One with the water
In 2013 Iris Schmidbauer discovered her passion for water jumping at the Strandbad in Utting. For the SeeMagazin she jumped into the Ammersee once again and told us about the special moments, when the sea foams 20 meters below her. What the pictures from our photographer Jan Greune don't show: despite the beautiful weather, the temperatures were located in a low two-digit range. But that didn't bother the athlete.
Cliff Diving combines the acrobatics of high diving with the challenges of nature. In the excerpt from the article Iris Schmidbauer tells about her fascination for this relatively young type of sport.
"Water grounds me", Iris Schmidbauer could not describe it better, what jumping means to her. Even from a height of 22 metres. It requires courage – and a well-trained body. Diving in with a speed up to 85 kilometers per hour does not forgive any mistakes. Of course she also feels fear: Often Schmidbauer works on a new jump for more than a year. It takes a long time to internalize a new sequence of movements. "I don't stand on the platform and think: I'm just going to try it this right now," explains the 25-year-old.
"I prepare intensively for every jump. Often more than a year."
Iris Schmidbauer
"I'm preparing myself intensively for this." That means half an hour of dry run and one and a half hour of water training in the morning, another hour and a half training at land and one and a half hour of water training in the afternoon. Six days a week. Plus: weight lifting three times a week. The athlete practices the jump itself in two sections from the ten-meter diving board. How long a jump lasts? Two seconds. And yet: "When I stand on the cliff, feeling the rock under my feet before I jump into the foaming sea, it makes me happy." The fact that the girl from Pähl is standing so high up today was anything but planned. Together with her brother she started with water jumping in 2013. Just for fun at first.
You can read the full article in the latest issue of the SeeMagazin (only in German). The magazine is available at magazine retailers in Bavaria or can be ordered via mail at kontakt@seemagazin.de.
We love the Fünfseenland in the south of Bavaria. That is why we collect the uniqueness of the region in beautiful pictures and stories once a year in our SeeMagazin. We meet interesting people who are enthusiastic and make their passion their profession. The motto of the 2020 issue: "People, missions, masterpieces" – because it is not only the nature, but also the people, who make the Fünfseenland special.
