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?

*a and e

"Yes, they do have A&E Departments in Cornwall"

Plural? Are you sure?

We have one A&E department in Truro in Cornwall. There are minor injury depts in the smaller hospitals like Bude and Launceston.
Depending on location, you may be driven or flown to Plymouth or Exeter hospital's A&E.
It is still a very stretched service especially in the summer with the influx of stupid tourists tombstoning or similar.

This thread has been really interesting for me. I am one of the mum’s who commented earlier in the thread that I have and do jump into water off various things, including the occasional harbour wall. I also do this with my children and carefully teach them to risk assess. My views totally tie in with those given by @Ihaventgottimeforthis.

The two most interesting things for me are 1) the comparison with rugby and 2) the advice to go coasteering (which most people seem to think is fine) compared with individual risk assessing to jump (which has drawn mostly anger & insults).

First rugby. A sport I believe you can’t fully risk assess for (unless it’s to choose non contact versions). The long term impacts of playing rugby are only starting to be understood. As far as I’m aware it’s still pretty unknown how much and what type of exposure to rugby has in terms of the risk of the long term effects of head injuries (even head impacts that aren’t particularly noticed as an issue at the time).

Conversely, as I described in a previous post, it is possible to hugely reduce the risk when jumping in the water. Obviously this starts with having the skills to do so, which I accept not everyone will have.

Secondly coasteering. This includes jumping in the water, after a risk assessment about place, skills, water conditions, etc. I’m not seeing how this is different to jumping in the water, after a risk assessment about place, skills, water conditions, etc. Why is coasteering ok but individual risk assessment not? Are things safer as long as we pay for them? I genuinely don’t understand the viewpoint around this on this thread.

I get what you say about rugby @bringmelaughter
But I guess with coasteering you're with a trained person who has been trained in live saving and has the basics in terms of kit and comms. And you're (hopefully) cutting out the drunken wally factor. One problem with harbour jumping in the summer is there is invariably a pub or two nearby and people do and will jump in inebriated, putting themselves and others at risk. I've seen it on many warm evenings in our village.

But that likely makes me a killjoy!

I think the biggest difference between replies in this has been from the people who have grown up by the sea and know it well and those who haven't. When you know, you know.

I don't have have an issue with killjoys! I've appreciated your posts on the thread.

if there were drunken people jumping in the sea, my DC wouldn't be. it's part of the risk assessment. if there are big heavy people (men really) jumping, we do something else

I agree. I just don’t think you need to have a paid coasteering lead every time you want to jump in the water safely. You can learn and develop the skills to risk assess, just like with skiing and shouldn’t be shouted down or insulted for using these skills.

I’m as sure as I can be that my children won’t be drunkenly jumping off durdle door as they know they have the skills, and are gradually being more and more trusted, to start to make their own assessments. They do at least understand the risks and what is higher risk and lower risk by the sea, which a simple “no, never jump” doesn’t give people. I’m fairly sure most people injuring and killing themselves jumping into the water don’t understand the risks.

I'm sure they don't understand either @bringmelaughter. @BernardBlacksMolluscs and her qualified scuba diver husband might. But busy harbours (surrounded by pubs) are probably the dodgiest places you can pick in that you can reasonably risk assess for yourself, But what about the beered up bloke who decides to jump after you?

God the hysteria! We live in Jersey and there are kids and adults jumping off harbour walls and piers and breakwaters all year round, in 20 years of living here I can recall reading about one unfortunate injury, never a fatality, and we have one of the worlds largest tidal ranges and 1000s of jumps performed per year.

Local kids start from spots where there are steps going right into the water and jump from 2 or 3 steps high before making their way higher as they grow in confidence and knowledge.

There are myriad ways to make it as safe as possible (not least knowing your tides and water depths, and swimming down with goggles to check for unexpected obstacles first).

I wonder does everyone feel that off-piste skiing is as irresponsible, or horse-riding, mountain-climbing or many other slightly adrenaline focused or off-the-beaten track hobbies that might in the worst case scenario require rescue from?

And to be clear, I think that if people have no ability to read tide tables, aren’t able to put their head underwater with a mask on and decide if the visibility is good enough to be sure there’s no unexpected obstacles, aren’t able to assess the boat traffic, can’t gauge whether the height of the rock, wall or whatever is ok and aren’t confident in their or their child’s abilities, etc. then they absolutely shouldn’t be jumping without a trained person to make that assessment.

