Something I’ve always wanted to do, but had never gotten up the nerve for, is to jump off a cliff. Unlike most of the rest of the things I write about here, this isn’t something I necessarily recommend for everyone. But for me, it was a perfect end to a year of doing the things.

The cliff at South Point in the big island of Hawaii, the southernmost point in the United States, is marked with a ton of signs that say not to do exactly what I did. But, as you can find on youtube, dozens of people do it every day. It’s a gorgeous spot, and there is something poetic about jumping off the tip of the country. There is a ladder there, used for launching fishing boats, so it just begs people to jump.

I took one look at that ladder and realized it was going to be a struggle.

The ladder is wobbly, and more importantly, it doesn’t go all the way into the water – the bottom step is just barely underwater at the height of the waves. Getting onto the ladder would be very hard and getting up it would not be easy either. So before I jumped, I’d need to find another way to be safe.

I eventually walked what was about 300m down the shore, and found a spot that I was confident I would be able to swim in.

I knew that swim was well within my personal abilities, so I knew I wasn’t going to end up stuck in the ocean, but I was at least going to try to get up the ladder.

So, there it was – my excuse for not jumping was gone. Cliff had already jumped on our first visit to South Point, and I had spent the last two days wishing I had done the same, so here we go.  I had watched other people walk up and psych themselves out several times. One woman swore she was going to do it at least 20 times. I shot video of each attempt until I get tired of waiting. She eventually left without doing it.  I was determined not to be that woman.

Once I decided to go, I was going to go. I did have one false start, as I stepped up to the edge and realized I needed to catch my breath. I stepped back, took a few seconds, and…

I still can’t believe I actually jumped. Cliff still can’t believe I actually jumped. And watching the video, I cringe each time. But I did it. And it felt so awesome. Sure, the impact hurt a bit, and I had a bruise from that landing that took about a week to fade. But I did it.

And oh my god that feeling of jumping. I can’t even describe it. Even as I was turning and realizing the impact was going to sting, I couldn’t help but savor the weightlessness.  From the video it looks like I spent slightly over 2 seconds in freefall, but my mind tells me it was more like 15.

And for a few more seconds, I just bobbed in the water and savored the moment. But then, time to get out of the water.

But then it was time to face the ladder. As several strangers watched, I swam over to the ladder, grabbed ahold of it, and proceeded to try to figure out how to tackle it. I got my feet on the bottom rung, my hands slightly above, and attempted to pull myself onto the ladder, to no avail. I was never able to get solid footing on the ladder with my weight above my feet. So I knew I was going to have to face the swim down the coast. Fortunately, one of the onlookers mentioned that there was a spot much closer that I would be able to climb onto the rocks from. So that long swim turned into a much shorter swim and a little rock scramble back up.

I totally want to do it again, but next time I want to be able to get on that ladder.