SoCal cliff-diving spot is a social media star, and perilous
SAN DIEGO — As dusk approached San Diego’s seaside enclave of Ocean Beach, its Sunset Cliffs bustled on a recent Friday evening.
Two engaged couples posed for wedding photos in between joggers, dog walkers and sightseers who clamored around Osprey Street to enjoy the day’s majestic sunset.
It was a deceptively idyllic setting for what authorities say is continued lawbreaking and peril, which authorities just can’t seem to quash.
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The lawbreakers were gathered this day on a cliff and a nearby arch, a crowd of around 50 young people — 14- to 20-year-olds, mostly males. Buoyed by a youthful sense of invincibility, they dared one another to leap, waiting for another to move, like emperor penguin chicks before a first arctic plunge.
After a few minutes, there was a dive off the arch, followed by a cannonball from the next person, a backflip from a third and then other more spectacular and daring stunts from the flock.
The cliff divers, drawn to the thrills of the illicit jumps amplified by social media, reveled in dozens of leaps.
No one was injured that day, but that hasn’t always been the case.
People jump into the water at Sunset Cliffs. San Diego officials urge visitors to avoid jumping, but that doesn’t stop tourists and thrill-seekers.
At least three individuals were rescued after suffering injuries this summer at Sunset Cliffs, leading police to ramp up enforcement as locals debate the need for safety versus the merits of youthful rites of passage.
California dreaming
Back home in Iowa, Marcus English said he’d probably be hosting bonfires or hitting up local pools in mid- to late August. Instead, the 17-year-old was at the cliffs enjoying his last few days off before beginning his senior year of high school.
“There are some places to jump, some lakes in Iowa,” he said, “but nothing like this.”
English wangled a stop during a weeklong family trip to California that included national park visits to stop by Sunset Cliffs, which he saw on social media.
The vistas and cool breezes represented quintessential California to the Midwesterner, equal parts “what I saw on Instagram and a movie.”
English spread out his arms, squatted and then leaped before taking a roughly 15-foot plunge from the arch into the shallow waters. He jumped multiple times on consecutive days.
“It’s just so freeing,” he said of his leaps. “There’s nothing like it.”
‘Hopefully I can walk again’
Jumping happens at several places throughout the cliffs.
The most common launch point is from the arch, with drops ranging from 15 to 20 feet depending on the water level, said a San Diego Police Department spokesperson.
The more exotic and dangerous plunges happen from the adjacent cliffs, with youngsters jumping from 20 to 40 feet, and some as much as 50 feet.
What makes the latter leap more treacherous is a rock ledge that juts out about 10 to 15 feet from the cliffs. Jumpers have little room to run and gain momentum (unlike at the arch) and must clear that formation before hitting the water.
This summer’s safety debate reached a fever pitch in late July. A 17-year-old jumper, according to social media footage, struck the ledge with his backside and crashed into the water.
The incident was covered extensively by San Diego media and resulted in increased policing near the bluffs.
For his part, the unnamed 17-year-old said in a since-deleted social media post that he suffered six fractured vertebrae and a badly bruised tailbone and needed nine stitches in his foot. The Times could not independently reach him.
Spectators watch people jump into the water from the arch at Sunset Cliffs.
“For everyone who wants to tell me I’m an idiot for doing that, trust me, I’m aware,” he said. “Hopefully I can walk again, but I’m just trying to take it slow.”
Sunset Cliffs have attracted visitors and tragedies
Injuries and deaths from jumping at the cliffs date to the 19th century, San Diego Reader noted earlier this year.
A schoolboy named Waldham slipped off the cliffs after a scrum with friends and broke his arm in 1881. One of the earliest deaths came in 1926, when a 3-year-old wandered from his home on Narragansett Avenue and fell to his demise.
Police and lifeguards were unsure as to the most recent jumping fatality, with one official pointing to the 2019 death of 15-year-old Anthony Womack, a National City resident.
The Sweetwater High School sophomore was reported to have jumped from nearby Pappy’s Point after skipping school with friends.
Brook Hjelm, the mother of 23-year-old Brian Wilson, who died swimming at Sunset Cliffs in 2015, told the local CBS station she would like to see photos of those who had died posted along with danger signs in the area. “Put signs up of our young men and women that we lost,” Hjelm said. “Let them see the face of something that associates them with what truly is at stake.”
Tracking the action
Attention surrounding Sunset Cliffs injuries ebbs and flows much like the current, according to Frank Gormlie, a longtime San Diego County resident who tracked incidents more than a decade ago.
