THE FIRST EVER cable car dive has been completed – in a 24m dive from the Dursey Island cable car in west Cork by Red Bull cliff diver Orlando Duque. 

The cable car is suspended between the mainland and Dursey Island. First opened in 1969, it’s the only cable car in Europe that crosses open sea water.

Dursey Island is on the Beara Peninsula, marking the western tip of Cork. The cable car connecting it to the mainland crosses over 150m of open water.

Its circumstances offered the chance to do something different, Duque said. “To have the opportunity to dive from it was something special.”

From Colombia, Duque has won nine Red Bull cliff diving world series. He said the jump from the cable car “is definitely a first” and posed challenges unlike those he’s accustomed to.

The cable car is the only one in Europe which crosses open sea water. Red Bull Content Pool / Szymon Lazewski/INPHO Red Bull Content Pool / Szymon Lazewski/INPHO / Szymon Lazewski/INPHO

“Dursey Island, and the whole area around, is very, very unique. It is such a beautiful area, but with the wind here, the currents, the changing tide.. there were so many challenges,” he said. 

“I’ve dived before in Ireland and there are some amazing cliffs in this country, but this was something else. The biggest difference is that you don’t have a stable base to take off from,” he added, describing the technical elements of the jump.

Senior Engineer with Cork City Council, Tim O’Herlihy, supported Red Bull on the dive.

He said, “The sea here can change very, very quickly. One day, it’s nice and calm – and the next, there’s two metre swells. It’s a very, very tough environment.”

This latest project continues Red Bull Cliff Diving’s long association with the Irish coastline, with Inis Mór, Downpatrick Head, Dún Laoghaire and the North Coast all hosts to the World Series in the last number of years.