The Bird Men of Mazatlan: Cliff divers wait for tide to come in, Mariner

In the fall of 2009, Mariner magazine asked if I’d go to Mazatlan to write about the cliff divers there. I’d watched cliff divers in Acapulco during the ’70s on ABC’s Wide World of Sports but didn’t know they were still plunging into the sea. I spent three days with the divers, who – if they don’t time their dives right – may crash into way-too-shallow water. Occasionally there are fatalities. I had two days between the Mazatlan trip and a 24-day journey down the Grand Canyon and wrote this piece at the sleek Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale.