Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, AZ

On my way north to Flagstaff I stopped to visit central Arizona's escape from the summer heat, Oak Creek Canyon. Down along the creek it was impressive how much cooler it was. In the water it was really cool.

By far the worst part was the traffic, since there is just one road and everybody is trying to go to Slide Rock park or park along the road. I managed to park at the picnic area about a mile north of Slide Rock. From there we walked south along the creek until we reached a spot where you couldn't continue without getting in the water. We hung out at this natural pool for a while and I got a few small cliff jumps in.

 One of the small cliff jumps into a pretty shallow pool

Since we couldn't continue along the creek anymore we headed up to the road to make our way down to Slide Rock Park. The number of people at Slide Rock was overwhelming so we didn't stay. I did spot a huge cliff jump located under the bridge at Slide Rock, and a few guys were jumping.

Crowds at Slide Rock

More Slide Rock

Big Cliff Jumping under the bridge

-James

Lele Kawa

Lele Kawa at Squaw Lake, CA

I was surprised to learn form some guys at work that there was some cliff jumping near Yuma. Could this be real? An opportunity to do some lele kawa here in the desert.

It turned out to be true, and the cliffs are no joke. They loom about 35 feet over Senator wash. The only catch was unless you have a boat, you need to hike about a mile to get there. Now a mile doesn't sound that far but remember in the desert summer when the water is warm enough that you want to jump the air temp is often over 110. The mile there isn't too bad, its the mile back that is killer.

 Center of the photo has a 30 foot cliff

This photo lacks scale, but that point on the right is about 40 feet

The trailer for "Lele Kawa's literally living the dream" shows some clips from our time at the cliffs, and the full movie should contain even more.

-James

Lele Kawa

Lele Kawa the movie

The Lele Kawa crew has been working on a feature length movie that documents some of our adventures in an artistic fashion. The plan is to finish the movie before the end of the year and then to sell it, with any profits it generates going to "Path International" a nonprofit that helps rehabilitate veterans through therapeutic horseback riding.

So far we have this trailer put together. I will add an update when we get our kickstarter up and running.

-James

Lele Kawa

Jumping Sunset Cliffs, San Diego, CA

Spent part of the weekend getting back to the Lele Kawa roots. Jeff did the leg work and located the place to go.

Based on some videos we found, we made our way to the location. Once at the cave, we scouted the area. It looked safe enough, and our depth stick measured about 20 feet over the water with about 12 feet of water. The water was pretty cold so there wasn't any in water scouting.

Once you hit the water for the first time and got over the shock of the cold it wasn't bad. We both made a few jumps.

-James

Lele Kawa

Hawaii Cliff Jumping project

This is a new project I'm working on.

I am trying to compile all the places in Hawaii mostly Oahu that you can jump from into water. I have been kicking this plan around for a while, but wasn't sure how to present it. I am working on it now because I finally know how to make maps in google and because of this failed Kickstarter project I read about. Maybe someday I will try to turn it into a book.

I plan to keep working on this until everything I know is on this map, color coded by height.


View Lele Kawa  Cliff jumping in a larger map


Check back for updates

-James

Lele Kawa

Suchitoto, El Salvador Lele Kawa

While diving last week I overheard the Emer, the dive master, mention she was planing to do a waterfall jumping tour on Friday. I immediately said I'm going.

Friday morning I meet up with Emer and two other people, whom I had not meet before then. The person that knew where we were going had to cancel, so we were left to find the restaurant where the tour operated from on our own. This proved to be pretty easy, as it was in a town center, and the street signs were effective.

La Lupila del portal, where the tour is operated from in Suchitoto town center

We meet up with our guide and then jumped into his truck to drive to the trail head. A short walk down the road took us to the first and largest waterfall of the tour. This waterfall was about 25 meters tall. After a quick stop at the top for photos, we made our way to the pool at the bottom. The cool water of the pool was refreshing. With a little work you were able to wedge your body under the falls for a hydro-massage.

The first falls. Hydro-massage is on the left

After our quick dip, we made our way down stream along the river to the next falls. This falls was about 12 meters. The guide pointed out where to jump from and the rocks you need to clear at the bottom. Then wasting no time, I took the plunge, and repeated it three times. Rather than take the trail the long way back up, I climbed up the rocks to the side of the falls. The first time I was climbing up, near the top I slipped and almost fell. Luckily I escaped with only a few scratches on my side. Emer chickened out.

