social media followers clearly love it. He has more than 20,000 followers on Instagram and one video alone has been viewed more than 34 million times.
He hopes potential sponsors also find it hard to look away.
“High diving is perfect for Red Bull New Zealand. I love the outdoors and adventuring New Zealand, so I’m trying to get outdoor brands to generate some funding so I can just explore New Zealand’s waterfalls and fjords down south and just find unjumped rock cliffs.”
Mike Thorpe is a senior multimedia journalist for the Herald, based in Christchurch. He has been a broadcast journalist across television and radio for 20 years and joined the Herald in August 2024.