Staff jumping off cliffs after academic year 2012/2013 ends

Following completion of the 2012/2013 academic year, a group of staff members decided to all jump off the cliff. Or rather, off multiple cliffs, while landing safely in the water while wearing a swimming vest.  Officially called ‘coasteering’, a day was being spent on the Pembrokeshire coast, swimming, traversing, climbing and jumping off the cliffs. These were some of the observations:

• A psychologist  can learn the ‘difference’ between ‘carbohydrate’ and ‘glucose’ during  a 2 hour car ride to Pembrokeshire
• A physiologist learned that not eating for a day combined with the adrenaline secreted before a jump makes you feel faint
• A biomechanist learned that projectile motion might describe falling objects, but that fear can still be present when plummeting down and is not part of the physics equation
• The instructor is good at showing why you should wear a helmet when doing a back flip (too) close to a cliff.
• A ten meter cliff jump is nothing if you’ve been in the army
• Small bodies get cold more easily in cold water
• Penguins do funny races to keep warm
• These funny races are not appreciated by local seals when performed by humans
• Another physiologist realised that thinking before jumping leads to not jumping at all
• Asking ‘Are we going to swim?’ to the instructor multiple times does not impress the instructor

To prevent being stung by a jelly fish, it is possible to swim with both arms out of the water (as this part of the body was not covered by the swim suit)

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