We just jumped from the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain, 531 ft above sea level.
I started BASE jumping 2 years ago, and have been to Beachy Head many times in since 2008 to watch friends BASE jump from it, but had never done it myself. 2008 is when I started sky diving, and the reason I started sky diving (as I have mentioned in previous posts) is that it is a gateway to BASE jumping.
Once I started to learn how to BASE jump, the thought of jumping off Beachy Head got further and further away. This place has been haunting me for years. I have woken up many times in the middle of the night after having a nightmare about jumping off it. I have imagined all the horrible scenarios where the jump goes wrong. In general, I have never really liked being at Beachy Head, it is too easy for people to just walk off it, or have a brain fart moment and end up falling off it if you get too close to the edge etc.
So in terms of BASE jumping, Beachy Head has always been my ultimate Nemesis.
Being less than an hours' drive for me, and the fact it is so Iconic, I knew I would do it one day when it felt right.
That day came, and was on the 27th December 2018.
I have known for some time that I am more than capable of the BASE jump from Beachy Head, but I have been battling with the jump mentally and this affected my decision making.
Since returning from my last BASE trip out to Europe I decided that when the conditions are right, I will jump Beachy Head.
Strangely I had checked the weather forecast and wind direction the night before (on Boxing day) out of sheer curiosity, and noticed that the following day looked jumpable, but I kinda shrugged it off.
The following morning I got a message from a friend saying that he and another mate were planning on doing a BASE jump from Beachy at 11:30am.
FUCK!
I see this message after waking up at 9:15am after a few red wines last night.
My first thought was 'OMG I could get this done today', followed by a 'Oh fuck, I had a few wines last night and have about 40mins to get up, showered, eat something AND take the dog for a walk'.
I decided to get in the shower and have a long think about it before agreeing to the jump and calling in sick at work (I was due to do a late shift). I felt good after the shower and checked the time and decided I could make it as I have all my BASE gear ready to go in case of situations like this. So I texted another mate of mine who also was in a similar situation as me. He wanted to do Beachy, but hadn't felt ready for it until recently.
In my message I said if you are up for it I will have to pick you up in 30mins NO LATER. It was crucial that we got to Beachy for 11:30 as you are not only banking on the wind and weather, you have the tide to contend with also. So if we were late and jumped anyway then there is a chance we could get trapped down at the bottom by the tide. Not fun and has happened to friends before, you have to sit and wait it out for hours.
So the pressure was on to get ready and get there on time. I do not like to be pressured on a jump, neither do most BASE jumpers, but I had to take this opportunity while my mind was in the right place. It's no good doing a BASE jump when you are absolutely terrified as it can make you a nervous wreck on the exit point, and this is no good. Yes we are scared, but we wouldn’t be doing the jump if we were not 100% sure we could pull it off.
Once we arrived:
We parked and walked to the exit point (I am not going to state on a public forum where the exit point is, but let's say it's between a 5 minute and 1 hour walk).
These are the kind of views you get of Beachy Head when walking along the Seven Sisters.
Photo is from Wikipedia.
When you see this for the first time, you are kinda blown away. When you see it with a rig on your back knowing you are about to jump off it, makes your legs go to jelly. You start to question why you want to do it, and for me and my buddy, we started to sweat like mad and we both had super dry mouths.
We made the mistake of looking over the edge on the walk...big no no as that made us feel so much worse haha, although it was laughable.
Many BASE jumpers see Beachy Head as an 'easy' BASE jump, as you can take a nice run up, the cliff has a straight edge, which isn’t too jagged etc. But you should never under estimate a low cliff. Sure, the jump isn’t super technical, and when it goes to plan it may 'seem' easy, but low cliffs can catch you out in a number of sneaky ways. Wind strength, direction and rotors play a massive part in the jump. Is the exit point slippery? Are you going to slip right as you push off? Will you slip as you take a run up and then fall over the edge? What type of footwear do you have on? Is there a chance your shoe is loose? Are you sure you want to run off it now? Maybe you want to just step off? But what if you don’t get a good push and you get a 180 opening and are now only a few feet away from the cliff? Shit maybe I want to run off it again, but the grass is wet…
The list is endless, and for me there is no such thing as an 'easy' BASE jump. If you consider a BASE jump to be 'easy', then you may assume that you will not get hurt, which then means you have become complacent. When you become complacent in BASE jumping you tend to end up on the BASE Fatality List shortly after.
The jump:
We met our friends at the top and got geared up. We agreed we would let them go first as they were doing a 2-way and we wanted to watch their jump from above. They both took a good run up and jumped. After seeing their canopies open and watching them land ok, I then went for it. I chose to go Handheld, (holding the pilot chute in my hand), but I chose not to take a long run up as the ground was wet. I took two large steps and jumped.
I waited half a second or so before throwing my pilot chute.
After I threw it I waited for it to extract my parachute, and as I did that I kept myself stable but looked down at the ground and enjoyed the freefall. You can't beat a groundrush, and often when you are scared on a BASE jump you forget to enjoy it as you are concentrating so much. Once I threw my pilot chute, I am at the mercy of my pack job, so you may as well take in as much of the view as you can.
On a low cliff like this, I like to imagine that I am going to get a 180 degree opening, that way if it happens I am ready for it. Being ready might not be enough to save it, but it certainly gives you a fighting chance if it does happen.
Boom town! My parachute opens in the right direction! SWWWWEEEEEEEEEEET!
I enjoyed the canopy ride down, just in time to turn around and watch my buddy open under his canopy also.
Everyone had a great jump from this huge but also very small cliff haha.
Stoked on the jump, the sun was out, it was a beautiful jump.
Only trouble we have now is, the tide is so far in and we may get trapped.
Yep, we spent a while messing around at the exit point and we lost track of time before the jump.
We managed to out run/climb/hike it with probably minutes to spare.
Today it all went to plan, but you have to remember that it isn’t always like that.
All in all I had a great time frothing with friends in the Christmas holidays, I hope you did too!
My next post I will UPLOAD THE VIDEO! So keep an eye out!
Thanks for reading x
One final thing!
Beachy Head is a notorious suicide spot unfortunately, in fact I believe it is the number 1 place in the UK where people go to do that.
Friends of mine have seen people commit suicide off it when they have been preparing for a BASE jump. Other friends have gone to do a BASE jump and seen a body at the bottom.
I just want readers of my blog to know, it does sadden me that people choose to do that, and it also makes me understand how bad they must be feeling to want to do that. Just walking out to Beachy is f***ing scary, imagine how these people feel once they have made the decision to do that!!
Some people go to Beachy Head to end their lives, but BASE jumpers go there to celebrate their lives. We do not want to die! I would also rather people associate Beachy Head with BASE jumping as oppose to suicides, as the more the newspapers post about it, the more people they are alerting to the fact it is the 'go to' place for that.
** I AM NOT A BASE JUMPING INSTRUCTOR. IT IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. DO NOT GO AND ATTEMPT TO JUMP OFF OUR FAMOUS SOUTHERN 'E' BECAUSE YOU SAW MY POST.**
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