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?

don't listen to the Pearl clutches OP

Not in Cornwall but people jump off Humber Bridge.

It’s Darwinism in action.

There's a poplar spot to jump, on the south coast too, called Beachy Head

We like open water swimming and if the kids can find something to jump off they are really happy. We usually swim in rivers.....don't discount these....there are some good banks, tree swings, higher bits. (I don't know anything down Cornwall way....but when you have a rough location look for a local OWS group - they should have some good ideas.)

If you don't know the harbour and the conditions, it is unsafe. I teach in Cornwall, and I have unfortunately known children seriously injured this way as well- generally when they apply something they've done in a known spot to an unfamiliar area and misjudged things.

I would suggest going coasteering with a guide with local knowledge and expertise, who can guide you to stops that are safe and knows the tides well- not just relying on your own judgement and that of other children/teens which may not be accurate.

I know there are some great coasteering trips from Port Isaac which I'm sure your children would love, and I'm sure there's others all over the place.

thank you! we do some open water swimming at a spot local to us - the kids love it!

thank you for the suggestion, I'm definitely going to check out coasteering

You're wasting your breath people.

The OP is an entitled selfish prick, there's no getting through.

If they like jumping off harbour walls, swimming, climbing rocks, they will love coasteering, and you can be assured they have a qualified person who knows the local area guiding them!

Teens are always jumping off a tiny peer near Southsea. It's not very deep at all. Not for me but I don't think anyone gets hurt. Like I know people who swim in the Thames ( nearer Windsor). Not for me but I think it's safe.... enough. It's always going to happen.

"I bet your dh hard pressed to keep his cool with some of these idiots"

He's too reasonable. He just says they didn't know the dangers but now they'll never underestimate the sea again.

OP you're ridiculous. To not even acknowledge those who've explained how their family members give up so much time, risk their safety, fundraise, train and care is appalling. You've admitted you do your research on Google maps and now MN. You ought to be embarrassed.

I love watching watching em Tombstone and my DD has done it, there is a very spectacular place down here but i'm not saying... you need a lot of local knowledge, you r landing over and between rocks, tide is v important as is how you impact.

Stick to coasteering... just as much fun but relatively safe.

I live to the SW. The tomb stoning teens do not have local knowledge. They’re idiots with nothing better to do. The ones that do it are the kids with little parental supervision who roam the seafront all day in the summer. They are the trouble makers who’s parents don’t give a shit. My DH used to be a trauma nurse at Derriford hospital (served SW Devon and E Cornwall). He’s got a lot of experience o tomb stoning injuries.

This is such an odd thread. The OP is still getting abuse when they’ve thanked people for other suggestions like coasteering.

Also, while there is lots of unsafe harbour jumping, it’s a bit disingenuous to say that all jumping is life threatening and it’s all crazy tourists.

Having a jump off the inner harbour, at the right time after a risk assessment with a safer wide entry shape, at Gorran is definitely something both local people and tourists do. It’s a totally different prospect to jumping off Durdle door, after a beer and headfirst. There are some awful tragedies but this thread is a bit all or nothing and isn’t taking any nuance into account.

people are having a lovely time imagining things and then getting ABSOLUTELY FURIOUS about them

I feel I've provided some excellent entertainment for them and it would be churlish to interfere.

But I'm grateful for the constructive suggestions!

"This is such an odd thread. The OP is still getting abuse when they’ve thanked people for other suggestions like coasteering."

No, it's her mocking attitude to those who've pointed out that there are other extreme activities they could do that don't but others at risk. She finds it all a bit hilarious. That makes her dangerous and that is the one nuance I'm taking into account here.

"people are having a lovely time imagining things and then getting ABSOLUTELY FURIOUS about them"

You've absolutely no idea what the RNLI do. None. The fact you think you're so big and clever and amusing just shows you're the exact type they end up having to rescue.

I've been coasteering in Port Issac- it was fabulous! I think the highest we jumped was about 10m (which we worked up to, visiting different spots and practicing safe technique etc) so a good dose of adrenaline!

Port Gaverne (where we started/finished) is a very pretty little cove too.

that sounds bloody terrifying!

I was thinking of heading for the north coast this summer, thank you

In my experience, tourists don't know about tides or indeed about shifting sandbanks. Our harbour can be safe to jump off. But even at high tide, the sand means that there might be only a drop of 1.5 m under the surface. Locals know that but tourists don't. They don't bother to find out and just jump anyway, even though there are huge signs saying not to.

Every year, there are tourists not checking the tide times, not understanding currents, getting cross at the lack of life guarding at an 'undiscovered' beach which doesn't have lifeguards. And they all have to be rescued by volunteers who give up their time and energy for nothing.

I'm tired of it. Forgive me.

OP - please make a really decent donation to the RNLI every year. You may be lucky and never need them. Other people might not be.

No one learns anything from jumping off a harbour wall (unless they seriously hurt themselves and learn never to do it again). To learn something there has to be some teaching involved or some information available to help you learn yourself. Children don't learn about tides or currents or depth or what makes a place safe/unsafe from jumping off a harbour wall that you've directed them to.

Go coasteering, then your kids might actually learn something.

@SequoiaSal I hear you and I think that’s my point. If I tell my children no jumping ever, not safe, never to be done. They will wait until they’re old enough to do their own thing and probably do stupid things as they’ll know no better.

Or I can teach them about how to make things safer. In this case by understanding the difference between different pontoons, harbours, walls, ledges and rocks, how to assess, to speak to local people, check tides, have goggles or a mask to check the area before jumping, look for boats, enter feet first with a wide step out.

I suspect the kids, teenagers, young (and not so young) people who jump off stuff and get seriously injured were told no at some point and weren’t taught any sort of risk assessment.

My husband is a qualified scuba diver who spends a lot of time diving UK waters. He makes regular donations to the RNLI on the basis that he may get unlucky and need them one day, so I feel we’re covered on this one (he also knows how to read a tide table!)

I responded early on with a word of caution, reasons why, and then suggestions of safer fun things.

The OP and others responded in a sneery, mocking way, finding any anything other than praise or suggested locations unacceptable and retaliated by saying that those who have any sort of problem with the original request to be less good at parenting, guilty of hyperbole etc etc.

It would, quite frankly, be irresponsible to leave this post up without posts pointing out the issues, as there could be lots of other random readers who get ideas without the benefit of all those here in favours' wonderful ability to know exactly how it's all going to pan out.

As someone who lives in the areas discussed, raising kids here and having worked in Emergency Services for 20+ years, I stand by my posts and resent the tone they've been responded to in. I've looked after these kids and their distraught family and friends when it goes wrong.

They do get hurt.

I did my first rescue of someone jumping off that pier (southsea) as a 14yo rookie lifeguard.