“Not all people has the need to go up and dive from such a peak or land in such a shallow pool.” — Acrobatic performer Yves Milord.
![Entertainers participate in the Flying Fools High Diving Show at the Pacific National Exhibition on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2022. The high diving show returns to the PNE this year after a 15 year absence.](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/vancouversun/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/highdive11_272110134-w.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&h=216)
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The spotlight of the diving present is on the finish when Yves Milord climbs a thin, 80-foot ladder and steps onto a tiny perch, excessive above the PNE grounds. He leaps off right into a twist and lands in a pool of water under that’s simply 10-feet deep.
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The trick to not breaking each bone in your physique is in a way referred to as scooping, says the 60-year-old, who has been performing in acrobatic diving exhibits for over 40 years.
“It’s like while you take some ice cream. You enter your spoon, and also you curve as you enter. That’s the identical motion as after we dive from that peak or from decrease, which suggests, as quickly as you hit the water, you carry legs ahead or roll onto your again, to scoop so that you don’t contact the underside of the pool.”
Milord is the proprietor of Milord Leisure, which produces the “Flying Fools Excessive Diving Present,” that’s again on the PNE for the primary time in about 15 years.
There are six performers within the present this summer time, however solely Milord and a colleague, Aaron Randles, are doing the finale excessive dive.
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“Not all people has the need to go up and dive from such a peak or land in such a shallow pool,” stated Milord.
In metric phrases, it’s leaping off a 25 metre board into three metres of water.
![Entertainers participate in the Flying Fools High Diving Show at the Pacific National Exhibition on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2022. The high diving show returns to the PNE this year after a 15 year absence.](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/vancouversun/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/highdive12_272110130-s.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288)
About 20 years in the past, Milord met Randles, who spent years performing excessive dives and acrobatics on the acclaimed and long-running “The Home of Dancing Water,” present in Macau.
“He was 20-years-old and I used to be 40, and I believed I used to be too outdated to carry out,” stated Milord.
“He was excessive diving on a regular basis, however the factor is (in Macau), they’d virtually 18 ft of water to dive into. Right here, it’s solely 10 ft, which makes the duty loads more durable. It’s worthwhile to sacrifice your physique a bit bit extra. He’s a younger, 40-year-old.”
The opposite divers come from some sort of acrobatic background, both diving, gymnastics or trampolining. They’ve expertise that take years to grasp, and the coaching for the present just isn’t an extended course of as compared, stated Milord.
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The primary 18 minutes of the 20-minute present is targeted on the diving boards and platforms which can be as much as 30-feet excessive. There’s comedy, slapstick, just a few severe dives, and a few sequences which can be choreographed to music.
It’s the excessive dive that may take years, months or weeks to do, relying on numerous elements, in keeping with Milord.
![Entertainers participate in the Flying Fools High Diving Show at the Pacific National Exhibition on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2022.](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/vancouversun/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/high-dive004_272110124-w.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288)
There are solely a handful of performers in his firm that may do it. A few of them have been performing in one other unit that has been on the Indiana State Truthful this summer time.
The corporate can be recognized for hearth dives the place the performer is lit on hearth earlier than making a excessive dive right into a pool, but it surely isn’t performed on the PNE due to the danger.
“There are too many bushes round and we don’t wish to probability it. The wind comes alongside, you by no means know. It’s too dry and it’s not the factor to do now,” stated Milord.
“Not all people at my age can nonetheless carry out,” stated the previous highschool trainer from Quebec, who’s on the street from June to October yearly.
“It’s a great way to journey, see the world, receives a commission for one thing they like to do, and it beats any sort of 9 to 5 job, in our thoughts.”
There are three free exhibits a day all through the PNE, one at 2 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and seven p.m. The PNE runs by Sept. 4, however is closed on Mondays.