How far can you fall in water and survive?

Question

So, my friend and I recently watched a movie trailer about people commiting suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge.

We found that the distance between the bridge and the water is about 220ft.

He says that there is no way that anyone would be able to surive a fall into the water at such a height.

I say that its possible to survive such a fall if you perhaps entered the water properly and werent knocked unconscious.

Who is right? and why?

Answer 1

Well, it depends how you hit the water. Water, from that height, is like hitting concrete. If you hit feet first, the bones in your legs and feet will shatter. That isn't exactly good for swimming. The pain, along with the shock, would probally be enough to keep you from getting out of that water alive. If you hit any other way, it could snap your neck, arms, ribs, spine, ect. If someone was right there with a boat to haul you out after you hit, then it is possible, I suppose. The problem with that is that the water under the golden gate is turmultous. The current would probally drag a body under faster then a boat could get to them, if the boat could get there at all.

All in all, it is theoretically possible to survive it, with exactly the right conditions, but I highly highly doubt it.

Answer 2

if you point your toes and do a nice pencil dive you can survive. But people have done that off the Gateway bridge here in brisbane (biggest bridge of its type in the world, its 263feet high) and survived the impact only to drown after getting stuck so deep in the mud beneath.

The other idea is to break the surface of the water (like the water spray in highboard diving) with something. Some say if you chuck a tool or something first you can survive because of the splash breaking the surface and thus removing the concrete like properties of the unbroken surface.

Again though one guy chucked a TOOL BOX off the Gateway Bridge and would have survived however it was full of air and he hit it and it killed him.

Long way given the right conditions I recon.

Ive jumped off a few bridges of various heights up to 120feet and been ok. I did land on my back once of a 30 foot jump and it freakin hurt but no major injuries other than a very bruised back.

Answer 3

Your friend is right. There have been over 1,000 jumps off the bridge and only eight have survived.

It's very difficult to control your fall over that distance and speed.

Answer 4

I don't think that it is impossible to survive, because it happens. I don't think however, that you would be able to control how you went into the water from that distance. And whats the 'right' way anyways? If you go in feet first, you're gonna break your legs. Head first, you're gonna break your neck.

Answer 5

I'm not sure about water but the longest fall ever recorded was 33,300 ft by Vesna Vulovic after her dc9 exploded over Serbska Kamenice, Czechoslovakia and she survived so theoretically it is possible

Answer 6

You are.