Tombstoning

Tombstoning is the act of jumping in a straight vertical posture into the sea or other body of water from a high jumping platform, such as a cliff. This posture of the body, resembling a tombstone, gives the activity its name. A safety advisory from the Government of the United Kingdom records that tombstoning has been taking place for "generations"; however, it is under increasing media and public scrutiny due to wider coverage of the risks involved.

Due to the hazards involved, both from the risk of hitting water from great height and that posed by unforeseen underwater hazards such as rocks and shallow water, tombstoning has become a controversial activity. The practice has received increasing media attention in the United Kingdom, with the Daily Mail recording twenty fatalities and sixty injuries between 2006 and 2012. The UK Coastguard recorded 139 injuries, with twenty deaths, between 2004 and 2013, including children aged 12 or older. Two males aged 17 and 20 were left paralysed. In 2013 and 2014 the BBC recorded further fatalities in Cumbria, and several injuries in Dorset. In May 2014 the Maritime and Coastguard Agency released a safety document regarding tombstoning in conjunction with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.

The increasing number of injuries and deaths attributing to tombstoning have increased calls for responses from local authorities and emergency services. At Plymouth Hoe, in Plymouth, Devon, where tombstoning is popular, a number of serious injuries and deaths, has led to the dismantling of seafront diving boards and closure of parts of the waterfront to discourage the activity. Similar practices are employed at Holcombe, Somerset, Herne Bay Pier in Kent, and in areas of Southampton's Redbridge causeway, all popular tombstoning locations.

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