SOUTHAMPTON’S cliff diving star Gary Hunt is aiming to win his fourth successive Red Bull World Cliff Diving title in 2013.

The former Commonwealth Games competitor is currently preparing for the second event of this year’s series in Denmark this weekend.

Hunt was beaten into second place by Artem Silchenko in the opening event of the year in France last month.

Hunt’s former Southampton Diving Academy colleague Blake Aldridge was third.

Hunt is writing a blog for the Southern Daily Echo this year as he bids for another World title, and this is his first one.

The French city of La Rochelle did us proud as usual with a great competition to kick off the 2013 season of the Red Bull cliff diving world series.

Eight months have passed since the epic final in Oman. That's a long time to sit and think about new dives and old dives and the harsh weather we have to battle against.

It is always nerve racking at the first competition of the season as there are so many more doubts in your mind.

The impact of the water is a more distant memory.

The wind flying through your hair from 10m is not the same as feeling the force of the wind going nearly 100km/h from the 27m platform. There was definitely some tension in the air before the first training session. My plan was just to get my four dives done as soon as possible so that I could be more relaxed sooner. The weather wasn't great but we didn't know how it would be the next day, and we know the weather in La Rochelle can be really rough. After doing one of each of my dives, I was a little more reassured. I was able to control my legs, unlike in Corsica last year where I had to step back from the edge of the platform to calm down the shaking.

I definitely felt more comfortable with the height and even found my difficult dives a little easier to make (this being normally a sign to add a twist or increase the difficulty somehow).

I had to bow down to Artem at the end of the day. You can see that he has been focused in his winter training and has worked on specific things that may have lost him points in previous competitions. I was happy to have dived well enough to be in the lead with only Artem’s back arm stand to go. He was inconsistent with this dive last year and so I knew it could go either way.

After the event, it has given me a bit more information on how I am diving and where I can improve.

I have thought more about doing the front quad with 2.5 twists again. The last time I did this was with a run up in Italy in 2010 and it didn't go well.

Now I think I am faster in the air and can get enough rotation to do the dive from a standing takeoff. Where I do this dive will have to be decided when I see the other locations, as the next one in Denmark is new for everyone.

I have also thought about doing a different required dive.

I seem more consistent with the dives with multiple somersaults and twist.

Andre Roubelev was also similar in this respect. He used a front quad with a half twist as his easy dive as it always outscored his simple dives.

I will probably try an inward triple with a half twist in Denmark as I think this will better show my form than an inward double with a half twist.

We have three competitions in the space of four weeks coming up in Copenhagen, the Azores and Malcesine. We have to make sure that our bodies get the chance to repose in between competitions so that we can support the impact throughout the month.

It's going to be a great chance to really get used to your dives and you should see some big scores.