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"8Booth" jumps off a 129-foot building in Newport Harbor, California.
Indefinitely Wild

What We Can Learn About Cliff Jumping from the Short-Lived Career of Anthony Booth Armer

This guy got arrested for sending it off tall buildings into deep water. Here's what he gets really, really wrong with his jumps.

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It was all going so well for Orange County鈥檚 Anthony Booth Armer. Just two months old, his YouTube channel had already accrued 56,000 subscribers and more than 16 million views. Stunts like jumping 129 feet from the roof of a condo building into the harbor below聽had earned him widespread notoriety, and even聽a segment on Comedy Central鈥檚 Tosh.0. And then, at 7:45 a.m. last Wednesday, the police . The consequences of his death-defying antics hadn鈥檛 taken long to catch up with the man previously only known as 鈥8Booth.鈥 Not only was the jump illegal, it was really, really dangerous.听

With the rise of action cams, easy video editing software, and social media, new life has been breathed into the classic daredevil trope. Now, anyone with a GoPro and an Instagram account can risk his life for all the world to see. For what?聽Fifteen聽minutes of fame and probably more than a little dose of proving your parents wrong. But the quest for one upmanship, and the encouragement of frankly idiotic behavior, makes all this stuff dangerous and potentially deadly. Those ? .听

If there's a silver lining, it's that Armer's shenanigans have brought a lot of attention to聽the sport of cliff jumping, and raising important questions about how to do it safely. I exchanged a few short emails with聽Armer聽prior to writing this article, with the hopes of interviewing him. He stopped responding. Next,聽I turned to聽鈥攖he godfather of Southern California鈥檚 cliff jumping scene鈥攖o help detail what 8Booth gets wrong with his jumps, and explain how you can jump off tall stuff into deep water聽safely.

Armer Enters聽the Water All Wrong

Landing on your butt is not fun. Just ask my friend Audrey, who landed on her ass completing a 50-footer in central California. She sported a bruise for weeks.听

鈥淲hen this dude jumps, he鈥檚 basically cannonballing,鈥 describes Edwards. 鈥淚f he penciled, he would break his legs,” because of the water depth.听

Armer can be seen jumping into many very shallow places, which informs聽his body position as he falls: he鈥檚 jumping for a shallow splash. The payoff: more of his body hits the water, in a more painful way.听

Because you鈥檙e a smart person and you鈥檙e only going to jump into water that鈥檚 plenty deep, you鈥檙e going to enter feet first, taking care to keep your feet together, your chin tight to your chest, and your arms either clamped to your sides or supporting your head. Basically, you鈥檙e trying to minimize your body鈥檚 surface area as it penetrates the water.听

https://www.youtube.com/embed/mtqFdtLqyII

He鈥檚 Jumping Into Water That鈥檚 Too Shallow

鈥淔or any jump, you need to start with at least eight feet of water,鈥 explains Edwards. 鈥淎dd another two feet to that for each 10 feet you gain in cliff height.鈥

Armer鈥攚ith his multiple dives into California pools鈥攆ails聽to abide by this most basic rule. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a law in Orange County that public pools can鈥檛 be more than eight feet deep (unless they鈥檙e diving pools). That鈥檚 why you see all those “No Diving” signs,鈥 says Edwards.听

https://www.youtube.com/embed/vctjm9nUF68

We Never See Him Check聽the Landing聽

Never jump off a cliff without first having explored the water beneath it聽to check out depth and potential obstacles under the surface.听鈥淧eople die all the time,鈥 Edwards says. 鈥淚t's either because they didn't check the water depth or are jumping from higher than they've done before, just to impress their friends. Deaths happen when people hit the water, gasp for air, and swallow water. They get knocked out and they drown.鈥

Did 8Booth swim the water beneath the dock before his 129-foot jump? It鈥檚 not clear. But if he didn鈥檛, he could have been diving on top of sunken trash, old pier pylons, or onto any number of potentially deadly hazards.听

Even if you鈥檝e jumped there before or if other people report that聽it's fine, swim the water immediately聽before a jump. Logs and other debris can float downstream and even pools can be irregular, with rocks and curved walls聽in unexpected places. Develop an ironclad guarantee that your entry is clear聽before risking聽a jump.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=dlFwJ1NBlLY

He Doesn鈥檛 Work Up to the Big Stunt

鈥淥n his huge jump at the harbor, you can see he lands flat on his butt and back,鈥 says Edwards. 鈥淗e realized mid-jump that he was barely going to clear that dock, so he panicked and leaned back. Thankfully he did that or he would have died.鈥

Experienced聽cliff jumpers work up to bigger and bigger jumps to聽develop an understanding of how far they聽need to jump at which heights and at what point you'll enter the water. Humans聽fall with some very semblance聽control, so you must develop a progressive understanding of a jump and its entry.听

鈥淭he lesson is: if you jump stuff before testing depth and clearance, you鈥檙e gonna die,鈥 says Edwards. 鈥淚f you want to be a YouTube sensation, make sure you don鈥檛 break your legs in the process.鈥

He's聽Ruining聽the Sport for Others

Practice safe cliff jumping and you won't give others an excuse to stop us from doing it. 鈥淸8Booth]聽sets a bad example for younger audiences. Now some 14-year-old is going to try to impress his friends, he鈥檚 going to jump something huge, and he鈥檚 going to die. All because this guy wants more YouTube views.鈥澛

Executed with skill, cliff jumping can be an exciting, and safe sport. Edwards, and friends are working hard to change cliff jumping's image.
Executed with skill, cliff jumping can be an exciting, and safe sport. Edwards, and friends are working hard to change cliff jumping's image. (Zak Liptak)

Edwards and his friends have worked hard to legitimize the sport of cliff jumping. Not only do they advocate for safe practices, they also try to positively聽affect聽the locations they鈥檙e jumping from, cleaning out trash and painting over graffiti. That may seem to jar with the pursuit鈥檚 rebel image, but it's vital that any sport benefits the natural places it relies on. Slowly, cliff jumping鈥檚 reputation is improving. But it still only takes one idiot to destroy it.

Don鈥檛 be that idiot.听

鈥淚f you want to become a cliff jumper, start off on something small and legal,鈥 says Edwards. 鈥淎lways check the depth so you don鈥檛 float up dead. Also, try to jump things where you don鈥檛 have to clear an obstacle [like a dock or a boulder] before landing in the water. Find a popular spot, ask locals where to jump, and watch other people do it. And definitely don鈥檛 jump just to impress someone. Do it for the love of jumping.鈥

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