Gormlie, the founder and editor of Ocean Beach’s online newspaper, OB Rag, scoured media archives and spoke with residents.
He published a list in his October 2015 article “Death and Distress at Sunset Cliffs – 2005 to 2015,” which he described as “incomplete” because of unreported incidents.
“It had gotten so bad that I wanted to chronicle what was going on,” Gormlie said.
His research documented 11 deaths and dozens of injuries during that time span. Those statistics came from jumps, along with vehicular, climbing and health incidents.
Some incidents had little to do with jumping, such a surfer smashing into the rocks. But a 43-year-old woman slipped and fell to her death in 2015, while two jumpers needed crane-assisted rescues after suffering serious injuries, according to Gormlie.
The Sunset Cliffs siren’s song
“People have been visiting the Sunset Cliffs for years because it has a beauty that shocks,” Gormlie said. “But I think social media has found its way to the next generation of adventure seekers who don’t know about the dangers.”
The Sunset Cliffs area is Instagram-ready, and social media has drawn some visitors looking to brave the leap.
Gormlie said swimming and diving are local rites of passage. He noted that Ocean Beach residents commonly “shoot the OB pier” — surfing under that the town’s pier — a risky stunt that Gormlie did as an 18-year-old before shipping off for college.
Gormlie jumped from the cliffs in 2014, shortly after turning 65.
He wrote about his experience through an anonymous post, saying he “did it for all those guys and women my age who drive by every day and secretly wish they could jump off too.”
“It’s irresistible,” he said of jumping.
Police and lifeguard efforts
The teen’s accident in July was one of three incidents and subsequent rescues over a 15-day period, according to the San Diego Union Tribune.
All rescues involved San Diego Fire-Rescue Department lifeguards and personnel. The department shares jurisdiction of Sunset Cliffs with the San Diego Police Department and rangers with the city Department of Parks and Recreation, said Candace Hadley, Fire-Rescue public information officer.
Hadley wanted to remind potential jumpers that the act of leaping from the cliffs violates a San Diego municipal code and could result in fines of $100 or more. Frequent fliers could be smacked with $1,000 fines.
“Cliff jumping isn’t just illegal in San Diego, it’s extremely dangerous,” Hadley said. “One misstep could lead to a life-altering injury or worse.”
Her office tends to offer education on the dangers of jumping, she said, while San Diego police dealout penalties.
The problem of jumpers at Sunset Cliffs has been part of achallenging summer for the lifeguards, who have made 5,480 rescues across the 17 miles of San Diego coastline they patrol from June 1 to Sept. 1. Extreme heat has driven more people to the beach, and high surf fueled by Pacific tropical storms has added to the dangers.
The rescues have mostly been of swimmers not properly judging the strong currents. In a normal year, Hadley said, the lifeguards make about 7,500 to 8,000 rescues.
Sgt. Saum Poorsaleh, San Diego police public information officer, said his department had issued more than 50 citations at Sunset Cliffs and dispensed about 350 warnings, written and oral, since mid-June.
But he said the department is short-handed, and increasing enforcement permanently is not feasible.
“There are warning signs all over the cliffs noting the dangers, but people still jump,” Poorsaleh said. “Mix in social media — which is drawing in tourists from all over the country — and a young person’s feeling of invincibility and there’s a chance for trouble.”
Visitors have been jumping at the Ocean Beach location for decades. One local said he jumped after turning 65, calling it “irresistible.”
San Diego City Councilmember Jennifer Campbell, who represents Ocean Beach, recently issued a statement reminding visitors “to prioritize safety and not jump from the cliffs.”
“The cliffs can be unpredictable,” she said, “and changing tides, strong currents, rough surf, and hidden rocks can quickly create life-threatening conditions.”
A longtime local tradition
Lyne Miller has lived all her life in Ocean Beach, where saltwater runs in locals’ veins and it’s not uncommon to see residents toting surfboard as they ride a bike or golf cart to the beach.
From a young age, Miller, 80, said she promised her mom that she “would never jump.”
Miller says the number of teens arriving at the beach, likely driven by social media, “is more than ever.”
But she acknowledged that locals had been jumping at Sunset Cliffs since at least the 1950s in surf-centric Ocean Beach.
“This is a playground for those who love the water, who love the ocean,” she said. “I hope if there’s a crackdown on jumping, it’s not harsh.
“I don’t necessarily feel negative about the jumpers,” she added. “I just wish they would be smarter and jump from safer spots at better times.”
