Jumping Off Bridges, ever done it? Options

[Jeff Truzzi]

I did it in Montana, for a few summers after high school.
Certain places where the river water was deep enough.

Sometimes you'd just jump from the side of the bridge at the road level.
Those were the easy ones.

Other times you'd climb way up the side railing and be like a story or two higher than the road.
You'd sit up there for quite awhile ('cause it was like scary high) and build up courage to jump in the water.

It was always a trio.
Like me going with Brad and Jim.
Or Joe and Bill.
Or Simp & Kostelecky.

You'd climb way up on top of the bridge, and then verbally bully each other trying to get someone to jump first.
And I'm really afraid of heights.
It sure as hell wasn't gonna be me.

So I'd listen to the other two battle it out.
And then one of them would jump.
Usually Jim.
Or Joe.
Or Kostelecky.

Then the second guy would go quickly after.
Leaving me up there all alone.

Being afraid of heights, it doesn't bother me as much to climb up something (where I'm not looking at the ground) as it does to climb down it.
Not to mention getting crap for wussing out.
And the longer I waited the scarier it got.
So I'd jump not too long after.

MAN, it was a rush!

The very last time I did it, I strayed a little too far from the deep spot.
Just as I lost momentum under water, my foot touched the ground.
That scared the crap out of me, 'cause I knew I had just lucked out that it was barely deep enough there.
And I never did it again.

But what a rush.

[Mr Tein]

I did it in Montana, for a few summers after high school.
Certain places where the river water was deep enough.

Sometimes you'd just jump from the side of the bridge at the road level.
Those were the easy ones.

Other times you'd climb way up the side railing and be like a story or two higher than the road.
You'd sit up there for quite awhile ('cause it was like scary high) and build up courage to jump in the water.

It was always a trio.
Like me going with Brad and Jim.
Or Joe and Bill.
Or Simp & Kostelecky.

You'd climb way up on top of the bridge, and then verbally bully each other trying to get someone to jump first.
And I'm really afraid of heights.
It sure as hell wasn't gonna be me.

So I'd listen to the other two battle it out.
And then one of them would jump.
Usually Jim.
Or Joe.
Or Kostelecky.

Then the second guy would go quickly after.
Leaving me up there all alone.

Being afraid of heights, it doesn't bother me as much to climb up something (where I'm not looking at the ground) as it does to climb down it.
Not to mention getting crap for wussing out.
And the longer I waited the scarier it got.
So I'd jump not too long after.

MAN, it was a rush!

The very last time I did it, I strayed a little too far from the deep spot.
Just as I lost momentum under water, my foot touched the ground.
That scared the crap out of me, 'cause I knew I had just lucked out that it was barely deep enough there.
And I never did it again.

But what a rush.

i am morbidly scared off heights but I have jumpd off a bridge. I had ben potholing. Was covered in mud. And we had to jump off a bridge into a river to clean off.

[xyzman]

Not a chance.

Sorry Jeff!

[Chrestus]

I haven't jumped off of one but I've jumped ontp a couple of em before.

[Chrestus]

Wait, I think I misread the topic title. Its bridges, isn't it, I thought it was "Jumping Onto Brides."

I haven't jumped off a bridge but when I was 12 I jumped off a cliff that was probably about 40 to 50 feet high. I've also dived (doven? diven?) off of a platform diving board, about 10 to 15 feet high. If you ever do this, you have to go in face first, as opposed to top of the head first. The water won't hurt your face if you go in that way but it will really hurt the top of your head if you go in THAT way.

I'm not afraid of heights but I do get the standard vertigo feeling when I'm on the edge of something high, looking down. I've been to the top of the Eiffel tower, looked out of airplanes, and I've climbed up and down all sorts of (small) buildings, cranes and things like that. But I do get that vertigo feeling, butterflies in the stomach and your legs tingle and go weak. Gravity attempts to lure you into her bosom. Gravity...its not just a good idea, its the law.

I think the difference between people like me and people who are phobic about heights is that I account for the experience and I make my brain tell my feet to stand firm, or I hold on really really tight to whatever is there for me to hold onto. I liken it to acid trips. I know what reality is, so when I would take acid I knew what was real and what wasn't. I could experience the sensation of hallucinations, and allow myself to hallucinate, because I knew the difference. I may have felt like I could fly but I knew I couldn't so I didn't try. Meaning, I deal with the experience, same thing with vertigo, you contol your actions, but obviously some people have difficulties with balance. You can actually stifle the vertigo feeling but its the mind tricking the body, mind over matter. That reminds me of the Bill Hicks routine about people who take acid and jump out the window because think they can fly.

"What an idiot. If he thought he could fly why didn't he take off from the ground first, you know, test it out."

[miles aweigh]

I'm not afraid of heights, it's hitting the ground from a great distance that scares the bejesus out of me. They say the impact of landing in water from a great distance feels like hitting concrete, so see sentence 1.

I knew a guy who thought he didn't have to breathe when he took acid. They found him at the bottom of a swimming pool in a full lotus. True story.

[simpleton01]

I jumped off the Bunkhouse Bridge numerous times, and it scared me every time.

The last time i did it I was probably 16 years old. I was wearing jeans and tennis shoes. After I hit the water, I started floating downstream, and I got caught in the current in the middle of the Bitterroot River. My friends, who had jumped before me, formed a human chain, and tried to reach me. But I floated by helplessly. I thought then that my life was over. I wondered why those fuckers didn't try a little harder to rescue me. And I thought it was a little sad that that was going to be the last thought that ever went through my skull.

At that moment, as I prepared to die, my body relaxed and I floated around a bend in the river, and was deposited on the shore, exhausted and gasping for breath, but very much alive.

