A different kind of skydive: EN A different kind of sky dive with Rhiannan Iffland

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“To spot my landing, I’m looking at the water for as long as possible.”

Iffland started diving at the young age of nine and quickly moved into competition. She picked up a couple of hobbies along the way – such as surfing, climbing and skiing – but in her own words, "diving has pretty much been my focus.” Her Red Bull Cliff Diving career kicked off with a bang when she entered a contest in 2016 as a wildcard – and won the whole thing. Since then, the 29-year-old has truly turned it into a career, with 18 wins in 24 stops and four World Series titles. In 2019, she swept all seven stops, giving her the only undefeated season in Red Bull Cliff Diving history.

While these images make the hot air balloon look like it was standing still, Rhiannan says, “trust me – it wasn’t.”

This stunt – and we have Rhiannan’s permission to call it a stunt – looks deceptively easy. Launch balloon, fly over water, leap off, do backflip, land, celebrate with some shrimp on the barbie. (OK, we made that last one up – sorry, ’Strayans.) But as balloon pilot Craig Farrell assures us, it was not. First problem? They needed a location where the could launch a balloon, and be quickly over the water. The first spot they tried near the Selwyn Snowfields, simply didn’t work – there was too much wind, and just launching the balloon meant there’d be a good chance it would have to land two hour’s drive away. This second attempt took place near Canberra, a city popular for hot air balloonists – and the team got lucky with the necessary light winds. However, it didn’t mean the platform wasn’t moving. “It was really hard to get an idea of how high I was,” said Rhiannan. “The pilot was doing his best to keep track – and there’s no way to keep the balloon still. So the ide was to make the movement predictable – going either up or down, and jump at the right moment. When that moment came, Rhiannan had just five seconds – not much time to think about it. Just enough time to leap into history.

Wind on, jump off

If this sounds like the sort of thing that starts as a bit of a jokey ‘what if’ and then somehow actually happens – you’d be right. With the necessary suspension of the 2020 Red Bull Cliff Diving season, the nearly-fearless divers started looking for new projects, and well, like everyone over the last year, they went a little crazy, and as far as we can tell – this was the craziest! “It actually started as a bit of a joke in a WhatsApp with some of the team at Red Bull Australia,” says Rhiannan. “When they wrote back a few weeks later that they were into the ‘balloon idea’ – I was honestly pretty surprised – because we knew it wouldn’t be easy!”

This stunt – and we have Rhiannan’s permission to call it a stunt – looks deceptively easy. Launch balloon, fly over water, leap off, do backflip, land, fire up the barbie (OK, we made that last one up. But as balloon pilot Craig Farrell assures us, it was not. One major problem? They needed a location where they could launch a balloon and quickly be over the water. The first spot they tried, near the Selwyn Snowfields, simply didn’t work – there was too much wind and just launching the balloon meant there’d be a good chance it would have to land two hour’s drive away. This second attempt took place near Canberra, a city popular with hot air balloonists, and the team got lucky with the necessary light winds. “You could barely feel the lift of the balloon,” says Rhiannan. “The only way I realised we were going up was watching the jetski getting smaller and smaller.” A light westerly wind moved them from a small peninsula over the Lostock Dam Reservoir – just 25m away from their actual take-off spot. However, it didn’t mean the platform wasn’t moving. “It was really hard to get an idea of exactly how high I was,” said Rhiannan. “The pilot was doing his best to keep track – and there’s no way to keep the balloon still.” The idea was to make the movement predictable– going either up or down – and jump at the right moment. When that moment came, Rhiannan had just five seconds – not much time to think about it. Just enough time to leap into history.

A moving exit

In her own words

“The pilot asked me, ‘Have you ever been in a balloon before?’ and I said ’no’ and he said ’The first time you’re getting in, and you wanna jump out?’ and I said, ‘Yep – that’s exactly how it’s going to go!”

“I tried to lean out and fall just a little bit before pushing off, so I didn’t push the balloon away from me.”

“It’s all about holding the body in a straight line – shoulders relaxed, tension in the arms – until you see the water to line up the landing.”

“As I see the water my legs are coming up – I’ll bring the knees in to finish the rotation, touching full tuck for a fraction of a second, then stretch the legs out to stop it and get ready to land.”

“To spot my landing, I’m looking at the water as long as possible – then it’s shoulders and head up and tense for landing.”

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One person had a better view than anyone – Craig Farrell, the balloon pilot. A hot air balloon veteran of 30 years, the managerial consultant that used to a run a commercial balloon business just laughed when we told him he made it look easy. The first challenge wasn’t logistical or physical – it was legal. A hot air balloon is an aircraft, which means anything that happens on it is under the charge of the civil aviation authority – and they weren’t really used to this sort of request. Only after getting a temporary reclassification of his aircraft – a balloon with 32,000 sq m of volume and the colours of Australia, gold and green – could they start worrying about the rest of the challenges. “We purposefully kept ourselves under capacity,” he says, “in case we needed to move quickly up or down.” Craig and team picked the spot near Canberra, where cool night air would flow down from the mountains in the morning, overriding the prevailing wind, pushing them out over the reservoir. The plan worked perfectly, but even so, balloon pilots aren’t used to flying so low – or at precise heights. “We had to nail that moment,” he says. “Too low, and the dive would be terribly unspectacular – too high, and it would be terribly dangerous!”

We’ve already established that even though this dive was stunning in its simplicity, the logistics and organisation around it were anything but. Which begs the question: was it worth it – would she do it again? Rhiannan didn’t even hesitate to answer. “100 percent, yes,” she says. “I’d definitely do it again.” While it’s extremely, extremely unlikely we’ll ever see an entire Red Bull Cliff Diving contest run off the baskets of hot air balloons, it’s good to know that 2.02 seconds was worth all the work.

When most people board a flight on a hot air balloon, they’re pretty intent on staying there until the thing comes back down to earth. Not Rhiannan Iffland. In fact, about five minutes after she set foot on one for the very first time, she leapt right out again– and did a pretty neat, perfectly executed backflip on her way down.

fly diving

When most people step in for a flight on a hot air balloon, they’re pretty intent on staying there until the thing comes back down to earth. Not Rhiannan Iffland. In fact, about five minutes after she stepped into one for the very first time, she leapt right out. Well, to be fair – she never really got into the basket. And the leap was planned all along.

A different kind of

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You’ve heard of a ‘moving target’? This was exactly the opposite. The dive platform – usually the least dynamic part of cliff diving – was slowly drifting up, up, and away. Interestingly, Rhiannan never got ‘in’ the basket – she stood on the platform outside, wearing a harness, until she got the go-ahead from balloon pilot Craig Farrell. And it had to be quick – there are no brakes on a hot air balloon.

“The dive is called a ‘Flying Back’” says Rhiannan, “and I chose it specifically for this because I knew I wouldn’t have to push off the platform very hard. And in my opinion I do that dive quite gracefully!”. While these images make the hot air balloon look like it was standing still, Rhiannan says: “Trust me – it wasn’t... To spot my landing, I’m looking at the water for as long as possible.”

A ‘Flying Back’

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It’s almost impossible to say exactly how high Rhiannan was when she exited the ‘platform’ fixed outside the basket, but the idea was to do it at 18m, and she certainly got close. In any case, she had a perfect exit – and landing!

2.02 seconds

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reality

Written by: Josh Sampiero