Ginni van Katwijk became the first cliff diver from the Netherlands to compete in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series when she made her debut in Saint-Raphaël in 2021.  The 38-year-old is married to USA’s Matt Cooper. The 34-year-old American was called on at the last minute to dive in the men’s competition, making the two the first husband and wife divers competing at either a World Aquatics High Diving World Cup or a Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series event.

They are performers on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, showcasing their high diving skills, with ten contracts under their belt. They often coach each other and wish they had plants and pets to look after, but their life at sea offers a lot of benefits and a few drawbacks.

How did you meet?

We knew each other through the college diving world and we started hanging out with some of the same group of friends just because the diving community was so small. 

Ginni:  I dove at the University of Houston.

Matt:  I dove for the University of Texas. Ginni moved to Austin and then we started dating. 

How did you come to sign up as cruise ship performers?

Ginni:  We had only been dating for eight months. That was the first time we lived together on the cruise ship. 

Matt:  We were dating and we thought that this would be something cool. I had just graduated from Texas and I wasn't sure what job I should be applying for.  I heard about this opportunity from Jessica Livingston who was a few years ahead of me. She was part of the very first cast of divers hired by Royal Caribbean.  On the ship we live for free, get all the food for free, and several times a week we stop off in some cool ports in the Caribbean like the Virgin Islands. 

Ginni:  Jessica said it was a great experience, and we signed on. All these years later and we're on our tenth contract. The Royal Caribbean is the only one that has a diving show. We've been on all five of their Oasis class ships and they're still coming out with more. We think we can keep going with a couple more contracts.

Matt:  This was before we were married.  It was a small cabin in crew quarters and it was a bunk bed style. We survived nine months in that cabin. If you can do that with someone for nine months, you know you have a keeper. 

How long typically is a contract? 

Anywhere from 6 to 11 months although 7 months is perfect. Ten is terrible because you never sleep on land for that entire time. 

How did you get time off to compete in the High Diving World Cup?

We asked for and received permission for time off. They've been really accommodating, letting us off this week to pursue qualification for Fukuoka and again in the summer for the World Championships. While we are away they found other divers to cover our spots.  We don't get paid when we're off the ship but that’s okay because being in Fort Lauderdale and going to Fukuoka is an important priority.

Who else is in the cast?

We are considered performers in a cast that includes synchronized swimmers, dancers and divers that do both springboard and 10 meters. We are the only two high divers.  Our dives are from 17 meters. It's not as high as the 27m tower in Fort Lauderdale and the pool is much smaller and not as deep. 

So you're definitely diving outdoors? 

When the ship is moving sometimes in bad weather it can get a little scary and always Interesting. The captain and the officers are quite good at navigating around storms. So we don't know a lot of storms that we go through usually at night. But when we're performing they tend to navigate around it, which is nice.

Are your performances at night?

Yes, that's typical because we do have some sea days where we're at sea all day but most of the time we go into three or four ports per week. We're in port usually early each day until about five o'clock.  Our two daily shows will always be when we're sailing at night. Usually, our shows are at 8:15 and 10:15 pm, six days a week on a 7-day cruise.

What's a typical week like for a performer?

We have about eight to ten shows a week. We usually just hang out in the crew areas and most of the crew know each other. We're allowed to go into guest areas and we hang out there sometimes but once you've been on a cruise ship for that long it's not that interesting anymore. 

How do you keep mentally healthy and physically fit? 

There is a lot of space dedicated for crew recreation and even a department charged with keeping the crew satisfied. We have our own dining hall and there are three bars on board. You don't really need to go into guest areas, but the guest areas are nicer than the crew areas. We have a lot of time between shows. We regularly go to the gym. In our contract, it says that we're supposed to hit the gym five times a week and also to log those hours.  They really want us to be lean and toned. For the quality of the show, it really makes a difference. 

How many other high divers are there on your cruise liner? y

We are the only high divers on our ship but there are other cruise ships with high divers in their cast.  

Do you have other responsibilities on the ship?

Yes, the job can be very demanding but most of the time we have lots of free time. Besides diving in our shows we help out with the other shows. 

There's even an ice skating show on board. There is a main theatre production show and we often help with quick changes of costumes backstage and sometimes spot-lighting.  There are a couple parades per week and sometimes we are asked to help people sign up for shows.  There's a variety of entertainment options that Royal Caribbean prides itself on its talent and the variety of their shows. 

Approximately how many passengers are on a weekly cruise? 

As many as 6,600 passengers with 2,200 crew members.

How many times have you seen the movie Titanic and are there similarities?

We have seen that movie a lot. We actually have a safety protocol where each crew member has their own responsibility so if there's an emergency, we're all trained to do a certain job. We are in charge of getting guests together in an assembly station and keeping them calm and informed. If something were to happen, there are code words that we know like what's going on. And there's a whole scenario in place when you hear the codes:  Alfa, Bravo, Charlie.  There are weekly drills that simulate emergency situations. I don't think we're going to hit many icebergs in the Caribbean so we should be okay. We've had fires onboard the ship but they are quickly put out.

Do you coach each other, at events and on the ship? 

At this meet, Steve Lobue (2017 High Diving World Champion from the USA) is coaching us, but on the ship we coach each other, we film each other and we review our dives and always look for improvements in our dives.

So how many dives do you do in this show? 

We only do one high dive for each show, but there are two shows a night for six days a week.  Other cast members will dive from the 10m platform and springboard during our shows. The show that we're currently doing is very dance-heavy but it pushes the dancers because there is a water element. 

 Is the pool available for you to train in? 

Yes, Royal Caribbean has always been accommodating and allows us to train. Especially because the dives that we do in the show are not dives that we do in the competition. They're just an easy dive that you have to be able to do. They want to see hard dives, but at the same time something that's graceful and going to be clean every time. 

