Park City’s Feddersen family is no stranger to pushing the boundaries of action sports.  Kris Feddersen, also known as Fuzz, was a three-time Olympic aerials skier. He finished fourth in the 1988 Games’ aerials competition. He has run the summer aerials shows at the Utah Olympic Park for ne arly three-and-a-half decades.  Naturally, Kris’ son Luke Feddersen grew up a skier. Luke did slopestyle and aerials skiing until he was about 15 years old, when a dislocated hip, broken shoulder and other injuries led to him step away from the sports.  Despite stepping away, Luke couldn’t shake his desire to soar through the air. He started practicing acrobatic jumps on the family’s backyard trampoline and at the Olympic Park’s pool, where there were diving towers until 2023.  In 2020, at 18 years old, Luke decided to pursue freestyle cliff diving. He compared freestyle cliff diving to slopestyle skiing, with both disciplines having less rigid rules and focusing more on creativity.  “I had the acrobatic skills of skiing,” Luke said. “I really adapted it on the trampoline. … I just kept learning new tricks, and it progressed into this different sport where I met a great community, started doing crazier stuff and pushing it to new heights.” Luke does acknowledge the irony in quitting skiing due to injuries only to pursue another extreme action sport. He believes the sport does a good job in looking after the safety of its athletes, however, with rescue divers present at all competitions. One had to pull him from the water in France last year, when he over-rotated on a 72-foot jump, knocked himself unconscious and lost some teeth.  “LeeAnne, my wife, is familiar with watching her guys do somewhat dangerous stunts, as she watched me compete quite a few times,” Fuzz said. “Though I have to admit that when I see (Luke) jumping live, I do get butterflies.” Fuzz said LeeAnne was in Mallorca, Spain, on Aug. 1 when Luke had his breakout moment in the sport, winning the Cliff Masters World Series event there. The series is the pinnacle of freestyle cliff diving. He worked his way up the ranks through smaller competitions over the past few years.  “When I started, I was still learning what I was capable of,” Luke said. “I wasn’t even really thinking about competitions at that point. … I’ve always tried to take whatever opportunities I could to get more involved in the community and improve my skills, and eventually I worked my way up.” Luke is now considered an elder statesman in the sport at just 24 years old. He’d like to continue competing at a high level for the next couple of years. In Mallorca, he landed two tricks that had never been completed before in a competition, earning him the win.  Luke trains at the Cottonwood Heights Recreation Center and at various locations around the world. His favorite spots to practice are at some of the waterfalls in Oregon. He doesn’t want to name specific locations so that less experienced divers don’t get hurt jumping there. Luke hopes the sport will grow over the coming years. He’d like to garner some further social media attention to help offset the costs of travel.  “I do it for the love of it, but the funding is quite tough,” Luke said. “I think I’ve still got some competitions in me and tricks that I want to accomplish. … The cool thing about freestyle is we’re all doing what we love to do. I can do the tricks that I want to do, and my friends can do the tricks that they want.” To continue following Luke’s journey in the sport, see his Instagram or YouTube pages, both under @lukefeddersen. The post Parkite wins international cliff diving competition appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less