Diving royalty! Gary has dominated the league tables of ‘Cliff Diving’ for years. Amazingly, but not surprisingly, Gary is officially the most successful male diver in the World Championships.
Starting off as an Olympic hopeful and Commonwealth diver, he holds a good handful of medals from the Great Britain National Diving Championships. From there, Gary made the jump into Cliff Diving, landing immaculately - winning the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. To this day he is widely received as the main man when it comes to cliff diving and it's not hard to see why.
A genius, a champion, abnormal and a trailblazer - all labels he’s been given and quite rightly. But what would he be doing if it weren’t for diving? And what’s on his playlist?
Rollagranola asks the real questions as we meet, Gary Hunt.
What’s cliff diving all about and how did you get into it?
I was a swimmer to start with and when I saw how much more fun the divers were having I wanted to change sports.
For me cliff diving is a test of the mind and the body, a way to learn how to deal with fear and push the body to it’s limits.
Being a diver, you’re posted all around the world for various competitions - favourite location?
Yucatan in Mexico was awesome, diving in the middle of the jungle with the Mayan pyramids in the back yard. But jumping in front of 70,000 people in La Rochelle was incredible too.
What does it take to be a cliff diver?
It takes guts, a sense of adventure, a lot of motivation and willingness to take a leap of faith.
Nutrition wise, how do you support your needs with such a high pressured, adrenaline fuelled and physically demanding job?
I am lucky to have quite a fast metabolism, that said I have to be careful going to Italy with all the tasty food and wine. A bowl of Rollagranola in the morning usually sets me up for the day pretty well.
What’ve you got on your Spotify playlist at the moment?
I’m starting to listen to a lot of jazz, I play the piano a lot and at the moment I’m listening to Duke Ellington, that said I grew up on UK Hiphop, Jehst, Foreign Beggars..
Plans for the near future?
Just enjoying the tail end of my sporting career, I still have the goal of competing at the Olympics but to achieve that I will have to work very hard.
What are your plans post-diving? Career swap? I can’t ever imagine you being an accountant (!)
Funny you ask that… Did you hear that in another interview?!
I can imagine the only thing that will be able to replace the adrenaline of cliff diving is being on stage, I’ve thought about being a clown before so you might see me in the circus one day.
If you weren’t a cliff diver, what would you be?
For many years I planned to become an accountant, pretty much the complete opposite of a cliff diver.
Greatest achievement?
Finding a job that I love
What’s your biggest fear?
Losing my motivation to learn new things. Not having something to make me want to get out of bed in the morning.
Head over to Gary's Instagram here to keep up to date with his super impressive, if slightly crazy, movements!