Taking the leap

Two months ago, Winnipeg high-diver Alex Tiaglei received a call that he could’ve easily confused for a belated April Fool’s joke.

On the other end was his American-born friend Braden Rumpit, whom Tiaglei had dove against at several competitions around the world.

Rumpit gave it to him straight: he planned to do a cliff dive in all 50 United States in 50 days, and he wanted Tiaglei to do it with him.

“I mean, at first I thought he was kind of crazy,” said Tiaglei. “But then I started thinking about it, and the pieces were definitely falling together pretty well.”

The 20-year-old accepted and, three weeks ago, the pair set out in a renovated school bus for a nearly two-month road trip that has already featured plenty of twists and turns.

“I knew it would be a big ask for anyone to get out of whatever obligations they have and come along and do this,” said Rumpit, 25. “I was reaching out to anyone who had the skills to do it safely, and have fun and all that, and who I also thought I could live in a bus with for 50 days and not want to kill them by the end.”

The idea first came to Rumpit a year ago when he started pinning bodies of water around his home state of Wisconsin that he’d like to jump into.

“And then I just kind of had the thought of, ‘I wonder if I could find a spot in every single state,’ and once I did, I was like, ‘I kind of want to jump a spot in every single state,’ he said. “I kept planning from there, saved some money and just made it happen.”

The only thing left was to find someone who was crazy enough to do it with him.

Rumpit’s call actually came at an ideal time for Tiaglei, who was itching to make a splash again.

Rewind 11 months, and Tiaglei was in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., seeking his second gold medal at the CanAmex High Diving Challenge. During his twisting descent from the 27-metre platform, Tiaglei tore his adductor, which knocked him out of the water for months.

That event remains the last time Tiaglei competed, though he plans to return once this trip is over.

“I think one of the biggest parts for me was getting back into the sport,” said Tiaglei.

“Over the period of getting over my injury, there was definitely a lot more downtime. I didn’t have any competitions or training camps, because I couldn’t really take any dives up, and I thought this was a really, really cool opportunity to get me back in it.”

As of Friday, the adrenaline-seeking duo was in Kentucky, their 19th state and day of the trip.

They started in Michigan, dove to Wisconsin, then leaped into the northeast, where they went through New England and the East Coast before looping back toward the southeast.

After wrapping up the 48 connected states, they will ditch the bus and take a flight to Alaska, then jump on another plane to Hawaii, where they plan to make their final leap on July 27.

“I think one of the things we’ve both found is meeting people all around the states has definitely been one of the highlights of the experience,” said Tiaglei. “The community is really amazing, honestly, and there’s some really cool people that we’ve already met — people that I want to be doing stuff with in the future.”

It’s just these two amigos on the road, though they briefly added a few others in Pennsylvania who tagged along for a couple of nights to other states.

Travelling on a renovated school bus has been an experience of its own.

Rumpit purchased the bus in February from a church in Illinois, then got to work on roughly US$5,000 of renovations, including installing new flooring, a table, a functional kitchen, bunk beds and solar panels on the roof for electricity. The new ride cost him about US$10,000 in total, but the memories he’s made in it have already been priceless.

The trip had been mapped out by Rumpit months in advance, but they are meeting locals who have recommended other prime jumping spots along the way.

Before every jump, they complete their safety precautions of ensuring the takeoff area is clear and the water is deep enough.

So far, they’ve primarily leaped into lakes and rivers, while the height of their takeoff varies by location.

“Some spots have been a little lower than we had hoped — some spots have been maybe 20 feet (6.1 metres) at most — while others, Braden did a really big jump in Vermont, and we did another one in Connecticut, we had 65 feet (19.81m),” said Tiaglei.

Tiaglei’s favourite jump in the early goings has been into that quarry pond in Connecticut.

“I really enjoy seeing the different styles of freestyle cliff jumping that there are,” he said. “For example, me and Braden both come from diving backgrounds, but we’ve jumped with people so far who have trampolining experience, skiing, snowboarding, and some of the tricks I’ve seen are nothing I’ve ever even considered, just because it’s so different from what we do.

“It’s just really cool to see that there are so many ways to approach cliff diving, not just from the diving route.”

Rumpit liked a scenic jump they did from a 17-metre-high bridge into a lake in New Hampshire. He said he could’ve gone higher (26 metres), but he had done a similarly large jump in Vermont the day prior, so he took it easy.

“One of the things I’ve really enjoyed so far is just approaching cliff diving without looking at it through the lens of performance or competition, and just doing it to do it, and enjoy it,” Rumpit said. “See the country, see the spots and have fun with it.”

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