Well, it wasn't exactly my fault... let me explain the story.

I live in a city that is known for it's surrounding area - two huge lakes, great hiking, good skiing and mountains, etc. This summer, my friends and I decided to start doing different things - we started finding things to jump off of. Previously, other friends and I had jumped off a 65-70ft bridge around the area, but it's very easy to get caught, so we stopped doing that. Instead, we began finding cliffs and waterfalls to jump off of.

One day, I found a video of some people jumping off the McCloud Falls, a place about an hour north of where I live. Intrigued, I sent the video to my friend Stu, and we began to make plans to go there and jump off the cliff nearby, which was said to be 80 feet. After a week of plans falling through and the likes, we managed to leave my house at 4pm on Friday, getting to the falls at around 5:45pm (we had to go farther then anticipated.) After a quick check of the depth of the water and of the (rough) path up to the top, Stu, my brother and I decided to climb up and jump, while our friend Richard stayed at the bottom and filmed. The decision to have someone stay and film probably saved a life that day.

I should have known right away that it was dangerous. I hadn't been on such a high and unstable place before, as I usually jump off of bridges. Stu had volunteered to go first from the first time he viewed the video I had found a week prior, and he was still intent on jumping. He got to the top of the cliff and waved us back, to give him room. He was calculating the jump and looking around, and it seemed like he was ready to jump, and he did. Something wasn't right when he jumped.... he ended up slipping.

Video of the fall - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OKbwt99E8g

My brother and I were still at the top. I decided to jump in and help him, but I (thankfully) didn't, because I was still at the top of the cliff and anything could of happened. Richard was still at the bottom, and he dove in and brought Stu to shore. He was unconscious, and everyone was worried. By the time we got down (took a few minutes), someone had called 911 and he was becoming conscious again. He didn't remember where he was, but he remembered who I was and he remembered all about himself. He could still move all his extremities, but he was having a lot of trouble breathing. We just had to sit and wait for the paramedics.

They took about 30 minutes to arrive, but to their defense we were way out. They took him out on a stretcher. We didn't get very many pictures of them, but we got two decent ones.

Not surprisingly, since we were not family, they wouldn't tell us anything about his condition. We were simply told to go home, so that's what we did. In a way I wish we didn't; Richard was very shaken up about what had happened and he ended up getting arrested that night (thats a whole other story.) Thankfully, yesterday Stu called me from the hospital, and we all went down and visited him.

I don't have any pictures of him now (although I'm sure I could get them) but he's in pretty bad shape. His skin is deeply bruised everywhere he hit, his ribs are all broken/cracked and one of his lungs were punctured. The paramedics all said how lucky he is to be alive. If any of you have jumped off of something 65 feet or so, you know how intense it really is, and how different it is from jumping off something that's even 30 feet. Landing on your side/stomach can seriously kill you, and I'm so glad he's okay.

I'm not going to lecture those who love to jump off of things of the dangers of it. Truth is, I love it too and I won't stop. However, now I know exactly what I'm risking everytime I do it, and I'm glad that I know. Sometimes you get caught up in the moment and feel invincible, but things can really go wrong. Just make sure you have a stable place to jump from and the water is deep enough, and you should be fine.

You can never guarantee it, though.

Submitted on 07/17/2007

Submitted by: Anonymous
Reference: http://cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144872

Copyright © 2007 DarwinAwards.com

Chip said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
While not particularly amusing your friend is lucky to have survived. I hope that all of you learn that Darwin is always watching.

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
That video looks like he did one really nasty belly flop, and from that distance he really is lucky to have survived it. This could use a more humorous writeup, but I'll keep it in part because of the video. Thanks for sharing it with us!

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