HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Gottschalk Park at the Kansas State Fair always provides one of the better free entertainment venues during the Great Kansas Get-Together.
This year, it's a team of high-dive experts from the U.S. and Canada. Flying Fools is led by the husband-and-wife team of Simon Sarabura and Catherine Delisle. The group offers a 20-minute high-diving show that is a mix of talent and comedy, all while diving at heights of between 10 and 80 feet. That is further complicated by a pool that is just 10 feet deep and 25 feet across.
“I grew up diving in high school and I dove at the University of Buffalo, also,” Sarabura said. “This is kind of the next step for us college athletes if you want to pursue and keep diving.”
For Delisle, her venture into high diving took a different route.
“I quit diving and I got into flying trapeze and I did that for six years,”Delisle said. “They were looking for a girl for two weeks . . . 10 years ago. I did two weeks with them and fell in love with the show.”
Sarabura’s highest dive is from the 80 foot level during the show, although his highest dive is 95 feet. His speed hitting the 10-foot-deep pool during the show is about 55 mph. Sarabura says his group likes to mix in comedy with the talent they have.
“We put on a 20-minute, family-friendly show. We do a high-diving show circled around straight diving,” Sarabura said. “We take a complete left turn and clowns come out and all craziness breaks loose,” Sarabura said.
The couple and their teammates say they have enjoyed the fair and the surrounding area.
“The fair itself is very well organized and very well laid out,” Sarabura said. “We’ve been getting to know all of the restaurants around here and are trying to make ourselves at home.”
The Flying Fools are performing throughout each day of the fair and, like all entertainment at Gottschalk Park, it’s free.
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