Best Cornish Harbours with walls for jumping off into the sea from

[BernardBlacksMolluscs]

I'm obsessing about starting to plan our summer holiday. The highlight of any Cornish break for my DC is jumping off a harbour wall into the sea. We've been to

• Charlestown
• Mousehole
• St Ives
• Polruan

and through obsessive google maps usage I've always managed to pick a holiday location with harbour walls that are suitable!

I was wondering if anyone else has DC with similar views, and if they'd recommend any other locations?

Brilliant for water dare-devils!

www.cornishcoasteering.com/?gclid=CjwKCAiA2fmdBhBpEiwA4CcHzdzkh4j8DIGK3qJAFFmIDP4qfMBwYf9lAVpPtJJTMwdqIt9WEWUZXxoCzWEQAvD_BwE

So stupid. Doesn't matter if there are no obstacles under the water, deep enough etc. It just takes one bad jump to cause a major injury. Why risk it? NHS is under enough strain, do them a favour by not adding to it by doing stupid things.

I feel I have provided a valuable service to the recreationally outraged this Wednesday morning. It’s good to be useful!

Have bookmarked, thank you!

Why not ask the RNLI where they recommend? Maybe give them a donation at the same time.

Not least because it is ridiculously dangerous but if it is a harbour there will be boats coming in and out. As a boat owner I can tell you how bloody annoying it can be to find kids in the water. Larger boats do not have the manoeuvrability to dodge people in the water. We came across this at Ramsgate marina last year. Kids jumping off the harbour wall into the water with boats coming in and out and at low tide where the water was around 2m deep ( and at the point where the water is low there's an even bigger drop ) The big border force boats were in and out all the time and always berthed round the end of the wall where they had absolutely no visibility of someone in the water before it was too late- how they avoided mowing them down is beyond me- just a matter of time before a kid gets killed...

These kids took absolutely no notice of harbour patrols or lifeboat guys who went over to speak to them and there were notices all over the harbour and marina saying that jumping in the water was prohibited. All ignored...

Irresponsible parenting.

I'd be interested to know if people think pier jumping is more or less dangerous and irresponsible than:
Rugby, football, riding a bike on the road, trampolining in the garden, skateboarding, electric scooters, horse riding, sailing, surfing, hill walking, skiing;
Or indeed any other outdoor physical activity which should be undertaken with a modicum of research and common sense.
Or do your children do nothing that involves an element of risk-taking?
All the clauses and conditions that you will apply to reduce risk in other sports and activities can also be applied to pier jumping.
As in, don't do it where people are telling you not to (Newquay harbour for example) and check how safe it is first - ask people, check the water depth, check that it is sand, No Bombing or Heavy Petting etc

Have you seen the aftermath of a tombstoning accident? The result of a child colliding feet-first with a rock from a height is a fucking awful sight. The RNLI, boat owners, harbour masters and government are all clear to not do it as the sea is variable and obstacles can move.

St Mawes and Portscatho.

Thank you!

Yeah another vote for coasteering too. Your kids will learn stuff and have equipment, and be supporting a local business while getting their thrills.

Gorran Haven is good.

Like anything there needs to be some thought and risk assessment:
What are my child’s capabilities
What are my capabilities
Are they in the right gear (hard to sink like a stone in a good wetsuit)
Is it a harbour with enough depth and at what point in the tidal range
What are the tides doing
What’s the boat traffic
Is there local guidance or knowledge about this not being the right place to do this activity.

Risk assessment is good for children. They’ll only go and do crazy things when they can if we don’t reach them how.

**Teach not reach

Not cornwall but hope cove is great for this.

Thank you! In Devon?

I couldn’t agree more

i have sons and I’m all too aware that most of the stupid self destructive risk taking in the world is done by young men, plus as they get older and more independent I’m less and less likely to be there to stop them doing stupid shit

a certain amount of controlled risk taking seems a good idea (and fun!)

but I also don’t want to ruin the fun of the people imagining me encouraging my children to jump from 30 feet high onto jagged rocks at low tide in the path of oncoming oil tankers 👍

I'm all for letting DC take risks. But they should be 'safe' risks that don't potentially put anyone else at risk.

The RNLI, coastguard, harbour master and independent lifeboats will all be encouraging you not to do this. Why would you ignore their expert opinion and perhaps cause them to be called out? Lifeboat crews are volunteers who have families. Please don't put them at risk unnecessarily.

I have sons as well but this wouldn't be something I'd be encouraging, a head, spine or neck injury could be life changing for your son as well as you, all for the sake of a jump. Better off sticking to surfing on supervised beaches, snorkelling, or speed boat/ helicopter rides.
Think about a special diving school to jump, or even do a sponsered parachute jump, still safer than jumping off harbour walls.

It’s a good job some of these people aren’t jumping into harbours. All that frothing could cause a serious hazard.

Pier jumping is different to harbour wall jumping for a start...

My kids do loads of risk taking and adventurous activities, and more normal sports. All carry a degree of risk. But they don't jump off harbour walls in direct contravention of every safety and rescue agency locally asking them not to. It's not hard to understand.

We wild swim year round for a start, and I happily share good spots for that. Plenty of jumping, waterfall sliding etc there - no tidal shift, less height, unchanging depth, clear visibility, watercraft, no fishing, planned equipment including head protection, good understanding of local knowledge info and hazards and complete absence of requests from local search and rescue not to do it etc.

The op specifically asked for harbour walls to jump off. The current and repeated advice of RNLI/harbour masters and other agencies is not to do it.

As I say, the young people locally who have been harmed through doing this are well known and the injuries horrific.

The op specifically asked for harbour walls to jump off. The current and repeated advice of RNLI/harbour masters and other agencies is not to do it.
Ah but the OP knows better than all those pesky officials who just want to spoil her kids' fun!

Absolutely.

And those of us who live next to the coast in the SW are upright pearl clutchers raising screen addicted kids. Apparently.

There is only one hospital in Cornwall.

Please not st Mawes or portscatho. I'm closely related to one of the coastguards there and he found the last child's body pretty traumatising to pull out the water. I don't want him to do another recovery this soon.