Divers jump off the platform at Taranaki Wharf, Wellington CBD. Photo: Lucy Corry / RNZ
Reckon you're a pro at the staple, the coffin or the gorilla? Then this summer could be your time to earn world champion status. Applications are open for the inaugural Z Manu World Championships, which is open to everyone who likes to make a splash.
Competition organiser Scott Rice told Nights that jumping off a wharf or platform and making an impressive landing is part of New Zealand culture.
"It's free, you can do it almost anywhere, and it's a real social occasion. People come together to do it. They cheer each other on, it's really positive.
"It's all about doing anything you like to make the biggest splash you can... whether that's a manu or a coffin or a staple or a gorilla or a honeypot. It's just about how big your splash is."
Five qualification events will be held around the motu: in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch. At each event, divers will get two attempts to show off their best technique. Judges will use video technology and a sound meter to help determine the best and biggest splash.
Rice said that "anyone that rates themselves as making a bit of a splash off a platform" is welcome to take part. Participants will be sorted by age and results will be handicapped by weight, "we don't want them to be disadvantaged if they're a little bit lighter".
The best 70 qualifiers from around the country will be invited to participate in a grand final held on a purpose-built scaffolding tower in Auckland's Viaduct on 9 March 2024.
Rice said creating a big, beautiful splash was an art form, with practitioners favouring several different styles.
"I'm in my 40s, and I grew up with what's called the coffin ... where you jump off a platform, you put your feet in, and then you follow with your back afterwards. Your back comes down to kind of create that momentum and get that splash up.
"But a lot of the youth of today do the manu, also known as the V-bomb, which is where the bum goes down first, the arm and legs are in a V, and then when they hit the water, they collapse flat and that's how it creates a splash.
"It's horses for courses, you choose what works for you. There are some people that do the gorilla, which is where the head and the shoulders go in first and you kind of roll over, and the staple, which is kind of as the name suggests, the arms and legs in a staple [shape]. It's quite hard to execute, that one."
While belly flops create a splash, Rice said they were hard on the body.
"I'm hoping we don't see too many belly flops, to be honest."
