tombstoning.com

With a new summer in the Northern Hemisphere comes a planned change to tombstoning.com. Over the last three years this site has changed from being a place for me to share pictures of tombstoning with friends, to a commentary on tombstoning in the UK. It has introduced me to members of the RNLI, RoSPA and various coasteering groups. I have been approached by numerous documentary makers, news programs and radio shows all interested in the opinion of someone who is willing to clearly promote an activity that is getting such a bad press. But most importantly, while discussing tombstoning with the RNLI and RoSPA, it led to a clear definition of what tombstoning was, and a decision that educating people of the dangers of tombstoning would be a better approach than trying to enforce a ban.

I am very pleased to see campaigns like ‘Don’t Jump into the Unknown’ get as much promotion as possible. Along with some short and sharp points of advice, people should be able to make their own educated decision as to whether tombstoning at a particular spot is safe. The RNLI have just launched a campaign to coincide with summer holidays to stop people tombstoning. Although it warns people not to do it, it is still a step in the right direction – away from trying to ban it altogether – which I am happy to see.

This step back from an attempt to enforce a ban, along with a better definition of tombstoning, agreed by RoSPA and the RNLI, has in a way made this site a success. It will continue to bring news and commentary on tombstoning, but will re-organise itself to focus on the safety aspect rather than countering sensationalist and ill-informed news articles.

The ongoing maintenance of information and news on the site has taken a blow in 2010 as I am in the middle of a year long trip around the world, chasing the snow and enjoying winter both north and south of the equator. It is making tombstoning at my favourite spot, Stair Hole, quite difficult. It will also no doubt have an impact on this site and my ability to capture all newsworthy tombstoning references and share them here. One thing it has given opportunity for is a look at how other countries respond to tombstoning, albeit likely by a different name. This is something I hope to add to the site in future.

As always any comments on posts here are appreciated and encouraged. I am always interested in other peoples perspective, whether it be for or against throwing yourself off the edge of a perfectly stable piece of terra firma, into – if like me you’re in the UK – a usually rather cold stretch of water.

BBC Radio Leeds contacted me on Friday last week, asking me to talk on their breakfast radio show yesterday before the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire regions Inside Out programme yesterday evening.

The interview covered why I do it, whether I visit different jumping points, and my feelings about an audio clip of Joel Scott’s mother, Lorraine describing how the loss of her son has affected her. It felt like an impossibly difficult question, one that I don’t think given any amount of thought and time, I could have answered in a way that suggests tombstoning can be safe and still maintain a level of sensitivity to Lorraine Scott’s situation. It was a tragic story, and I always question whether offering possible causes of the accident could be justified to help someone else think twice of the danger involved.

My post about the incident (19-year-old falls from rocks) is still available on this site.

The radio interview was just after 7am and can be heard 1 hour and 9 minutes in to the 3 hour breakfast show available on the BBC iPlayer.

Inside Out is a regional programme and was not available to me at the time of broadcast; but thanks to the BBC iPlayer, anyone interested in the programme can also watch it now.

Jamie Coulson investigates ‘tombstoning’ at a Yorkshire beauty spot and finds out why an east coast town is taking legal steps to stop it.
source: BBC iPlayer programme information

When ‘The Times’ newspaper came to interview us and take part in some tombstoning, we left the camera behind and focused on making sure everyone stayed safe. After all, they had brought a professional photographer to capture the moment. These pictures have been made available by the newspaper and were taken by Russell Sachs.

I was hoping to add a comment to the timesonline article, but couldn’t succinctly fit it in 300 characters. The Lulworth Estate has recently posted on the article and I am keen to offer a personal response.

Comment on timesonline:

This article is inaccurate. Stair Hole is NOT a safe place to
tombstone. There are many rocks just under the surface of and it is shallow. It is DANGEROUS on this coast and we hope there will not be an increase in deaths and serious injuries as a result of irresponsible newspaper articles.
The Lulworth Estate, Lulworth Cove, UK

I fully agree that Stair Hole can be a dangerous place. Some of the examples used on tombstoning.com clearly show rocks that are just below the surface at higher tides, hiding from un-prepared visitors to the area. This article shouldn’t be seen as a recommendation to jump from Stair Hole, making the assumption it is always safe; more an example of how tombstoning can be made safer by taking the necessary precautions.

I believe drawing attention to tombstoning and trying to educate people about the measures they need to take to improve safety is a better approach than trying to ban them from doing it; as with many other things in our society, banning something increases its profile and attracts the more rebellious to take part.

I feel incredibly privileged to have Stair Hole and Lulworth Cove so close to my doorstep, as I consider the Jurassic Coast some of the most beautiful in the country.
And through years of enjoying the area I feel confident in what is achievable on any given day, factoring in weather, tide depth, sea current etc.

My hope for the article was an attempt to promote all the necessary precautions that can make tombstoning as safe an activity as possible, so more people can enjoy the coast in a way they want to.

Regards,
Dan

I was contacted about five weeks ago by a journalist from The Times who was interested in writing a piece on tombstoning. This had happened a few times before, but this time was different; he wanted to meet us and have a go. This sounded like a great idea, and from the initial conversation it sounded like it would be a well balanced article focusing on the fun you can have when tombstoning safely.

