High divers showcase their talents at the Texas State Forest Festival

LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) - Diving many feet from the air may be nerve wracking for many people, but to high divers it’s a sport.

As the Texas State Forest Festival celebrates its 39th year, high divers join by putting on their Pirates of the Caribbean High Diving show.

Professional high diver Clark Kocourek said he’s been diving for about 16 years and people always wonder what goes through his mind when he’s getting ready to dive.

“We demonstrate acrobatic springboard and tower diving, some comedy clown dives and of course our grand finale high dive from 90 feet in the air to a pool that’s only 9 feet deep,” said Kocourek

“I think about one thing and that is the dive that I am about to do. I visualize it in my head, and often times if I can’t see myself doing the dive, or trying something new, I often don’t do it,” he said.

Kocourek said over the years – the dives were shallower.

“It used to be an 8-foot tank and they used to dive from a hundred feet and over the years they decided to lower the latter and we added 2 feet of water,” said Kocourek.

He said safety is really important when it comes to high diving.

“I usually hire springboard divers who are college athletes, so they have lots of experience coming into doing the show,” said Kocourek.

Woodland Heights Medical Center Nurse, Jo Baker said she was amazed at what the high divers were able to do.

“I thought it was really awesome. I think that the guys did a great job and put on a super entertaining show,” she said.

The Texas State Forest Festival is in day two of it’s four-day event.

The high divers have three shows today, four Saturday and three shows to finish off on Sunday.

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