What Is The Hardest Dive In The World?

By the official numbers, the reverse four and a half somersault in pike, dive number 309B, carries a 4.8 degree of difficulty. That's the top of the table.

The armstand reverse four somersault pike sits at an insane 4.8 degree of difficulty as well.

BUT those dives have never been done before, and probably never will be. So let's actually look at the hardest dives ever done.

Hardest on paper vs hardest to do

Degree of difficulty is a formula. It weighs somersaults, twists, position, direction, and board height, and produces a number.

What it can't measure is how a dive feels, and sometimes divers will disagree with the table.

For example, it is generally agreed that a back 2.5 on 1m is harder than a reverse 2.5 on 1m. But they have the same DD.

Sometimes the hardest dive is very personal too, because people will struggle mentally or just with a specific dive in general. This is also common when divers are afraid of hitting the board.

The hardest dives done in the real world

109B

The 109B has been coming up more and more, but very few people are able to do it, let alone compete it. The DD is 4.1.

Yang Jian became famous after doing it perfectly on his way to the world record performance on the 10m platform.

5257B

I am not sure if more people have tried, but Viktor Minibaev was known for how easy he made the back 2.5 with 2.5 twists look. So he upped his game by adding a twist! The DD on this is 4.1.

628C

This doesn't end great, but it is one of the only attempts at this dive ever. It is extremely difficult at a DD of 4.5.

Does anyone go beyond 4.5?

If you include Red Bull Cliff Diving, the DDs go quite a bit higher.

But for traditional diving, the table of known DDs isn't the literal ceiling on what's physically possible, it's a list of what's been codified. Although there are dives on the DD chart that have never been done, divers will still occasionally attempt things that sit outside it.

What used to be a world-class list is now a solid junior list. That drift is why comparing eras is so hard, and it's part of why the greatest diver debate never settles.

- DG