By: Jonathan Woolsey
Splash! I felt my body hit the water with such force that my arms and feet stung like they had been stung by a bunch of bees. I came up out of the water, looked up, and saw the 28 foot cliff I had just jumped off.It had all started that day at Kaputas beach in Kas, Turkey. It was our second time at Kaputas beach in five days. The last time we had gone, there were huge waves, but this time the water was calm. We were all a little bummed out because the last time we had had such fun playing in the waves. We'd also jumped off a fifteen foot cliff. We went down the 200 or so stairs that led to the beach and looked around at the amazing scenery.
The beach was beautiful! Kaputas was at the bottom of a gorge with cliffs sloping down behind you and to your left and right. The water was crystal clear and there were practically no waves. For me the point of going to Turkey and it being warm enough to swim was to cliff jump. And since there were cliffs on either side of the beach I figured that we could find even higher cliffs than last time.
After we put on sunscreen and got a spot on the beach David, Daniel, Daddy, and I all swam out to the 15 foot cliff we had jumped off the first time we went to Kaputas beach. We jumped off that cliff but I was checking out a cliff about ten feet to the right of us that was about seven to eight feet taller. I pointed out the cliff to the other boys so we all jumped off our cliff one more time and then swam over to the other one. David, Daddy, and I climbed up. Daniel didn't because it was too sketchy for him. After some cuts and bruises we finally managed to climb up to the 23-foot cliff. It didn't look too tall from down below but when we got up there it seemed way higher. After standing there for a bit Daddy jumped off it to test it out. He came up shaking his head. "That was HIGH!" He said. David and I let out nervous whimpers from the cliff.
There was no turning back. I had to jump, plus, it was too risky climbing back down the cliff. "Here goes nothing!" I yelled, and jumped. It felt like I was in the air for five seconds but it was probably only one. I hit the water and surprisingly nothing hurt. I must have jumped just right. As I came up I screamed with joy! I had jumped off a 23-foot cliff!
David jumped and then Daddy jumped again. I climbed back up the cliff and another jumping spot caught my eye. About five feet above where we had just jumped off was another little platform. When I got to the top I decided to stand up there to see how high it was. I felt a little sick. "I think I'm gonna do it!" I said. Daniel moaned jealously from the 15-foot rock he and mama, who had just joined the party, were jumping.
"You're crazy!" Daddy yelled back.
"Ya, kinda, it must be my dopamine kicking in" I said.
I stood there for another minute or so having an argument in my head.
"It's not too high! You just jumped off one only five feet lower and you didn't get hurt. How bad could this be!"
"Oh but you do. See the beach there? Look at all those people. Probably 50 of them watching and waiting for you to jump off this cliff"
It was too late. I was already in the air. It felt like I was flying. I hit the water. A current of pain went through my body from the force, but I barely noticed. I had too much adrenalin. I was screaming under water I was so happy! That was one of the most fun things I had ever done! I came up sputtering and choking on water. "I-I did it! That was awesome! I am so doing it again!"
I swam over as fast as I could back to the rock. When I got to the top I was thinking about how horrible it would be for Daniel not to jump off. I convinced Daddy to let Daniel come up. Daniel climbed up with no problem and after about a minute of standing there he jumped off the 23-foot cliff and loved it! He jumped that about five more times and then decided he was going to do the 28-foot cliff. After literally five minutes of standing there probably having the same talk I had in my head, he jumped. He came up and had the same reaction I did. "That was awesome! I'm coming back up!"
After we had jumped it about seven or eight times each we were up on the cliff and saw a school of about 1,000 or so tiny silvery fish. They came right to where we were jumping and so I decided to jump into them. It was like jumping into an aquarium filled with tiny silver fish. (Well, that's exactly what it was.) They were so close together that when I hit the water I'm pretty sure I hit some of them. As I was swimming to the rock I asked if they were still there but they had all cleared out and not one of them could be seen. We jumped two or three more times and then decided to call it a day. There were no waves like last time but I think that might have beat the other day at Kaputas, which means it was my favorite day of the trip so far! I said goodbye to Kaputas forever. But then I thought that after I go to Italy when I'm older and get fat off of Spicy Salami Pizza, Gnocchi, and Ravioli, I can extend my trip and come to Kas, Turkey. I can try and lose some weight by cliff jumping at Kaputas Beach.
