Māori surfer Te Kehukehu Butler shows a six-time world cliff-diving champion around the country to his favourite spots in a new documentary, One with the water. Although competing in Portugal at the moment, he reflects fondly on the experience of the documentary.
Butler says, “Rhiannan Iffland was awesome to work with and she is so amazing at what she does. Far out, some of the places we were jumping from, I didn’t even want to go near them, I was scared as. But it was cool to show her Aotearoa and what it’s all about.”
Iffland is one of the best cliff divers in the world, having won the world title six times in her career. But experiencing what Iffland does is something that fills the young wave rider’s soul with fear.
“It’s cool to see the height that they do them at aye, far out, there were some that were at 22 metres. I ended up jumping off one at 20 metres but I was just tiko my tarau’s the whole time I was up there. It took me ages to jump off,” Butler says.
Yesterday a documentary was released in the lead-up to the arrival of the Red Bull World Cliff Diving Championships in Auckland. However, for Butler, the documentary was an opportunity to give Rhiannan a true Māori experience.
“It was an awesome doco to do with them and we ended up smashing a couple of crays on the beach too while she was doing a few jumps, which was pretty gangsta. Grabbed my diving kit, and yup that’s us.”
The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Championships begin in Auckland City on November 19, and will be the first time Aotearoa hosts the event in its 14-year history.