We are not responsible for drunken dickheads somersaulting themselves off cliffs in the middle of the night.
The question is where are the places where pier jumping can be done in a reasonably safe manner, and there are many.
When the sea is calm, on an incoming tide (as it's so much fun you can lose track of time so it's good to know the water is getting deeper not shallower) and in a quiet spot away from boats and any drunken idiots, it really is great fun, a shot of adrenaline and a chance to feel young again.

yup, all agreement here

the thing about paying to outsource your risk assessment being better than doing it yourself is interesting too

i think having the confidence to say no if you’ve looked at the situation and your family fortunes score board has gone ‘UH UH’ is invaluable. I believe it has saved me from injury on a few occasions, particularly when dealing with members of the medical profession

you only build trust and confidence in your own judgment about risk by making judgments about risk

bit of a digression!

My children all went 'jumping'- we live in West Cornwall. It wasn't something I encouraged but growing up here they all had a good understanding of the sea/tides, know where it is safe to jump and were confident sea swimmers. Most stopped once they reached 14-15 yrs.

Baffled by the absolute blind faith in coasteering guides shown in this thread.

What magical protective powers do you think they have over anyone else who can sensibly read a tide-table and do a full personal risk assessment?

There's a reason that adventure sports companies make you sign a waiver, and it's because they're not wizards!

Mousehole has signs for everything! I remember saying last summer they needed a sign saying 'no fun'.

But what about the beered up bloke who decides to jump after you?

A bit of a reach. I've driven home from a pub (sober) in front of drunk people, it doesn't make it my responsibility if they're enough of a prick to think it's a good idea to then get in their car and drive, having just seen me do it.

Charlestown, because there are several easy ways to climb out.

Actually, thinking about it OP Porthleven Harbour had terrible 💩 problems last summer. Constant SWW warnings. Not a risk I fancied for my dog let alone myself!

I have to agree with the comments asking why coasteering is safer. I’d say if anything it’s more dangerous.

Yes people get injured and die every year, often though these are young unsupervised drunk teenagers, drunk adults or kids that have never been taught how to swim or to have respect for the sea.
We jump off piers and harbour walls in the summer in Scotland. We have areas which we know are safe. There’s a beach and harbour near us with a cordoned off area for jumping off which boats are not allowed into, we hang out in the water on our paddleboard watching, along with other parents. Kids jump in, climb out and jump again, it’s great fun and as safe as the sea can be.

My children know that they must get in the water first and check for obstacles and depth, they must get used to the water first so they don’t get cold water shock, they wear a wetsuit, they don’t do it if we are not there to supervise. They know is the sea is rough we don’t do it. If they are paddle boarding they wear life jackets and wetsuits without exception. The sea is great but also deadly and my kids respect this. I hope this means when they are older they won’t take crazy drunken risks.

I know there are risks involved but I also don’t think it’s more dangerous than skiing or tree climbing, downhill mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking in the hills, rugby. There are risks everywhere, kids need to be taught to respect risks and behave sensibly not outright banned from things. There is also a huge difference between cliff jumping and jumping from a pier.
Someone also suggested surfing as a safe alternative! I have seen some pretty bad surfing injuries! Why is it safer? Because it costs money? You literally can only surf if there are waves, which often means there are also riptides.

I grew up on a working Cornish Harbour and we jumped. The kids there still do. I've never known an injury from it (although I do know quite a few fishermen who've died at sea, perhaps they should all stop working, especially the ones who can't swim?).

I wouldn't let my kids do it because they don't know the water, depth, don't understand working harbours etc etc. But it's not throwing yourself off a cliff drunk, is it?

Goodness me.

I think you've just made the point @Harissaontoast that OP's kids shoudn't, because like yours, they're not local!
And the fisherman analogy doesn't really work because they have to go to sea to work. Whereas no one has to jump off a harbour. Also all the fishermen (mostly part time these days) I know these days can swim thankfully. Our local fisherman get quietly infuriated by some of the ill-judged jumping in the summer as their boats are busily entering and exiting our tiny harbour entrance
That said jumping is obviously the highlight of many peoples' holidays. It's surged in popularity since I moved back to the area of my birth a decade ago or so ago. So I hope everyone stays safe this summer while making their memories

Please don't go jumping off into harbours. There's not really much to be gained from it. Find a swimming pool with a diving board to satisfy your jumping into water urges. Or try parachuting.

I think you’ve just made the point @faffadoodledo that people shouldn’t be making ill judged jumps into the water.

If you have the knowledge and skills to risk assess, then it is not the same as randomly jumping into any body of water and risking yourself and others.

Teaching children the difference is important and so obviously from this thread often doesn’t happen.

Rather clumsily I was trying to say it's also about the other harbour users. Over the past two summers fishermen have been complaining that due to the VOLUME of jumpers it's often hard to enter and exit. Basically a harbour is a workplace and sheer numbers are making that hard
Remember it's on the calmest nicest days that most small day fishermen go out. Abs that of course coincides with the most popular jumping days.
I'm quite sure OPs family are experts at risk assessment but the activity is becoming a victim of its own success .