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Seadog
05-29-2006, 07:28 PM
Oklahoma had a bad holiday. Ten killed on the roads and five on the lakes. A new record and not one I enjoy hearing about. One of my favorite spots is a rope swing and cliff jump at Skiatook. Some young guy tried a backflip from the rope and hit the rocks. With the ways of our legal system, I suspect that the rope swing will be gone in the near future.

beyondhelpin
05-29-2006, 08:11 PM
That sucks! We were at Skiatook this weekend. We were at the rope swing for a few hours Saturday. When did it happen?
That cliffs and the swings should be shut down. We were out there a couple of years ago as a group of about five boats we had tied up. A couple boats asked if they could tie up to us. They were a couple of pretty good guys. The boat tied up to me mentioned his buddy in the next boat was going to dive off the higher part of the cliffs (about 50'). I look up just in time to see him go off the cliff. When he comes back up to the surface you can see he has a pretty big cut on his head. He swims back to his buddys boat where we pulled him up on the boat.
He did not appear to be badly hurt. He told us what happened, he hit a large boulder or something. After watching for a few minutes it was becoming obvious he was in need of medical attention. He refused and I and his buddy tried to talk him into going. He still refused.
We were getting read to leave and pull the girls on the tube. As we are getting out the tube he must have decided it was probally a good time for him to leave. We watched him and his wife take off in their boat. He is driving and gets about 100 yards away and we see him fall backwards over his seat to the floor. We have the tube out with the girls so we get his buddys attention. His buddy in the other boat takes off over to check on his friend.
Nothing we can do so we go ahead and leave. We hear the ambulance about 5 minutes later. My wife calls her Mom who is a trauma nurse the next day to see if she knows anything about this guy. Come to find out this young Father is now a quadraplegic. Something about swelling of the brain and brain stem.
The water is only 12' to 14' deep there if I remember right. The cliffs are also unstable there. There are large boulder below the surface of the water from the unstable cliffs. I think they should cut both rope swings and fence off the areas.
How many are going to die there before they close the area to divers.

Seadog
05-30-2006, 07:55 AM
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says 30 year-old John Paul Davis died Sunday at Lake Skiatook northeast of Tulsa. Officials say Davis was swinging from a cliff on a rope when he attempted a backflip and struck his head twice on rocks. He was under water for about 10 minutes before his brother and brother-in-law pulled him out of the water. He was pronounced dead around 9:00 pm Sunday night. An official cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner's office. Davis was the second of two drowning deaths reported yesterday. Three others drowned Saturday in separate incidents
I have mixed feelings about the subject. I have often loved watching people make the jump and I have friends and nephews who have done it. We all take risks, whether getting out on the roads during holidays, or jumping from cliffs. There needs to be a reasonable way to make things a little safer without eliminating it. If you barricade the area, then it will be moved somewhere else. And I like climbing around the 'caves'.
My nephew is a professional climbing instructor and teaches the U.S. team in international competition. He tries his best to make his sport safe, but you are always hearing of accidents happening to climbers. I tried spelunking in Arizona as a young man. It was strictly amateur hour, and I almost fell to my death because of lack of equipment and knowledge. Not very bright maybe, but a year before I was letting people use me as target practice. The good thing was I was allowed to duck and shoot back. The best thing was I got out of there.

beyondhelpin
05-30-2006, 08:28 AM
I am also an adrilian (SP) junky. I have dove off of Pure Hell (100') and Big Daddy (90') at Tenkiller numerous times when Iwas younger. At 46 I wont go off anything over 50' or less anymore. Perferable quite a bit less! Used to skydive and enjoy being on the edge.
The difference at the cliffs at Skiatook is the depth of water (12' to 14') and big boulder under the water bringing the depth up to less in some spots. Most people do not seem to know the depth there. The water being 4.5' down this week makes it even shallower. People dont seem to know this info. At the very least there should be some very clear warnings and info posted there. Most parents would hard pressed to let their kids go off the cliffs with the info.
I have gone off the rope swing numerous times, but always feet first. Wont go off the cliffs due to depth and big boulder strawn through the area.