Are there Duraflex boards on the ship?

Yes, and there is a hydraulic system to access the boards or to store them after use.  The boards are a little bit shorter than the normal Duraflex board, maybe by about two feet. And they don't have holes, so they're not very bouncy. You'll see some pretty hard one-meter dives in the show.

What are the plusses and minuses you deal with?

Matt:  Hanging out on the beach on your day off is a plus!

Ginni:  It’s not really that bad, but we can't have any pets, and we can't have any plants, and we can't cook and I miss cooking. 

Matt:  I would say that missing friends and family is a minus. We do miss a lot of weddings of our friends but you can't really leave because that's part of the contract you sign. 

Are you planning to attend the World Aquatics Championships if you qualify?  

Yes, Fukuoka is on our calendars and Royal Caribbean already gave us time off.  They've been so nice and supportive. Actually, they gave us time off for Fukuoka before the High Diving World Cup was organized. So when this event came upon short notice we had to go back and explain that we also have to compete in the Fort Lauderdale World Cup in order to qualify for the World Championships in Fukuoka.  

How does qualification look for each of you?

Ginni:  Twenty-four women will be invited to Fukuoka, so I just need to finish my dives on Saturday.

Matt:  Not only do i need to finish in the top 24, but I also have to be in the top three out of the Americans, which will be tough because the American team is very stacked.

Is the diving community as supportive of each other as it appears?

Absolutely.  Everyone's out to help everyone and everyone is cheering for everyone because they know what it takes to jump from that height. So yes, there's some competition but I'm also thinking of it as like a personal standpoint and that I know what I want to do and focus on and have my own personal goals. 

What are your goals?

Matt:  it will be great to get top three but this is my first time competing in a World Cup.  I'm enjoying the experience and if it happens then it happens and that's a bonus. 

Will both of you be in Fukuoka if only one of you qualifies?

Matt:  Yes, I'll be in Fukuoka coaching Ginni for Team Netherlands. But yeah, I'm excited for the week to see what I've been working on and see how it goes. 

Have you also competed in the Red Bul Cliff Diving Series?

Ginni:  Yes, we dove at a Red Bull event in 2021 in Saint-Denis-Denis, France. I was competing and Matt was coaching me. Another male athlete ended up getting injured and pulling out and they invited Matt to dive. He got very lucky!

Unfortunately, I got injured the week before so I didn't get to compete but Matt got to compete and he had a bit of a... I did have a crash actually on my quintap and it was a little short. I was really trying to go for the entry so I came out. I didn't fail the dive but I was so short that it was kind of like an upper punch to the chin so I did lose consciousness and Scuba was very good at getting me. 

What are you doing the dive again? I've gotten the dive off in the past few weeks and did it yesterday which was good because I've been counting to four and a half or five summer salts for the past six months so that's a big monkey off the way back. That alone is like... 

We've been so happy to come back, like one from the injury but also to come back from that dive like that I think not a lot of people come back that strong that fast. 

And that would not be possible without this one out of three or four permanent platforms with these heights in the world so it's pretty amazing that we have one in this hemisphere. 

Have you dealt... Have you dealt with this before?

Yeah, so we docked on Sundays in Miami and we drive here early in the morning and try and catch like one or two hours of practice. And Stephen is here now. 

Yeah. So we're actually part of the Fort Lauderdale Masters program because you know they're letting us come and practice if we can on Sundays so that's really nice. And how different is the dive you do here versus the one on the ship? Not super different but one of them I don't do on the ship but actually two of them I don't do on the ship at all because the pool is just so small and there's like things sticking out and it's just too much of a distraction. 

You also have this very small platform with a railing so it's very hard to swing your arms and if you go too far out you might land not in the pool so you really have to focus on your direction and you also have to go on music counts so instead of like really taking your time you have to think five six seven eight go so it's a little different. And how many people are typically at a show? 20. No, that's 20-cast numbers. 

Okay fine. How many spectators? Like eight hundred and eighty. Eight hundred and twenty. 

Okay. Yeah, eight hundred two thousand per show. Now I know our warm-ups have been cut back because of the thunder but typically how many 20m dives? Where did you take on a practice day or the day before yesterday?

So that might mean my plan was just to do two just to keep the numbers low and just like keep my body happy and healthy but if it's not a come like the day before the cup sorry I would do maybe four five six max. How many did you get in today and yesterday? Just one. Two. No two yesterday one today. Two and

Matt, how many did you get in?

Yeah, I got one off yesterday and one-off today the ones that I'm competing on day one but say if I'm training like every day for a week I would say I would have to take days off. 

How many training dives do you take at 20m (women) or 27m (men)?

You have to limit your entries because the impact does take a toll on your body.  I usually don't do more than three training dives in a day and then plan some rest because the body requires that.

What was the last World Aquatics event that you competed at?

Ginni:  I dove at the High Diving event in Abu Dhabi in December 2021.

I was there on my own representing Team Holland and I didn't have a coach. 

When did you get married? 

We were married on October 28, 2018. Because we are divers and spouses, we know it helps a lot to have each other there for emotional support. We can’t have plants or animals but we would like to have a dog in our cabin.  After our last contract, we are looking forward to returning to the house we own in Austin.

How many more contracts will you sign with Royal Caribbean?

We keep saying one or two more.

What does life look like after diving?

Ginni:  I have a small business.  I'm the one that makes the tie-dyed chamois towels that everyone in the diving community uses all the time.

I'll keep doing that but I have a master's degree in sociology and criminology.

Matt:  My degree is in kinesiology but I started falling in love with home-brewing beer in 2020 during the pandemic. I took online courses and got my diploma in brewing. I love to work at a brewery and maybe open one day.