On July 26th, 2014 the Ausonia bathing establishment in Trieste will host once again the long-awaited Olympics of "Clanfe", or the splash diving competition, typical of Trieste, which awards those dives which produce as high a splash as possible. It is by now the most famous summer event of Trieste, where all the best "clanfadori", but even the worst, gather to show off their skills, or at least their "morbìn", which is their desire to have fun and be together.

A perfect "clanfa" is performed by rushing to the sea as if to make a loud belly flop. Before touching the water, it is important to arch over, thereby obtaining an "egg-shaped" position, to quote the basketball player Andrea Pecile, one of the greatest ambassadors of "clanfa" in the world. With the body "closed" in this way, the belly flop is avoided. To produce the splash, you need another technical gesture: once in the water, you must extend your body again and give a nice kidney shot (which has been defined by our expert Pecile "zifonella movement of buttocks") in order to produce an impact force that hurls water upwards. This is the Triestine "clanfa".

The Olympics of "Clanfe" were born in summer 2008, thanks to an intuition of Mauro Vascotto. In the first event 60 participants competed, divided into categories based on age and expressed in Triestine dialect ("fioi" and "pice", "muleti" and "mulete", "muli" and "mule", "muloni" and "babe", "vece bobe" and "vece marantighe"), and the public and media response was significant. Shortly after, the Association of Social Promotion Spiz (www.spiz.it) was founded, which from then on will deal every year with the organization of the event.

Now, in 2014, it is time for the Seventh Event, scheduled on Saturday, July 26th at the Ausonia lido as always, starting at 2:00 pm. The numbers of the event have grown from year to year, therefore the organizers assume that the total participants will soon reach 200. Two hundred dives, one each, as stated in the competition rules.

The style must be declared at the time of registration, because each has its own degree of difficulty and its consequent bonus for scoring. You can participate by performing a "clanfa", a "bomba" (bomb) or a "kamikaze" (suicide bomber), two other well-known dives on the Julian beaches. Each of the three techniques allows for many variations, ranging from simple "caminade" (walks) in flight, to somersaults, twists, or pelvic movements just before entering water in the so-called "taconeti" position, or "biancabalena" (white whale) obtained by pulling down one’s briefs, or finally "mortaio" (mortar), which uses the splash to shoot a ball in the sky. Noteworthy is the jury’s work in assessing all these components into a single score. Five jurors first vote the performance style of the dive, where each has a specific difficulty coefficient, then the splash size is evaluated, and finally a sixth juror votes for the "morbìn", the stage appearance. All these votes are then summed up to obtain the final score.

Like last year: the Association Spiz, that in September is organizing also the third event of the "Rampigada Santa", an uphill run and bike race along the dreadful "Scala-Santa-Street" in Trieste, proposes again a special ranking for those who will participate in both events, the SPIZ Combination, a sort of Ironman after Triestine fancy, for the most daring athletes, or for those who simply feel more likely having fun and being together.

Given the high ratings hit of 2013, the whole event will be broadcasted live streaming (visible here), thanks to the technology and professionalism of Fluido TV .

For the moment, let’s wait for July 26th, and, in the meanwhile, let’s shoot a "clanfa"!

For information and registration: www.spiz.it