What did I learn from this life-changing event? I learned never to jump off of that fucking bridge again, that's what.

[Persephone]

I have never jumped off of any bridges, but besides jumping and diving off of the 5 meter board at my high school and college pools, I have also jumped/dove off of some high places into water on the island of Maui at Black Rock, at Puohokamoa Falls, and from a lava outcropping that you had to swim out to, in Pailoa Bay.. oh, and I've jumped off of the cliffs near Parker Dam in to Lake Havasu (probably around a fifteen foot drop).. I've also jumped a seasonal waterfall (about a twentyish foot drop into a natural pool at the base of the fall) in our local San Gabriel mountains, up Old Mt. Baldy trail (Mare, you must have hiked this one at some point, no?)

And as teenagers, my brothers and I used to jump off of the roof ridge of our parents' home, into our backyard pool.. we only did this when our folks weren't home, of course..

Damned wild kids.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

This post has been edited by Persephone: Mar 3 2009, 09:56 PM

[favoritething]

Haven't jumped off bridges, but I came close unintentionally to that sensation once, when I was perilously close to sliding down a sheet of ice into a ravine.

I was hiking a trail with my sister (who was none too pleased) and her husband and a couple of their friends, and the trail went along this gorge, or ravine, with about twenty feet of rock above us and thirty or so below, with a creek at the bottom. On the shaded side, a sheet of icy snow went straight down at one point, completely covering the trail, so there was no choice but to gouge about five handholds and footholds across it.

Probably child's play for a lot of people, but a very unusual occurrence for me! My sister was in tears.

Purposely jumping? Not really since childhood, off of monkey bars and so on.

[barb]

A friend of mine explains that he's not afraid of heights, he's afraid of edges. Makes sense, really....

[domlawson]

I once jumped off a fairly low wall. Really hurt my heels. Never again.

[spidermage]

A friend of mine explains that he's not afraid of heights, he's afraid of edges. Makes sense, really....

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) It does.

I used to have a friend who who obviously thought along the same lines as yours - he used to say that he wasn't frightened of heights (he didn't mind looking up at a tall building), he was afraid of depths.

My daughter's fear of heights is oddly specific: she is afraid, not that she will fall, but that her glasses will.

[favoritething]

I once jumped off a fairly low wall. Really hurt my heels. Never again.

My sister broke both her feet jumping from a falling ladder onto a concrete porch. She had to have screws put in the one foot, and she was in a wheelchair for weeks. Dampens my enthusiasm for jumping, somewhat....

[spidermage]

I jumped off Jeff, and landed on Beau.

[miles aweigh]

I jumped off Jeff, and landed on Beau.

Watch out for Todd though, he shot a guy one time.

[Kendley]

A friend of mine explains that he's not afraid of heights, he's afraid of edges. Makes sense, really....

I used to jump off the top of our garage. I was about 15, old enough to know better.

But then In my 30s, I scaled a stone castle wall, about 40 feet tall. To get a Frisbee. It started out about 50 degrees, and it was a little more than 90 degrees at the top -- they go out a little to discourage scaling.

I wasn't really afraid, but I just didn't like it. I didn't think a fall would kill me or even paralyze me, but I was going to feel really stupid.

So I think it's fear, but not like the fear I have for clowns, schnausers, and whistling teakettles.

[Dr Hugbine]

I have difficulty with heights. Like Columbo said - "I don't even like being this tall".

[Mare]

.. I've also jumped a seasonal waterfall (about a twentyish foot drop into a natural pool at the base of the fall) in our local San Gabriel mountains, up Old Mt. Baldy trail (Mare, you must have hiked this one at some point, no?)

Sorry, Persephone girl! Haven't done the hike, but when my kids were little they and Hubbie did and so I've seen photographs. Are you crayzee? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) I know you aren't, y'are very brave, though!!!

I've been chicken about jumping/diving into unknown bodies of water. When I was a kid, I found out friend Kathy's brother became a paraplegic diving into a posted "No Diving" area. I suppose jumping in might not be as dangerous as diving. I kind of like to see the bottom of the pond/ pool, though.

[Persephone]

Sorry, Persephone girl! Haven't done the hike, but when my kids were little they and Hubbie did and so I've seen photographs. Are you crayzee? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) I know you aren't, y'are very brave, though!!!

I've been chicken about jumping/diving into unknown bodies of water. When I was a kid, I found out friend Kathy's brother became a paraplegic diving into a posted "No Diving" area. I suppose jumping in might not be as dangerous as diving. I kind of like to see the bottom of the pond/ pool, though.

I don't know about brave, Mare.. I chalk it up to the brashness of youth.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Your kids hiked the Old Baldy trail? It's one of the toughest ones in the local area.. How old were they at the time? I'm impressed!


And I never jumped in anywhere that I hadn't first thoroughly scoped out.. including the contours of the bottom of said pond/lake/ocean spot, etc.. I may have been adventurous, but I wasn't a complete idiot! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Mare]

Your kids hiked the Old Baldy trail? It's one of the toughest ones in the local area.. How old were they at the time? I'm impressed!


And I never jumped in anywhere that I hadn't first thoroughly scoped out.. including the contours of the bottom of said pond/lake/ocean spot, etc.. I may have been adventurous, but I wasn't a complete idiot! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Smart of you to check things out thoroughly first, homecowgirlfriend!

I asked Allie about how old she was and she said six or seven. That means Pat was eight or nine. From what I remember about the photographs, I'd say no older than five and seven when they started, though. They'd pack a lunch-sandwiches and juice boxes- into their school backpacks, grease up with sunscreen and off they'd go with Hubbie Kev. They loved it!!! Back then I called us "Adventure Family" and we have some cool photographs from those days. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)