Give me some advice regarding jumping into a gorge safely.

February 15, 2009 7:45 PM

Anybody have any advice regarding jumping into gorges in New York state? Safety-wise - what would be the upper limit of height I might try?
posted by Sully to sports, hobbies, & recreation (9 comments total)

Safety-wise - what would be the upper limit of height I might try?

About four to five feet, otherwise you're looking at sprains and broken bones.
This isn't a good idea.
posted by dunkadunc at 8:47 PM on February 15

There are a lot of really dangerous areas in the gorges, as far as flow rate and hidden obstacles go, so if you're really set on this then at least do it at a well-used swimming location when lots of other people are around - and after the spring thaws are well over.

Generally, though, I'd have to say Bad Idea.
posted by you're a kitty! at 8:50 PM on February 15

My experience of jumping into gorges is limited in time and space to the early nineties in Ithaca, NY. From what I recall, height wasn't nearly as important as the specific jumping point. There were two main jumping locales:

1. Right off Cornell campus, where a large majority of students swam and sunbathed. This was very much a be-seen sort of spot, and people would line up to jump. The jump required hitting a precise target and pretty regularly, someone got hurt and had to taken out by stretcher. All the more annoying to the good EMT folks as it was over 100 steps down.

2. Further from campus, there were three jumping spots. It was common wisdom that they were 30, 40 and 70 feet high. All were higher than the jump listed in #1. But all you had to do was jump; there was no target to hit. It was known that the water was deep and I had never heard of anyone hurting themselves. My friends and I jumped here and had a blast.

Perhaps you'll receive a better answer, but my two cents is that in addition to considering height, also consider whether the jump requires any precision and how well explored the area is.
posted by funkiwan at 9:00 PM on February 15

Yeah - I heard that Cornell had a series of river gorges that students regularly jump into. Is there a particular position to adopt? Is there an undertow?
posted by Sully at 10:21 PM on February 15

I'd just like to point out (as a former resident of Ithaca), that you don't need to jump in from great heights to enjoy the gorges :)

I'd say that any height above two feet is pretty dangerous unless you're familiar with the water. Jumping into a gorge without (very) fully exploring the bottom beforehand is pretty foolhardy. They tend to be full of rocks, and the rocks tend to be full of sharp pointy parts.

OTOH, if you've swum there for a while, and carefully examined the area, I'd go ahead and jump in from a ledge - it can be great fun. Of course, if the bottom is clear of obstacles, the only safety variable is the depth of the water. I don't know exactly what's safe, but please err on the safe side - in Ithaca alone, several people die in the gorges each year even without doing crazy stunts.
posted by Salvor Hardin at 10:28 PM on February 15

I personally knew someone who died in the gorges in Ithaca-- drowned-- just this last summer. And he wasn't even jumping. It was undertow in a pool in the gorges where he was swimming with other people for some time, and it suddenly, randomly, dragged him under. So be advised: the gorges can be extremely dangerous.

That said, if you're still intent on gorge jumping, for starters (assuming you're an initiate to this whole thing), Cornell students in Ithaca generally gather somewhere along Fall Creek Gorge on in the north part of campus when the weather turns warm. Be aware that the police do come by once in a while, and, yes, gorge jumping is illegal. However, if you follow the students, some reputable safe jumps have been scouted out for you. One popular one is off a bridge into Bebe Lake. Other locations are a bit more daring and not as frequented.

One more thing: don't swim in Cayuga Lake. People go missing there and their bodies randomly turn up later in the neighboring Senica Lake. Water, as usual, is insidious.
posted by unidyne7 at 1:56 AM on February 16

The first rule of safe gorge-jumping is the same as the first rule of safe doing-lots-of-things: if you're in doubt, don't.
posted by box at 5:42 AM on February 16

Ithaca schmithaca. The rope swing on the causeway at Otisco Lake is much more fun! No undertow on the lake, but you might want to wear water shoes -- zebra mussels are sharp!
posted by headnsouth at 6:04 AM on February 16

there's a locally-well-known place to go "cliff diving" (as we always called it) near my hometown, called Fall's Cut (randomly located internet pictures here)

My friends and I (being huge nerds) took a fifty-foot tape measure once to measure the common jumping points. depending on the water level, they were roughly 25, 30, and 45 feet.

The crazy part is the ~45 foot jump (known as "big dog") is the one where the water is shallowest - sometimes as low as 6 feet deep.
The trick when jumping 50 feet into six feet of water? as soon as your feet hit the water, lean backwards. If you do it right, you'll level out almost horizontally underwater, and you (probably) won't hit bottom (all that hard).

But just to prove that position doesn't matter, much, here's video of some dude doing flips off of Big Dog. Which is just insane.
posted by namewithoutwords at 6:45 AM on February 16