A 17-year-old who leapt from San Diego’s iconic Sunset Cliffs in a stunt that later spread online is now speaking out about the painful aftermath of the dangerous jump.
The teenager, who has not been publicly named, told Fox 5 that he is currently unable to walk on his own and must rely on a walker after crashing into rocks during the frightening incident.
“I slammed against the rock and I felt like paralyzed, and I couldn’t move,” he recalled.
“My lungs were burning, my ribs were burning, my spine, it was the weirdest feeling it was just burning,” he added, describing the immediate shock and pain after impact.
Doctors found that the teen had sustained six compression fractures in his vertebrae and needed nine stitches in his foot, though he said he was able to avoid surgery.
Despite the severity of his injuries, the teen said he understands how much worse the Sunset Cliffs jump could have been.
“If I slipped a little bit more and I landed straight on that slab and not in the water, I would probably be paralyzed if not dead,” he said.
Video of the incident, filmed from two separate angles, shows the 17-year-old sprinting toward the edge before launching himself from the ledge at Sunset Cliffs, a popular San Diego landmark that authorities have long associated with illegal cliff diving.
One video appears to show he hadn’t fully committed to the jump before takeoff, with his feet continuing a running motion after becoming airborne. The sloping sand beneath his feet may also have caught him off guard at takeoff.
Instead of a smooth dive, he slams onto the edge of the rocks before bouncing into the water. Authorities said he was eventually rescued from the water and taken to a hospital.
Cliff-jumping is illegal under city municipal code, which prohibits jumping or diving into the Pacific Ocean or Mission Bay from any natural or human-made point connected to land that is more than five feet above the water.
“We want locals and visitors to enjoy San Diego’s coastline safely. Please stay back from cliff edges, follow all posted warnings and never jump from cliffs or other elevated areas into the water,” San Diego Fire-Rescue Public Information Officer Candace Hadley said.
Still, the incident hasn’t seemed to deter other daredevil teens.
Fox 5 visited the cliffs days later after the viral jump and found teens still doing cliff diving.
The teens said they were “aura farming,” a social media term used to describe doing something risky or impressive for clout.
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