Here are the dangers of jumping from a moving boat into the water. (Photo: Getty)
Updated July 11: This article was originally published July 6.
If you’re on a moving boat, don’t jump into the water. Just don’t do it, no matter what people on TikTok might tell you. Videos posted to social media using the hashtag #boatjumping have apparently motivated people to jump from boats that are in motion.
It’s not clear how many people may have already suffered injuries while attempting such #boatjumps. WVTM TV the NBC branch in Birmingham, Alabama, had originally reported that this trend had resulted in the deaths of four people in Central Alabama over the past four months. Douglas had quoted Captain Jim Dennis of the Childersburg Rescue Squad as saying, “The four we responded to when they jumped out of the boat literally broke their necks and, you know, basically instant death.” But on July 10, Taylor Lang returned WVTM TV dat: “There are no recorded deaths in the state that could be directly related to the TikTok boat jumping trend.” But just because there haven’t been any official deaths from #boatjumping yet doesn’t mean you should launch yourself off a moving craft.
If you search TikTok and other social media for #boatjumping and other combinations of “boat” and “jump”, you will find several videos of people making a boat face and jumping from various watercraft into the water. In some cases, the boat is stationary and the water appears relatively still. However, in other cases the boat moves, sometimes at quite high speeds as can be seen in a video posted by @dayyachtcharters And another one posted by @nataliejillfit on TikTok:
Someone responded to that last post with “That’s so dangerous, not cool.” To that, another TikToker replied, “It’s not really an av drive, so the prop is under the boot,” which missed the boat a bit at this point. The prop – presumably short for propeller – isn’t the only thing to worry about when jumping off a moving boat. That substantiated response to the first comment prompted the following response from @desireehinkson: “It’s dangerous. I live in Alabama and four people have died here in the past six months. They broke their necks and died instantly or drowned.” Y
Yes, even if that neck-breaking thing in Alabama turns out to be untrue, it could happen, and your neck is kinda important. It’s what connects the rest of your body to your head, you know that thing that decides if you’re on a social media challenge. If you break your neck, there may be no neck time, so to speak. Damage to any of the seven bones that make up the cervical vertebrae of your neck can have consequences at the neck level. Your spinal cord runs through the center of these bony vertebrae. Damage to your cervical vertebrae can, in turn, damage your spinal cord, which essentially serves as the central nervous system’s connection between your brain and the rest of the body. Such damage can lead to paralysis of subsequent death or even death, which can be instantaneous.
When jumping off a moving object – be it a car, a boat, or a running Jason Mamoa – you may not be able to determine what position you are in when you land. In addition, the water itself can start to move, unless you are sailing in a septic tank – which is generally not a good idea. In general, jumping from something that moves to something that moves makes landing all the more difficult.
Plus, when people are on boats, surprise, surprise, they might be drinking alcohol. Yes, people can drink alcohol when they ride on almost anything, be it a boat, a float, or a yak. And here’s a shocker, when you drink alcohol your judgment is impaired a bit. That’s why it often doesn’t end well when you combine the words “drunk,” “marriage,” “Las Vegas,” and “elephant.” If your judgment is compromised, your chances of doing something stupid can be much higher. So the chances of a perfect jump from a moving boat into moving water can quickly decrease with each sip.
There may be a tendency to think differently about the water than about the ground. That can push people to do more silly things like drive a boat while drunk. And jump off a moving boat. But the water isn’t exactly a pile of feathers, a barrel of warm Brie, or anything else you could easily jump into. Water can hit you surprisingly hard.
Just because someone does something seemingly successful on TikTok, YouTube, or any other social media platform doesn’t mean you should try it. That could be a bit like saying, “Kanye West did it. Why shouldn’t I?” Plus, nowadays with video editing you can’t even tell if something is real or fake, you might be imitating something that other people aren’t really doing.
So, here’s a stern warning: If you jump off a moving boat, your ship could be out of luck, so to speak. That’s because the boat can move at literally breakneck speeds.