View from the bottom of the second falls

A short way down the river lead us to the third and smallest of the falls on the tour. It is about 7 meters tall, and it had a rope swing at the top. Again I was the first to jump, or rather swing. It took me longer to do this than the first jump. Rope swings are harder to judge than just jumping. The guide insisted it was safe, so I trusted him. All went well. Emer tried to follow me, but didn't let go of the rope. They pulled her onto the ledge on her back swing. After that she decided it was easier to just jump and Andrew followed her. While they were jumping, I explored the little pool at the top of the falls. It was about 10 feet across and five feet deep where there weren't rocks. I decided to jump off the six-foot ledge into this little pool. Emily joined me.

Rope swing at the third falls

Before we headed back to the truck, I wanted to jump from a different ledge at the third falls. The guide said the spot was ok. I made the jump, only to check the landing afterwards and find that there as a shallow shelf about three feet deep that extended out about ten feet out from the wall. Luckily I cleared this shelf but I told Emer not to follow me.

Thank you Rene from http://suchitotooutfitters.com/

Coordinates +13.893286,-89.045327

Easter in Mullerthal

Spent my Easter up in Mullerthal. Which is known as the Little Switzerland of Luxembourg. It is just my kind of place. Big rocks, little streams with waterfalls and lots of hiking trails. On Easter I dragged two of my roommates up there to take advantage of the great spring weather, and enjoy all the thing I just mentioned about it.
We started off at a little waterfall that is famous with tourist because of the cute bridge over it and because it is on the side of the road. The parking lot for the falls, despite being next to the road is about a quarter mile away. So we took the nice little trail following the creek to the falls, rather than walk along the road like many of the tourist. Upon reaching the falls we looked to see if it was deep enough to swim, or at least get wet from head to toe. It was, about 3 to 4 feet in the deeper holes. This was perfect depth for jumping off the 8 foot tall rock below the falls. The water was very cold but we still managed a few jumps and some splashing around, much to the surprise of everyone else who was there to see the waterfall.
After that we headed to this other really cool place. There are a bunch of rocks between 10 and 60 feet tall with slots between them. The place reminds me of one of my favorite places back home called "rock city"..The rocks are like sky scrappers surrounding the slots that are like streets. We climbed a few rocks and did some jumping along the "rooftops."
After we got a good feel for rock city we headed off looking for a place I'd seen pictures of on a map, but didn't really know where it was. It turns out that my natural ability to snoop out cool places was in over drive that day because I found it. Heading in the direction I thought it would be, I pulled over in a parking lot and headed for the trail. The trail had 4 branches leaving the parking lot. We took the right one and after a nice walk along a really small stream we reached these caverns and natural amphitheater.

Check out the pictures below.

Ioa Valley Lele Kawa

Thanksgiving 06 some of the boys and I headed over to Maui, for a long weekend of cliff jumping and drinking. About an hour after we landed at the airport it was on. We pulled up to Ioa Valley. Right there next to the parking lot is a bridge that I would guess to be between 25 and 30 feet high over a tiny stream. We talk about how it would be cool to jump off if the stream were bigger. We wander around the park for a while before heading down to a larger stream. Where we get a few started jumps in. 8 foot ledge into about 1 foot of water.

Me Leading The Way On An Early Trip Splash

Then we decide to leave the park to find some bigger jumps. When we cross back over the bridge, there are some kids jumping from a ledge we didn't notice under the bridge about 15 feet above the water. We decide to join them for a little while. This builds our confidence and we decide maybe the bridge can be done.

The Maui Boy Front Flipping

We talk to some locals and they convince us that you can indeed jump off the bridge. However the landing zone is between the 2 brown rocks in the picture above. It is about 4 feet wide 6 feet long and 6 feet deep. In actuality you can't jump the landing zone is to small. What you have to do is stand at the notch in the hand rail, take a small steep and just fall the 30 or so feet. hoping the whole way that you missed those two rocks. The local guy in our group goes first, then the other two of us go for it.

The Maui Boy Goes First And Shows Us How Its Done

What not to do can be found here http://www.adventure-journal.com/2010/09/epic-fail-how-not-to-jump-off-a-bridge/