Why Cliff Jumping Isn’t As Dangerous As It Seems
One of my favorite things to do during the summer and pretty much throughout the year is to go cliff jumping. I am a member of a group/organization called Cliff Life Media, and we organize events where we get hundreds of people to meet up from all over the country to hit some of the best cliff jumping spots in the world. We film all of our trips, edit the clips and put them up on social media — YouTube, Instagram, Facebook. We’ve managed to create quite a large following up to tens of thousands of people. Most of the comments we get are very positive and encouraging, but others are very judgemental. The general tone is that we are reckless, unsafe, breaking the law and a terrible influence on kids. While those are all valid viewpoints, what is missing is the fact that cliff jumping is our calling.
Yeah yeah, of course it is dangerous, but so are many other activities. The simple act of driving in your car can be dangerous. By taking safety measures to prevent accidents we decrease our likelihood of injury. Same thing with cliff jumping and every other sport out there. Many things could potentially be dangerous, but it is our responsibility to ensure our safety and know the risks we are taking.
For example, you use your seatbelt when driving, you don’t text, and you don’t drive while intoxicated. These are just some of the ways to prevent these accidents. And with sports, you wear safety equipment and have the common sense of self awareness of your range of ability. The same common sense stuff applies to cliff diving as well. Always, ALWAYS check what is in the water before you jump — rocks, debris, water depth. That is the #1 reason why people get injured and unfortunately give the sport a bad rap. If that isn’t common sense for people, then they shouldn’t be jumping. Secondly, keeping a level head and not jumping if you are not 100 percent sure you can do it. When you are indecisive and not committed, you are going to end up tricking yourself and messing one of the variables of landing safely. Cliff jumping is truly a mental game of believing in what you can and can’t accomplish. Just being off in thought can really mess up the performance of your jump and landing. Lastly, having spotters in the water to ensure that you emerge from the water without harm. If you can follow these simple precautions you should be A-okay. It’s pretty simple common sense stuff when it comes to safety and applying it to other activities.
So, the answer is yes — cliff jumping can be very dangerous if you don’t take into consideration the very common sense safety precautions that we use in our daily lives. Ultimately, we (Cliff Life Media) are still going to keep jumping — even if people think we are insane. We are a band of like-minded, adventure seeking individuals that are passionate about what we are doing and we’re not going to stop anytime soon. Check the water, stay confident, and send it!