So Tom Whipple caught the train from London to Bournemouth, along with a video journalist (Ariadne Zanella) who was going to be documenting the day and creating a piece for TimesOnline. We were also meeting a photographer (Russell Sachs) at Stair Hole who would be capturing the day in pictures.

It was a fantastic day; sunny with maybe a little too much wind, but crucially the tide was at its highest while we were there. This allowed us to show Tom nearly all the jumping spots we use, and slowly build his confidence to the highest point on the day, 40ft!

Unfortunately we couldn’t go higher due to the choppy sea varying the water depth so much below us. But a 40ft jump from someone on their first day (having researched all the horror stories in the media) was a great result. I’m sure Tom felt safe at all times, and look forward to seeing the finished article in The Times newspaper and on the TimesOnline website.

Here is one of Russell’s pictures of the 40ft jump, and once the article is completed and ready for print we hope to be able to show more on the site. The Times are planning to release the article this summer.

We had some friends visit us from London on the weekend, and they were very keen to join us for some tombstoning on the Saturday. The water depth wasn’t really in our favour as the only time we could make it down there was just after low tide. This did give us the chance to show them the ropes from smaller jumps though and after an hour or so the water was deep enough to start jumping from higher.

We also met a few of the guys from Jurassic Coast Kayak Tours who were visiting Stair Hole and taking part in some Coasteering at the same time. If you are interested in seeing the Jurrasic Coast up close then I highly recommend you check them out and book yourself a tour.

We have been contacted a few times in the past by TV, film or other media companies and organisations that are working on pieces regarding tombstoning and want our input. I had a brief slot on the BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast Show towards the end of last summer, along with Nick Biddlecombe, discussing the dangers and what we (my friends and I) were doing as a group to mitigate those risks as much as possible when we were tombstoning.

We have recently been contacted by a writer for a well known and respected news site, who is drafting an article regarding this ‘craze’ and wanted to be better informed before starting the piece. The thing that really stood out though, was this person wanted to join us for a day and take part in tombstoning to see how we prepare, check the area and finally, get jumping.

Understanding that people who tombstone aren’t idiots, but some idiots tombstone, was a refreshing change and we can’t wait to show someone new the experience and thrill we get tombstoning.

Photos and hopefully some video will be up shortly after the event, along with a write-up of how the day went.

UPDATE: Changed example pictures to a better match at high and low tides.

Water depth was the cause of the recent tombstoning incidents, and this made me think about if we had any pictures in our archive highlighting just how much the tide affects water depth. As one commenter on our first YouTube video put it…

thats the harsh thing with tombstoning, it all depends on the tide.
1day you could be fine the next its goodnight irene.

Below are two pictures (unfortunately from different angles) and a mock-up showing just how much the tide changes at Stair Hole. The first was taken back in 2006 when we first started taking a waterproof camera with us to get some pictures; the second was October last year. Each picture has a caption attached when opened.

The variation here highlights a couple of things…

• It has completely obscured a metre square section of rock around water level, which if you weren’t aware of, you could land on.
• Your falling distance and water depth are both affected by the tide. So at high tide it could be a 25ft jump in to 15ft of water, but the same jump at low tide might be a 30ft jump in to 10ft of water; much more dangerous!

To combat this I recommend using a website like EasyTide to check tide times.

If you pick a port very local to your jumping spot, although it can’t actually tell you the depth of the water, it can be a great reference. If you know a 40ft jump is always safe when the local tide buoy is at 2 metres then you can plan your trip to the coast without the chance of arriving at a really low tide.

Also if you go to a spot frequently enough you should start to recognise the tide state and depth by checking the water level against a familiar point on the cliff or wall.

Lastly, I cannot recommend enough, following the information already in the safety section about checking out the water below before making your jump.

This information will be added to the safety section, but I felt it important that it spends some time on the front page as well.

Sunday was a fantastic day to start our 2008 tombstoning season. It was really hot with great visibility and a reasonable tide. We were in good company as well with DWS climbers, divers and canoeists all enjoying the same section of coast.

After years of using a trusty 35mm Canon Sureshot waterproof camera, it finally died and needed replacing. The replacement (a Vivitar ViviCam6200W) promised video as well as high res still images; and although I’m not as impressed as I hoped I would be, it’s not a bad start to our waterproof video recording. Check out the pictures and video.

All in all a great day out, and one we hope to repeat very soon!

It’s been a quiet month for tombstoning in the news (which is largely a good thing). As the days get shorter and the water is cooling down, holidaymakers are all retreating back to the comfort of their centrally heated houses. But some new pictures and hopefully the odd video will be making an appearance before the winter fully sets in. After all, we aren’t fair-weather sports addicts. If you’re wearing a wetsuit you shouldn’t be feeling the cold!

The safety section has more content on the way, but the slow load times we seem to be getting have caused us to rethink how the content will be split up. I have a few plans for the site to improve page load times and navigation, so things may look a little different in the coming weeks as well.