FALLING FOR A THRILL

DOVER — Matt Short embraces living on the edge. Three years ago that edge became even more pronounced when a friend showed him a cliff-jumping video.

Short was immediately hooked.

“I’ve always been an extreme, adrenaline junkie kind of person,” said Short, 30, a 2006 graduate of Dover High School. “I grew up snowboarding, riding dirt bikes, racing motocross, wakeboarding. I’ve always been into that kind of stuff.”

The video Short saw had 20 million viewers. It blew up on the internet. “I saw that and: 'Oooh, that looks fun. Now I jump with all those guys.'”

Short, a heavy equipment operator, started doing his own jumps, making his own videos and putting them on the internet.

At first, he kept his jumps local in the northern New England area, typically quarries. The Sagamore Bridge in Portsmouth was one of his first jumping spots; although, he said, “I don’t think (officials) like it anymore.”

Short has since been invited to join an East Coast jumping club, Cliff Life, which travels to jumps as a group. They camp out together and shoot video of each others' jumps.

They also do extensive traveling around the United States. Short has been to a number of places, including Lake Tahoe, Alabama and Tennessee to jump. Their next trip is to New York State.

One of the Cliff Life’s favorite jump is a 112-footer at a quarry in Central Vermont.

“One of the big things is we don’t tell the locations of where we go,” Short said. “People trash the places. They also aren’t up to our skill level. They see us doing it and they think they can do the same thing.”

The group is also conservation conscious. Some of them run a project called Clean the Cliffs.

“We’re big about no graffiti on the cliffs,” Short said. “We always take out more than we take in. We’re also very safely oriented.”

The group always does depth checks before jumping, sending people down with goggles and flippers to make sure it’s deep enough for landings and to clear away any debris.

On the bigger jumps, where there is a potential for injury, there are safety swimmers in the water in case someone needs to be pulled out for any reason.

Cliff jumping is a year-round sport, at least for Short. “We wear wet suits and go right through the winter. It’s cold," he said. "But it keeps you fresh jumping the whole season. Then you’re not going into the summer cold.”

The group jumped once a month this past winter.

It’s a close fraternity of people from different walks of life. While jumping is edgy, there is no pressure to do jumps out of one’s comfort zone.

“We’re not big on pushing someone to do this kind of thing,” Short said. “It’s at your own pace. If we do push someone, we know they can do it.”

Short, when he’s learning new tricks, does not go for broke and jump from the highest point. “I take it 10 feet at a time," he said. "I get really comfortable with it at a low height and then just bring it up 10 feet at a time until I can really get up to a certain height with it.”

Cliff Life recently returned from a trip to Alabama and Tennessee, spending most of its time at Blue Cove Quarry in Tennessee. The group had about eight different waterfalls planned out for the trip, ranging in height from 80 to 100 feet. “We go hit the waterfalls and spend the whole day there,” Short said. “We come back and hang out and tell stories by the fire all night.”

The best cliffs to jump are those that are sheer with straight faces and deep landing zones. “It doesn’t always work out like that,” Short said. “Sometimes you have to do a gap or land in a tight landing zone. I like to stay away from that, personally.”

At 6 feet, 5 inches and 200 pounds, Short is taller than the average cliff jumper, who is normally under six feet in height.

“Their bodies are meant for flipping and mine isn’t,” he said. “It’s a little tougher for me to learn these new tricks.”

Short said when you land in the water you want to make sure your feet are together, your arms are at your side and your head is pointed upward.

“You have to train yourself to look up so you don’t get whiplash,” he said. “A lot of first-time jumpers make the mistake of looking down. It hurts a lot. I’ve done it before from 85 feet. It feels like being hit by a freight train.”

Since it’s more of a challenge to make his body flip and twist, Short has to pay extra attention to spotting his landing. “I bend and arch my body and my eyes come around and spot the water. As soon as your eyes see the water that’s when you know you’re OK because your body takes over.”

The first half of the flip is essentially being done blind. “It’s timing,” Short said, "knowing the heights, how fast to spin and how much time you have. Air awareness is big.”

Practicing on a trampoline helps with heightening one’s air awareness.

Short recently did the 112-foot cliff off the Vermont quarry, which he said is considered the “Holy Grail” of cliff jumping. Two years of journeying to the quarry went into finally making the jump.

“Every time I went to that spot, it looked a little more comfortable,” Short said. “Until I told myself I need to do it.”

He worked his way up to that height. First he did 72 feet and then 85 feet.

“I prefer to get a couple of practice jumps in before I do it,” Short said. “If there’s something inside doubting yourself, then probably don’t do it. You’re not feeling it that day.”

One person did it the day before and Short wanted to do it that day. But something was telling him not then.

“So I waited until the next day," he said. "I had to mentally prepare myself.”

He says the age range of cliff jumpers is 17 to 36, both men and women. “There are some pretty crazy girls who come out and throw triple flips and stuff, who are a lot better than me,” Short said.

Short doesn’t think in terms of how much longer he can or will do this. “It’s just something I’m enjoying while I can," he said. "I don’t know if there’s a timeline. I’m just enjoying it while it’s happening.”

One jump at a time.

To check out Short’s jump videos on Instagram, go to @flyhigh_or_die603.