Man Dove From Record-Breaking Height Into A Lake For One Shocking Stunt

In 1982, a year before his record-breaking attempt, Charls had described being in the best shape of his life. And in a recent interview on the podcast Innovator Diaries, he explained that he was, at the time, a 6-foot-tall recent college graduate with 4 percent body fat. But the dangers of the high dive were undeniable.

Hitting the water after falling from such a high is obviously not what the human body was designed to do, after all. It will place a massive amount of stress on the muscles and joints of the people who attempt it — not to mention the potential for broken bones. That's why divers have to land feet first.

This kind of discipline requires a lot of practice, of course. And Charls took his sport very seriously, learning his craft in college competitions before moving on to bigger and better things. For instance, he participated in diving shows and contests hosted by theme parks such as Marineland and SeaWorld in California. But at one competition, he was surprised by his peers.

Most of them were much older than him, he thought, and they seemed to be in sub-par physical form. Yet they were still completing very impressive dives and traveling the world with a good income. Charls wanted this, too — and figured there was nothing stopping him from achieving it.