Before you ever jumped off a cliff, what kind of kid were you? Was there an early moment or connection with heights and / or water that hinted this was the direction your life would take?
Before I ever jumped off a cliff I stayed busy playing baseball. The sport kept me in great shape growing up. One Christmas my parents bought a trampoline and it became my favorite at home activity. I became obsessed with learning flips and pushing what I could do. The trampoline was really the gateway. It taught me body awareness and sparked a passion for movement that eventually led me to cliff jumping.
One doesn’t start with 100+ foot jumps out of the gate. Tell us about your journey of becoming the athlete you are today.
After getting really comfortable on my backyard trampoline, I wanted to take it to the next step. I didn’t have many local options but I did grow up near a port that includes a deep water channel bridge. The water was very dirty, but I didn’t care. The bridge was 25 feet and I decided to backflip off of it. After a successful backflip I was hooked. I wanted to push myself by going higher.
What was the learning curve like? What did those early years of trial, error, and progression actually look like?
The learning curve for cliff jumping can be steep IF you try to progress too quickly. I see quite a few jumpers try to jump high too soon or to try a bunch of new tricks, but that can lead to a flop. Once a jumper flops it can not only set someone back, it could completely take them out of the love for jumping. I took a slow progression approach to minimize flops.
Freestyle cliff jumping is such a unique combination of limitless creativity and precision. How did you discover that style, and what made it click for you?
What I love about freestyle cliff jumping is I can express myself in unique ways. In the air I have options to flip, spin, grab your feet, float it out, or all of the above! We as cliff jumpers have the opportunity to create our own style and be known for it. I personally love floating out a big layed out double backflip.
Adventure sports often seemingly celebrate adrenaline or thrill-chasing – but we know there’s more to it than that. Tell us about your relationship with risk and adrenaline in high consequence sports.
What I find most rewarding about cliff jumping is that it pushes me to explore beautiful swimming holes all around the world. It’s the single most motivating factor in getting me out of the house to see nature at its finest. It’s not about just chasing an adrenaline high, but more about combining my love for airtime with my love for nature.
How do you build trust with a place before you’re willing to jump? What are the subtle signs in nature that most people would never notice, but impact your decision-making?
The first step I take building trust with exploring a new zone to jump is depth checking. We have to make sure the water is deep enough for every jump. Generally with jumps over 50ft, we want the pool to be at least 12ft deep.
Have you ever had a moment where nature told you “not today”? What happened, and how do you know when to listen?
Every now and then, I approach a cliff and get a bad feeling. Many factors can play a role. The pool is barely deep, there’s a slight gap, the lighting is harsh or simply just too distracted. I will walk away no problem. I may briefly beat myself up for it, but remind myself if something doesn’t feel right it’s ok to walk away. The heart of the cliff jumping community will support any jumper willing to appropriately push their limits and will also support a decision to walk away and not force a jump.
Is there a place you’ve returned to over and over because you’ve built a relationship with it? What does it mean to know a spot so intimately?
Year after year I come back to the Yuba river. Between both of my hobbies of cliff jumping and whitewater kayaking, the Yuba provides. In the winter/spring I chase world class whitewater and in the summer I visit its cliffs into many emerald pools.
Whitewater kayaking and cliff jumping seem like completely different sports, but share many common threads. How does being a high level cliff jumper help shape your kayaking, and vice versa?
Cliff jumping has exercised and sharpened my fear management skills. Later in life when I entered the world of whitewater I realized I was using the same fear management skills. I already knew not to panic in stressful situations and to remain calm in the chaos. Because of this I was able to excel quickly with whitewater kayaking.
Your days often are entrenched with hiking, scrambling over wet rocks, entering rapids, swimming in swiftwater. How does the Loyak fit into a day that rarely stays on one type of terrain?
Many cliff jumping zones require long approaches with not very straight forward trails. The Loyak is perfect for those situations where I am hiking, rock hopping in and out of water and eventually jumping off cliffs. I don’t have to pack two pairs of shoes. It’s a shoe that does it all.
If you had to describe the ideal adventure shoe for someone constantly moving between trails, rivers, and cliff edges, what features matter most; and where does the Loyak earn its place?
The Loyak is the perfect adventure shoe that I trust to navigate to rivers, along the rivers and off cliffs into rivers. I see a lot of polished granite in the Sierra Nevada and it’s important to keep my grip along cliff edges. The low profile design is perfect for stomping backflips all sumer.
Loyak
Nick’s shoe of choice for cliff jumping, whitewater kayaking, and everything in between.