Coasteering Vs Tombstoning: Making Our Coastline Safer

Despite much negative publicity surrounding Coasteering, and its close cousin, Tombstoning, there lies hidden behind the sea haze a truly amazing adventure activity. Despite the obvious dangers to naive groups of youngsters - throwing themselves from the cliff’s edge into often the untested and unknown shallows of a coastal shore - dedicated adventure activity providers such as Essential Adventure, offer a safe & controlled environment in which to experience the same adrenaline rush.

Tombstoning Vs Coasteering

Tombstoning is a youth craze, which has swept across the South Devon coastline in recent months and years. Many have either been maimed or critically injured when jumping from lofty cliff top positions, into unknown shallow water below.

One forum commentator makes the point that, “On mainland England there have been numerous attempts to stop youngsters jumping into the sea from the cliffs as it is so dangerous. There have been deaths and serious injuries”.

Examples include a 19 year old lad, who died from whilst Coasteering into a flooded quarry in Midsummer Norton and a 17 year old boy killed

Coasteering on the other hand, provides a safe haven to all those seeking a similar adrenaline rush. When controlled by vastly experienced instructors, with decades of combined experience, you can safely navigate the coastal planes - rock scrambling and swimming. The thrill however is arguably in the exhilarating cliff jumps, which is where Coasteering attracts criticism, although Coasteering jumps take place in deep, tested waters, with instructors leading the event.

However, Coasteering is itself laced with controversy, mainly as a result of negative journalism – and rightly so – towards the more dangerous ‘Tombstoning’ craze. A Coasteering ban was recently issued by a local authority in Cornwall, for insurance reasons, even though Coasteering providers insure themselves.

So, Should Coasteering be Banned?

Despite the obvious dangers associated with extreme sports and Tombstoning, the emphasis should surely be on creating safe environments for youngsters to engage in these activities. Banning is not prevention, and children will, if anything, be more determined to break the rules.

This argument is supported by Graham Cary, managing director of Essential Adventure, who states that, “The dangers of leaping from cliffs into untested shallow waters are clear, but this is far reaching from the strictly controlled arena within which we operate as a Coasteering provider”.

Mr Cary went on to say that, “Safety is at the heart of everything we do and all of our cliff jumps take place in spots which have been subject to strict company safety inspections, by highly qualified instructors”.

In Summary...

It's clear that Tombstoning, the dangerous uncontrolled cliff jumping craze, must be stopped to prevent future loss of life and injury. However the real danger is that you cannot beat it, so as the saying goes, ‘Join em’!

In this case, we need to support and promote Coasteering, especially so to the youth population, as an adrenaline fuelled adventure activity, but without the substantial danger to life and limb of the hugely dangerous Tomb Stoning.

To find out more about Coasteering safety, visit the Outdoor Pursuits website, where you’ll find some essential safety tips and information about how to get involved.

For the Associated Press & Editors

We invite you to attend a Coasteering taster session, to showcase the positive work we’re doing at Essential Adventure to reduce the risk to young people. Help us promote safe adventure activity. Email matt@essential-adventure.co.uk for full details on how to get involved.

Graham's Asian Cycle 2011: Part One, Not Your Average Bike Ride

Part One... "why don't we go away cycling for a bit?"

It was 4am in the morning, some time in August 2010, when the idea of going away on a bike tour was first discussed.

I have to admit that Simon and I had consumed at least two bottles of wine and while the malt whiskey was slipping down, I said something like 'why don't we go away cycling for a bit'.

Simon fetched a map of the world and after a few minutes, one of us pointed to somewhere north and east of Thailand. Vietnam might seem like a strange choice and indeed it did to us as well, but having almost randomly pointed drunkenly at Hanoi as a probable starting place and Ho Chi Min or Saigon as a finishing position and made something of an agreement about it, there could be no going back.

And that was pretty much all that was said about it for several weeks. I had seperately decided to go off to Thailand backpacking from the beginning of November and in about the middle of that month, I emailed Simon to make sure he was still coming. Of course he was! The journey however starts not in Hanoi, but in the opposite direction, in Singapore.

That left me with something of a dileamour. For a start, I didn't have a bike. Not only did I not have a bike in Asia, but I didn't own one at all. In fact, I hadn't done any distance cycling for over twenty years. Mountain biking yes, but road biking, a total of about 50 miles! I decided that the most likely place to buy a decent touring bike in SE Asia, would be Singapore, so with four whole days to spare until my flight to Hanoi and after a relaxing new year in the andamans and Penang, I took the overnight train on my mission to get a bike.