by Kerry Maxwell, author of Brave New Words, with recordings by speechinaction
| the extreme sport of jumping or diving into water from a very high place such as a harbour wall or cliff face | |
| tombstone verb [I]
|
|
| tombstoner noun [C] |
‘Police and coastguards are becoming increasingly worried about the craze of tombstoning, where people leap into the sea from a height. Thrillseekers are jumping into the water from rocks, cliff faces, piers and harbour walls …’
Sky News, 3rd August 2007
‘Holidaymakers saved a man who became unconscious after tombstoning from a rock 20 metres into the sea …’
BBC News 12th August 2007
‘Coastguard condemns Anglesey ‘tombstoners’… Daredevil ‘tombstoners’ who have been jumping 75ft into the sea on Ynys Mon, have been condemned by a coastguard watchman.’
North Wales Chronicle 6th June 2008
There's a new extreme sport hitting the UK media this summer that even the most hardened adrenaline junkies may want to approach with caution - the craze of tombstoning.
Tombstoning involves jumping into a natural stretch of water from an extremely high place, typically a cliff face, harbour wall, high bridge or seaside pier. It has become an increasingly popular craze during the last two years or so, and evidence suggests that participants, coined tombstoners, fall into all age categories, not just adrenaline-fuelled youngsters.
However, safety campaigners have warned that tombstoning is extremely hazardous, potentially causing serious neck or spinal injuries, and even death. There are inherent risks when jumping into water - such as not knowing the depth, or whether there are any rocks or obstructions underneath, or simply being too confident about your own capabilities in open water.
Though tombstoning started out as a playful nickname for the craze, it has a sombre appropriateness, since several people in the UK have died doing it. (A tombstone is, of course, a large stone which is put over the place where a person is buried.) Despite distressing media accounts of tombstoning accidents and warnings from the UK Environment Agency, the craze seems to be happening all over the country, from Cornish cliff faces through to Cambridgeshire bridges. This has led some local authorities to impose a £50 fine on anyone caught in the act.Background
The practice of tombstoning seems to have originated in the UK's West Country, and the expression is still largely confined to British English. Its origins may possibly relate back to 1995 newspaper reports of people jumping off Tombstone Rock near Wembury, a village on the south coast of Devon.
The expression tombstoning sometimes also refers to the practice of using the names of dead people for committing financial fraud and identity theft, which was brought to public attention in Frederick Forsyth's bestselling thriller The Day of the Jackal, and the subsequent movie.
For those of us seeking thrills in natural water without the risks of tombstoning, the newly-coined practice of wild swimming might be more appropriate. Wild swimming (with related verb/noun wild swim and noun wild swimmer) refers to the activity of swimming in the countryside in safe but natural (i.e. ‘wild’) lakes, ponds and rivers.
Further reading
Quick rescue prevents ‘tombstoning’ tragedy
thisishampshire.net 16th August 2007
Group teaches ‘safe’ sea jumping
BBC News 20th August 2007
| Search the Web | Google hits on 20th August 2007 |
| tombstoning | 101,000 |
| tombstoner | 9,310 |
| wild swimming | 1,810 |
| wild swim | 1,800 |
| wild swimmer | 244 |
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This article was first published on 20th August 2007.
Subject archive: leisure