Coasteering – a hybrid of rock climbing and cliff jumping – is not for the faint-hearted, writes FIONOLA MEREDITH
WHEN I FIRST heard about coasteering, I imagined it would be a slightly more demanding version of rock-pooling: clambering around inlets and coves, exploring parts of the shore you never normally get to see.
Clinging on to a series of narrow rocky ledges, my fingertips bloodied by sharp barnacle shells, and a choppy grey sea roiling far below me, I had to face the reality. Coasteering is actually an extreme adventure activity, involving strenuous climbing, sea swimming and cliff-jumping.
You need the heart of a lion – though the springy legs of a gazelle wouldn’t go amiss either – when you’re scrambling up a near-vertical rock face. I quickly learned never to look down.
“Coasteering is basically a hybrid of rock-climbing, cliff-jumping and bouldering, with a bit of mountaineering thrown in,” said Eddie Hawkins, manager of Clear Sky Adventure Centre, at Castleward in Co Down, which offers coasteering trips around the remote rocky foreshores of Ballyhornan, at the mouth of Strangford Lough.
The cliff-jumping bears a certain outward resemblance to “tomb-stoning”, the potentially lethal craze for leaping off rocks or cliffs into the sea, with little knowledge of depth or currents.
But coasteering instructors say there’s a world of difference between the two. While tomb-stoning is impromptu and unregulated – a case of people just turning up and jumping – coasteering is a professionally organised activity, with location-specific risk assessments, safety equipment and insurance.
Given that it’s such a shamelessly macho activity – there’s much whooping and good-humoured joshing – it’s
not surprising that stag parties form a sizeable part of Clear Sky’s customer base.
Sure enough, on Saturday afternoon, a group of 11 men on a stag weekend were there, getting kitted out with wetsuits, buoyancy aids and safety helmets.
Maybe it was just the after-effects of the night before, but some of them looked distinctly queasy at the prospect of leaping off sea cliffs.
But it’s not a male-only pursuit. Local woman Grainne McGinley and her partner Paul Connell had signed up for the session as part of a series of challenges they had set themselves for the summer.
“We’re not going on holiday this year, so we decided to turn the summer into a real ‘staycation’,” said McGinley. “We’ve been learning to surf in Portrush, in Co Antrim, we’ve gone kayaking, and now we’re going to try coasteering.” Any last minute nerves? “Well, it is a little bit frightening. And I do suffer from vertigo.”
This was an adrenalin-packed trip from the very start. A 300- horsepower RIB taxied us from Castleward to Ballyhornan. It was smooth enough as we skimmed down Strangford Lough, but once we hit the Irish Sea, the waves grew large, and we flew over the crest of each swell, crashing heavily down the other side. A curious gannet kept pace with us as we roared into a small, steep-sided cove.
After a short climb up the cliffs, we walked single file across a narrow promontory, a sheer drop on either side. The descent, scrambling over sharp and slippery black rocks, was precarious. At the bottom was our first jumping-off spot: a 1.5m rock above a deep inlet, the waves slapping and crashing at its base.
“The jumps start small, but you can work your way up to 15m or 18m jumps if you want,” said guide James McKay. This was small? It looked pretty high to me.
“It’s entirely at your own discretion. We call it challenge by choice – that’s the best way to jump each one. There’s no pressure, no pointing and laughing.” Going by the jeers and boos coming from the next cove along, the stag party had clearly dispensed with James’s rules.
After one tentative plunge, I quickly decided that leaping off rocks into rough water of unknown depth was not for me. But the others had clearly got a taste for the thrill of it all. Vertigo forgotten, Grainne McGinley jumped a spectacular 10m into the dark blue waters of a hidden cove. “I feel okay as long as I hold my nose,” she said.
Exhilaration aside, the top priority for coasteering guides and leaders is to keep people safe. The biggest challenge for them is the careless, gung-ho participant who fails to appreciate the risks – a person known in the trade as “unconsciously incompetent”.
Best of all, says Eddie Hawkins, are the “unconsciously competents” – people who start off fearful and wary, lacking belief in their own abilities, but who overcome that, and dare to take the plunge: “For us, that’s the best feeling in the world.”
